first foods for baby at 26 weeks- puree?

[sunglasses]

Is it necessery to puree food if you wean a baby at the recommended 26 weeks? I did with my first child- i think she was about 24 weeks but have been interested in the baby led weaning thing. What would be good as a first food and how do you progress from there. My dd is bottle fed at moment. Does that make a difference in the whole weaning debate as everyone seems relaxed about the whole issue of food if they are breastfeeding. Is it the same with formula?

No, not necessary if you don't want to, and the NHS recommend finger foods at 6 months. Have a look at www.babyledweaning.com for lots of advice. Steamed carrot sticks, roast sweet potato wedges, steamed broccoli florets, very ripe peach or pear all good starter foods. A lot of people have done BLW very successfully after formula feeding, so there's no reason you shouldn't. Have fun!

sunglasses my HV just told me today that you do need to, for the very first, but that they can be onto finger foods quite quickly. Don't know if that's just because ds is 24 weeks, or whether the BLW lot know something she doesn't...

quite possibly phdlife - lots of HVs don't seem to have a clue
Have been doing BLW since DS3 was about 23 weeks or so - he's nearly 8 months now.
It is so much easier than the whole puree thing sunglasses - I would definitely recommend it

At 26 weeks you can blw. We more or less did. We steamed little pieces of parsnip or sweet potato, or cooked pieces of apple in olive oil.

it's a PITA that all weaning info on the web talks about bfing, isn't it? if you can get through the ranting you'll see a comment from Gill Rapley.

Let your baby lead you - some just don't like purees at that age and want to grab whatever you are having. Just started solids for my 5 mo ds as there was no way he would wait til 6. I give him some baby rice and he gulps it down, but much more interested in chomping grapes, apple, cucumber, pasta, I just hold it in my fingers and let him chomp suck and chew but I'm careful not too let any huge bits go in - so with the way hes going I don't really think I'll bother pureeing much!

My lo started eating at 24 weeks - I was planning to wait until the magic 26 weeks but I just couldn't help myself seeing what she would do with a bit of veg from our dinner. However, babies will developmentally do things when they are ready and a roast parsnip on her highchair table was immediately stuffed into her mouth and gummed furiously...bless!

I suppose weaning onto puree food at 26 weeks seems like a bit of an arse really. It's a bit like buying them 'crawling' shoes when they are already walking... (Indeed do they really need crawling shoes/puree food in the first place????) Babies LOVE playing and feeding themselves food. Lots of ff mums have done BLW with great success. Gill Rapley research was with breastfeeding mothers but ff is a breastmilk substitute so it makes sense that the same principle would apply.

Good luck with your BLW. It's great fun, less cooking, you can have your own dinner in peace while you dd learns some independant eating and table social skills. I love seeing my dd (9months) tuck in around a busy bustling dinner table.

Thanks for that advice- will give it a go!