When to give finger foods?

[milkmummy1]

Hi
I started my DS on solids at 6 months, which was six weeks ago. is it time to start giving him more finger foods? have given him the odd bit of banana to suck on. what i was wondering was would he have finger foods instead of a 'meal' or woudl he have it in addition to a meal? ie for lunch would he sit there and eat a bit of toast or would he have it at any time of the day? also, i am not keen on giving him sweet foods like rusks, what are some healthy options you give your babies?

i gave finger foods from the off when she was weaned at 6 monyhs.
try spears of brocolli cooked til tender, rice cakes, bread sticks. i give finger foods in addition to mush meal and for mid-morning snack
hth xx

Sticks of steamed veg, bit of toast (or pita bread), sticks of cheese, chunks of apple. Lots of ideas at www.babyledweaning.com

I have been weaning DS (7mo) the 'traditional' way but just starting with finger foods now. Am giving them in addition to what he's already being spoon-fed -- have started with rice cakes, basically I smear one with whatever else he's eating and he picks it up and has a suck

yes finger food can be a 'meal' just give your baby normal food like you have ie lasagne, fish pie, whatever (make sure it's low salt of course) and let him at it. no need for special baby food, pureeing or anything like rusks etc. let him have normal normal food!

Even AK says that purees should only be for two weeks.

From six months babies are perfectly capable of feeding themselves and you don't need to worry about what they have because milk will give them everything they need and food will provide them with experience.

thank you everyone for your great advice. one question - what sort of size should a finger food be? i sliced DS off a bit of cheese the other day but OH was worried about choking and said it might be too big?

Read the bit on gagging at the BLW blog. I make mine the size of my little finger. He only gagged on a bit of carrot at the beginning but now seems to suck the life out of things and then spit them out if he can't squish them enough

Too big is not a problem, it is better that they make it the right size for themself.

Follow their development, start with chips (about 1cm square and as long as you want) when they aren't leaving the hand bit then you can add in other things, chunk shaped and when they have the pincer grip, you can go for it, give whatever you want to (within reason, but that's the idea though).