Remind me how to do the first few weeks of weaning, please?!

[fieldmuse]

Weaning DC1 is a distant memory; I seem to recall it took a few weeks for it all to 'come together' but he was a great eater.

DC2 is just 6 months, he can sit up in the highchair with the cushion thing and we've spent the last week just once or twice a day giving him finger foods to practise holding, getting into his mouth and gumming on, and I can tell his grabbing & hand-eye skills are improving a little bit.

However, he dribbles out any food that makes it into his mouth. I know at this stage it's about practise and getting them used to actually pushing the food to the back of the mouth and swallowing, but he doesn't seem to be making much progress! Even his vitamin drops just seem to sit in his mouth and he makes a face without swallowing them.

We've tried chunks of boiled sweet potato, carrot, green beans, cucumber, broccoli (by far the winner as he can hold it really well), nectarine, banana and avocado all of which are so slimy they just squidge out of his hands (I help him but it's difficult). I've nothing against puree and will do some spoon-fed stuff in a week or two to practise eating food off a soft spoon (this is a slightly different skill than eating finger food, I think) but wondered if ppl had any good ideas for easy to eat finger foods? I cut notches into the cucumber, sweet potato etc to give it a better grip.

How long does it generally take before they're actually 'eating'? (also he has no teeth yet but is apparently teething on and off quite a lot). When do you start giving a sippy cup of water - he seems far too young at the moment to lift it and drink from it? (He's never had a bottle - just breastfed)

Can I start to give toast, cream cheese, plain pieces of pasta etc now he's 6 months?

I had the 'weaning made easy' book which I remember being great, but I've lost it...

Sounds like you’re doing a much better job than I did! Breadsticks should be fine and toast. I think loads of people do pasta but I didn’t til a bit later- I don’t think there was any particularly good reason. As far as I recall all dcs mainly sucked the butter off the toast at 6 months and enjoyed it a lot. The actual eating of finger food took a while although purées went down easily enough. I think sippy cups were about 10 months but no reason you can’t do it earlier if you want.

We started weaning DS2 a few days ago. I've noticed some lumps in his nappies so he must be eating something, but I'm sure it took more like a couple of weeks with DS1. Big hits so far have been asparagus (it doesn't break up as much as other veg so he can suck on it), burger, pasta (spiralli is easy to hold) and French toast made from mashed banana and coconut milk.
I've been giving him a sippy cup of water with every meal and he is having a good go at drinking from it, so maybe yours would surprise you.

DD is 6 months on Thursday. We started doing much the same as you about a 10 days ago. We just followed her lead (hence starting a couple weeks before 6 months) as she can sit well and is grabbing any food from as that she can get hold of, and putting it in her month, to suck mostly at the moment.

So far I have given her avacado, pitta bread, yougart, hummus (just a spoonful on her highchair tray), strawberry, dried apricots, cheese, bread with a tiny bit of jam, bread with soft cheese, Cucumber (she loves that).

My HV lent me "baby led weaning" by Gill rapley and Tracey murkett. Which is really good and has given me the confidence to go full baby led... No spooning of food in or purees.

Our dog is a big fan of BLW!!

You can give anything except honey and whole nuts/whole grapes at 6 months

thanks everyone!
Well, it seems to be going quite badly - it's just really variable whether it'll be fun or end in screams.

I've given strips of pitta which he likes and gnaws on/destroys, plus chunks of nectarine (give a half or quarter with the stone still in as he can hold it). Still good with the carrot and broccoli.

He hates me putting anything in his mouth though - so I tried a bit of mango puree on a spoon but it's so runny it drips off if I give it to him to "explore" (maybe I'll try it on a pitta?) and won't open his mouth for me to spoon-feed which will make life hard if that continues.

(As an aside, I have these long thin weaning spoons and they're crap because they're so long it's more a plaything and he can ping food off it really easily!)

I'm a bit disheartened as I'm sure DC1 took to it better. He's still not really consuming much at all, like minuscule pieces. Oh and when I gave cream cheese on the pitta he had bright red cheeks shortly after (despite being ok with a wee bit of yoghurt before) so there's potentially an intolerance there - I'll need to try again.

I'm also trying to give vitamin drops twice a day (!) with a syringe but they taste grim and he dribbles it all out. It's probably why he doesn't like me putting spoons/syringes in his mouth.

Sounds like you are doing well - it's just the experience for the baby at the moment rather than filling him up so at least you are trying dofferent things. I have just started weaning my 6 mth old this week with mashed potato so no real advice! But was going to suggest putting the vitamin drops on something he likes e.g. cucumber or pitta bread or yoghurt?

The red cheeks were probably teething related rather than intolerance, if he was fine w yoghurt.

My dd is 6mo. She has gummed at raw and cooked carrot sticks, sweet potato, banana, melon, bread/ toast crusts and soft pita. Not much goes down and what does go down seems to appear in the nappy in same form as it went in.

I know she's getting all she needs from milk so I am just chilled about her gumming antics. She had a play about with food at some point most days but what's the point of getting stressed? When we get back from holidays next week I might try her with something puréed. Doesn't matter if weaning takes ages, does it?