Im so confused about weaning!

[usagimoon]

Hi all! I don't know if I'm making life hard for myself or not but my brain currently feels like mush and I'm so confused with weaning!
My baby turned 6 months last week, she can sit up, stares at us when we're eating etc. she's exclusively breastfed.
I ordered an Ella's kitchen first weaning cookbook but to be honest it's confused me more as it seems to mainly be purée based.... and I feel like BLW will be easier? Then I see elaborate baby meals on Instagram and that's overwhelmed me massively!
But where do I start? Do I give her half a banana and see what happens?
If I'm eating a sandwich can I give her a bit?
I guess I'm nervous and also sort of sad she'll be eating food haha!
I'm just so confused and feel I'm over complicating things!! Is there any non overwhelming website or blog anyone can point me to? Thank you!! :)

As your baby is 6 months she can eat anything you can except whole nuts, honey and raw shellfish.

Do I give her half a banana and see what happens?
If I'm eating a sandwich can I give her a bit?

The answer to both these questions is yes.

We never bothered with purees and just gave normal food. Although I didn't do BLW I did a mix of spoon and food.

e.g.

Breakfast: weetabix mushed up with milk or yogurt as spoon food and a bit of toast or fruit as finger food

Lunch: soup as spoonfood and a bit of sandwich as finger food

Dinner: mashed potato with gravy as spoonfood and meat and veg as finger foods.

The finger foods will get played with, squished, rubbed in hair and dropped to start with.

Most important piece of advice - get a mat or put an old towel under the high chair to catch the mess

Enjoy!

DD just had what I was having, mostly.
I don’t add salt to food and eat
lots of veg.

For lunch I’d give her bits of things she could hold and explore like fingers of toast, lightly steamed broccoli and carrot, banana, rice cakes, cream cheese sandwich fingers, cheese, porridge fingers, scrambled egg.

By 7 months she was gnawing bits of DH’s steak in the pub.

Steamed brocolli and carrot at dinner time are good to start with
peppers, cucumber; things she can hold herself

I'd start with single ingredients first, so a bit of avocado or some potato- can help to mash it up with some of your milk so there's a familiar taste. Try one thing for a few days to make sure there's no allergies, eggs and peanuts aswell- that way if there is a reaction you'll know what the culprit is. Stick to things you're making anyway and just keep a bit aside. It's going to be messy and a bit wasteful in the beginning! The NHS website should have some guidance for foods to try too.

There is nothing wrong with doing this but its really only necessary if weaning early or if you have allergies in the family.

Sorry, I should say peanut butter not actual peanuts- 100% stuff is available in the shops, no additives.

Thanks all that's really helpful!
I take it I just start one meal at a time first, say at lunch?
I think I'm going to take a casual approach and not worry about the elaborate stuff I've seen!
Can I use pouches or purée occasionally say if I'm out? But BLW really does seem easier!

My little ones first meal was Christmas dinner. By meal I mean, we put it in front of her and she grabbed at it, put some in her mouth and chewed it.

but yeah we did the traditional BLW and it was so easy, just gave baby appropriately cut up versions of what we were having minus any additional salt, any honey and (just personally) spice.

I really reccomend Rebecca Wilson’s what mummy makes book and Instagram page. All family feeding ideas, healthy, can make loads to put in freezer to bulk prep. I often make her lemon and prawn orzo just for DH and I!

don’t over complicate it. Start off with strips of toast for breakfast, mix up putting butter/avocado/nut butter/tomatoes/mushrooms/pesto etc on it, or pancakes, eggs etc.
then build up to 2 then 3 meals a day.

the fancy bamboo animal plates are lovely (we have several) but entirely unnecessary.

at 7 months I think a typical day would look like:
either mashed avo on toast in strips, or the banana oat pancakes from what mummy makes for breakfast, and maybe some banana offered too.
one of the pinwheels or veggi muffins from the same book or a sandwich (small, cut in strips), with some veg sticks for lunch
whatever we were having for tea, a roast, spag bol, tomato pasta, toad in the hole etc!

If you want to do BLW then yes, you can start with just giving things like banana, or a bit of toast. Long fingers of things are a bit easier to pick up initially. Don't add salt (watch for high level of hidden salt), don't give honey.

A lot of the fun of BLW is seeing them get to grips with different textures, consistency of food. A sensory extravaganza. Soup with croutons in is great fun to stick your hand in and explore.

Initially just do one meal a day, about an hour after a breastfeed. Try and eat at the same time as your baby, and with some of the same elements. Then after a while, when you're happy that's all going well, add in another meal. Repeat again to get to three meals a day. Introduce a baby cutlery spoon and fork at some point, and give them a sippy cup with a small amount of water in. Be prepared for them to get messy and wet!

