I am SO confused!!!

[NorthernRosie]

My 6 month old hates purees but loved toast when I gave to her. Although she doesn't eat much she loves sucking and chewing on it. I thought this was fine

However, reading my Ella's kitchen weaning book today it specifically says you should only give soft veg and fruit sticks until 7 months as anything else is a choking hazard.

Surely this doesn't make sense with the principles of BLW though either does it?

It then also says banana is an ideal finger food for 6 months before then going on to say on the same page not to give big bits of banana until they are 3 years old!

Any advice?

As long as your baby can sit upright well (not necessarily completely unaided, but not slumping at all) then finger foods are fine from around 6 months. DS refused to be spoonfed so had finger foods from 6 months and has never choked.

Baby food manufacturers seem to like using these arbitrary stages like 4m+, 7m+, 10m+ but these age limits aren't quoted in independent advice like the NHS. As it's an Ella's Kitchen book, it's probably just tying in with their products but it just makes the whole thing seem far more complicated than it needs to be. As for no chunks of banana till 3 - that's crazy! It can be a bit slippery to pick up and DS struggled with it till he was about 1. That aside, it's a great soft finger food.

Any finger foods are ok from 6 months really- toast, pasta, banana , cooked veg, strips of meat, etc. Probably want to avoid hard uncooked fruit and veg like carrots and apples though

In true BLW, the boy helps themselves to whatever is on the parent's plate so they eat whatever they fancy.
The 'rules' are mainly arbitrary.

I think the possible difference is that with BLW the baby learns to handle, chew and move food in their mouth before they learn to swallow (took ages with DS!) - whereas if they start with purees they get used to being able to slurp stuff straight down and may try to do the same when you introduce finger foods. I think this is why the guidance is slightly different for giving finger food to a spoon-fed baby than if you've done BLW from the start. (Even with a BLW baby hard veg like apples and carrots can be tricky to manage so best to avoid or serve them cooked).

I too have the Ella's Kitchen book & was confused by that advice! There is a small section at the back of the book on finger foods but only a very small number of recipes for 7 month +. I concluded that as they are in the business of selling pureed baby food (the pouches), they aren't really going to gain much commercially by pushing BLW.

DD refused to be fed from a spoon after many an attempt, so first foods for us were chip sized chunks of most things - chicken, cheese, toast, other breads (croissant, brown bread, pitta), fruit & veg. The slightly
harder foods she enjoyed sucking for the flavour (cheese). You do need to be firmly watching at all times but never had a problem with choking etc.

Thanks all - if they break a chunk of say cheese or toast off in their mouth do you need to retrieve it?!

No, definitely don't try to do that - you could push it further in by accident and cause problems. Just leave them to it, either it will come out on its own or get chewed and eaten.

I think with anything you need to decide what's best! Just because one person says nothing other than fruit/veg purées doesn't mean that's the rule of thumb! If your child under supervision is loving and managing well with toast then it can't hurt.