Do I offer an alternative?

[caledonianclown]

DD is 6 months and we've been weaning for a couple of weeks offering both purées and finger foods. She was eating pretty much anything, but the last couple of days has refused any veg and will just whinge until I give her something fruit based. At lunchtime today she refused the carrot purée I offered but then wolfed down a whole banana. She had previously eaten carrot quite happily.

My question is should I be offering an alternative when she refuses something, or just leave it and wait until the next meal? I don't want her to be hungry, but also don't want her to only eat fruit!

Hmm I'm at a similar stage so not much help! I'd say stick to what you were intending to feed, so decide in advance and stick to it. At this stage milk is the main thing, so if she doesn't eat the veg she'll have more milk and not go hungry.

My dd has just started making her preferences known and I'm trying to keep to balanced meals anyway or she would just eat yoghurt and grapes all day if she could!

I wouldn't offer an alternative. Give what you've planned and then clear away if she's not interested. At 6 months food is complementary to breastmilk (or formula). It's all about experiencing new tastes and textures at this age, not about filling them up. Most of her calories and nutrition should still be coming from milk for a good while yet.

Have you tried moving on from just plain purées? My dd got bored of them after a wee bit but now loves stuff like cauliflower cheese, potato and leek (I made a soup for us and blended a bit with less liquid for dd), fish pie and cottage pie. I made a potato, courgette and pea one once which was refused but after stirring in some grated cheese for extra flavour and fat it was wolfed down!!!