BLW - Is it okay??

[wigglywoo7]

We started feeding our son at 5 months old - he was sitting, could put the food in his mouth himself and was grabbing our food from our hands and eating it so we figured he was ready! Since we started we have been giving him tastes of sauces etc off our finger, spoon feeding things such as fruit puree and porridge, and also giving him finger foods such as banana and rusks which he feeds himself. Obviously he has mainly just been tasting things and has hardly swallowed any so we have not been too worried about what/how we are feeding him.
He will now be 6 months in a couple of days - my question is, is it okay to now just go 100% with the BLW option?
He does put the food in his mouth and chew it, but he does gag a lot (probably 2 or 3 times each time, which he doesn't do with the puree, however he isn't keen on eating off a spoon and usually just refuses). Has anyone else done BLW with a baby who gags often? It seems like quite severe gagging so does worry me although I have read it is all perfectly normal etc and I know what to do should he choke but still not completely convinced! Haha.
So any advice and experiences would be much appreciated!

Sounds about right, the gagging sound gets less and less frequent as they work out how to eat properly.

You can also do "traditional" weaning where you spoonfeed when you can't be arsed with the mess that meal and give finger food when you can be bothered cleaning up splodges of porridge from the chair.

I know people who swear by the tiny tot all in one bib+tray but I did it freestyle. You need a wipeable mat under the high chair for reals.

Good luck!

Thank you
I have just read some things about not being able to go from purees to finger foods etc as they might not realise they need to chew the food and are more likely to choke, probably all rubbish and sounds stupid but was a bit worried he might get confused - and as we have given him small pieces of some foods just to try which again doesn't require chewing!

Did anyone else try a bit of all feeding methods in the beginning before "committing" mainly to one?

I've had two, one I fed traditionally purees, mostly home made with organic baby stock cubes, freezing blocks so he could have a mix up (so much time on my hands) basically everything I ate minus the salt, spice and sugar although got a lot slacker as he hit one with those rules. He eats perfectly now, still everything the same as me and his dad and he was feeding himself with a spoon early on I would just make it more lumpy as he got older so was no transition problems at all.

Baby two we did BLW and he just picked all the bits he liked and launched the rest, he's two and a half and he still does it. Drives me crazy and makes a huge mess, won't eat any fruit other than bananas and favours his hands over the spoon. He is in the middle of an autism diagnosis so I realise his behaviours and problems with food could be due to that but now we're away to have baby number three I'll be going back to traditional purées.

Mine gagged a lot too and it didn’t get any better till she was around 13months! I aimed to do blw but ended with whatever she is in the mood for, sometimes purée like stuff, sometimes feeding herself using hands, other times spoon/fork and sometimes I help her out! Most of the time it’s a mixture of all the above. Between 6 to 12 months I was stressed out to no end, especially after reading all these stories how other babies loooove blw. So whatever you do if you see that your baby is continuing to gag a lot, don’t pressure yourself to give food x times a day. Just whatever manage.

Just give puree alongside finger foods and phase out the mushy stuff as finger foods increase.

Thank you I must just be overthinking it due to reading too much
Guess I'll just do whatever works for us at the time