6 month old starting weaning - is this okay I’m so confused

[Lilyyy]

I waited until 6 months as DD didn’t really seem ready and I wanted to wait until 6 months. It’s her first week so have been giving her puréed foods once a day- single vegetables such as carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and she’s taken to them really well. I was going to do this for first week and then start introducing some finger food maybe?
I find this all so confusing and not sure if I’m doing the right thing. A friend of mine is giving her baby girl some of her actual meals and is the same age so wondering if I’m going too slowly

Sounds fine to me. I bought the book how to wean your baby by Charlotte Stirling Reed and used that as a base, but did my own thing as my confidence grew.

Your baby will be fine, they all get there in the end

Sounds ok to me but unless you have allergies in the family there's no need to stick to purées or feed a single food at a time. That's how babies were weaned in the bad old days were it was common to wean at 4 months or younger.

This guide from the Caroline Walker Trust is quite comprehensive and has some good ideas for first foods

Omg it’s so overwhelming isn’t it?

Not sure if it’s helpful but this was our “journey”. We started at 4.5 months because he was drinking 40oz and was still hungry. We did the individual purée foods for about a week but then he got bored so we moved on to mixed purées quite quickly (7 + month pouches I want say, we did Ella’s kitchen and had no idea what we were doing) and introduced petit filous and full fat yoghurts as well. We also gave him those massive crisp stick thingys but he didn’t get the hang of them this early.

He was poorly for half of 5 months and all of 6 and the doctor told us to give up completely so we returned at 7 and got him on some porridge for breakfast and then worked up to two and eventually three meals for a couple of weeks before moving him up again to the 10 month meals. By this point he was on the smaller wotsit type crisps and the Heinz biscotti for snacks and to mix up meals.

Hes 9 months now and usually eats whatever we have before we put in salt. He prefers to feed himself so my best advice is please don’t worry about the whole purées/ baby led thing. I know I was really worried he’d never feed himself after starting on purée but he’s absolutely fine.

Good luck!!!! xxx

NB He didn’t get sick from the food just to clarify. I went back to work and gifted him a load of cold/ flu germs poor thing xxx

Not an expert here. Still finding my feet with it all at 9.5 months so I’ll refrain from adding my bit in, it’s very overwhelming though isn’t it. I think I’m holding DD back and need to be more adventurous or cook more meals. But she is eating well for now!

I found this really helpful
www.firststepsnutrition.org/eating-well-in-the-first-year

I’ve always just given something suitable from the family meals, at 6 months there’s no need to purée, or to wait to introduce finger food.

Sounds fine to me - go at the pace you and your baby are comfortable with. I remember feeling like other babies were ‘ahead’ of mine with eating and could eat sandwiches etc whilst mine was still constantly gagging but they all get there in the end in their own time. Also if you feel more comfortable with purée at the start totally fine too and introduce the finger food gradually. Mine was terrible for gagging on the soft veg they bang on about but did much better on toast, large pasta, rice, big slices of orange and we did soft squishy things like banana a bit later on.