Mixed weaning - Spoon & BLW

[xoguineas]

DD is coming up for 5.5 months and I'm starting to think about weaning. I've been reading up on spoon led weaning and baby led and I think I want to try a combination of the two. Has anyone else tried combination weaning? How did you get on and any tips? I'd love to hear your stories/experiences about weaning as I'm a FTM and very anxious/excited about the whole process.

I'm also considering starting her on food in the week before she's 6 months, is this considered standard practice or is food generally started on the first day of being 6 months?

bump

Yes i think most people do this, it's perfect IMO. If your baby is 5.5 months you can start any time now that suits you. Good luck!

Just do whatever seems to work for you! Babies are people too and some are more lazy laidback than others, some fight the spoon while others love to be fed.
I'd say only spoon feeding makes a bit of a rod for your back as it's harder to eat together.
It's not an overnight thing, they eat tiny amounts at first (and need to start slowly so their guts get used to it). Starting a week early is ok. Have fun!

Thanks for the replies!

Star - yes, it seems perfect with a good mix of independence for DD which I'm sure she'll love.

I'm very excited to get started but also very sad that it's came around so quickly!

We use some spoon, some blw. It's fine. My dd loved self feeding, day loves the spoon. It really does vary by baby but as pp says, if you don't encourage self feeding you do make extra work for yourself down the line. 5.5 months is fine to start if baby is keen.

I had quite a BLW ethos with my two - so putting a variety of food down in front of them, often a version of what we were having, and letting them feed themselves. It worked better with my first baby who was smaller and more dexterous, but my second was a chubby, hungrier boy who got easily frustrated by not being able to eat food fast enough! So for him I would sometimes spoon feed him a bit of something first and then let him explore more solid stuff.
I think it's a bit strange to be too fixed about it - some foods like yogurt, porridge, soup NEED a spoon! I think the main thing is going by your baby's signals and not trying to shovel in set amounts of food when they might not really want it.

I think ‘mixed’ weaning is just weaning. I think the mechanics behind baby led is different- when spoon fed a baby learns to swallow, then chew, then get food to mouth.
When doing baby led it happens the other way- first is handling, then chewing/ moving food around in mouth, then swallow.
In the end, doubt you know difference in couple years- do whatever suits, being in full possession of facts.

Fantastic, thank you for the responses! I've got some baby porridge ready to try tomorrow morning and then have some veg I'm planning on mashing/cutting up for her to play around with towards the end of the week. Hoping to just take it as it comes and that she will show me what she prefers and we can go from there.

@jennyyy she's very keen and definitely more than ready. Think we will just ease into with some porridge every other day to get her used to a different texture then start more exciting things next week.

Good luck xoguineas! Weaning is so fun!