Just seen your update, you can absolutely use pouches if you want. I didn’t. I suppose it could be easier, but also, if you have made pin wheels, or take a small sandwich it’s just as easy.

the best thing for me with BLW was baby was entertained and ate themselves (or just picked up and chewed on the food) so I could eat my meal too whilst it was hot. Didn’t have to sit, hungry spoon feeding an angry baby who didn’t want puréed brocoli. And anything they left I could eat!

Eith dv1 who was totally bf i very carefully added new foods every few days which back then was the advice given at La Leche League meetings. First food was mashed banana a few days later potato followed by carrots after that etc etc. All good he is a non fussy grown up now. Dc2 a coiple of years later ebf grabbed a handful of roast potato off my plate (with gravy) and and thst was that. She too is a healthy non fussy grown up. I do think mashed banana is a good try out food though.
Just be sensible I would say 😊

With dc1 that was supposed to ssy

BLW just means you never put anything in the baby’s mouth yourself (spoon feeding).

In BLW you can still put purée on a plate and let them lick it off their hand/smear it all over their face.

If I could do one thing differently it would be not to stress about weaning - they all get there in the end and I really think that the approach doesn’t make any difference.

I did a mix of BLW and purées. I definitely over complicated it with my first.
I just started with one 'meal' a day. For the first week I think I just gave whatever veg we were having with our meal. So a couple of carrots sticks/broccoli etc.
I then introduced breakfast give porridge/wheetabix mushed in milk and fruit pieces.

Then just gradually increased with babies enthusiasm (or not). As you DD is 6 months there isn't much she can't have except for honey and just leave the salt out of her food.

I think if blw it's handy to read a bit about it, what the difference between gagging and choking is and what you should do if your baby chokes. How to spot choking hazards.

With blw they often gag (coughing/retching type noise) as babies have a gag reflex further down the tongue and it's a natural defence mechanism.

Choking is silent and they'll go red in the face, there's a baby version of a heimlich manoeuvre which is good to know (hopefully you'll never need it!)

Choking hazards are things that fit neatly in their airways, eg round stuff like cocktail sausage, cherry tomato, grapes and olives etc. Cut these up.

It's easy to get frightened when they gag on food a bit and think it's dangerous - you need to know what is really dangerous and what to do about it, them you'll be confident with it!

Pouches/jars are fine and convenient but loaded with sugar so personally I wouldn't use them that frequently. They're mainly pear/apple/carrot based. Taste and you'll see, what seems to be a savoury one is often v sweet. Nothing wrong with sweet stuff sometimes but they'll refuse other tastes if they get that every meal.

Manufactured pouches taste different to real food so may be unhelpful.

I never mashed or puréed anything. DD now a teen and has a very varied diet but won’t touch mashed potato or custard!

You need to be aware of the different possible food allergens. They should be introduced separately (a few days apart from each other), trying a small amount of the allergen first. Then, if they're okay with that, a larger amount the next day. Then a few days gap before introducing another allergen.

I'd recommend Joe Wicks Wean in 15 or Charlotte Sterling Reed's How to Wean Your Baby for the basics and for a list of allergens. (Then a load of recipes follow at the end.)

*basics of weaning generally I mean. Not just the question of allergens.

You don't need to worry specifically about potential allergens unless you have a family history of allergies.

The NHS page on weaning is a fairly decent summary of the main points regarding weaning:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/babys-first-solid-foods/#:~:text=Baby%2Dled%20weaning%20means%20giving,no%20right%20or%20wrong%20way.

Thank you everyone so much for your replies!! So so helpful!

We think she may have an issue with Dairy, forgot to mention this, I actually stopped eating it months ago as I noticed if I had dairy her tummy would be funny and she would seem very gassy. Sometimes I know she's had dairy when I've eaten it through not knowing, as she gets the symptoms again.
So could I try a teeny bit of yogurt for example, and see what happens? I'm really nervous about this particular part!

I think dairy comes a bit later, so yogurt from about 8 months- try natural yoghurt, my DC1 still hasn't had anything flavored in 6 years and has never asked for it.

That's fab, thank you!

I really liked Charlotte Stirling Reed's book 'how to wean you baby'. Also her blog and instagram are good (SR Nutrition).

Also I have the Solid Starts App to see how to cut certain foods appropriately.

Enjoy!

Ps - get some Bibado bibs (or alternative) to help clear up quickly after!

@RoseslnTheHospital I didn't say anyone should 'worry' about allergens. But it's good to be 'aware', as I said, and to be able to spot the signs of a potential reaction, and to introduce them with that consciousness in mind. Evidence suggests that delaying the introduction of allergens actually makes it more likely babies will react, not less.

If I could do one thing differently it would be not to stress about weaning - they all get there in the end and I really think that the approach doesn’t make any difference.
Yes! Especially in terms of adding in meals – I got myself in a tizz trying to do 3 meals, and breastfeeds, and naps, and playing. But while they’re still napping a lot you just can’t fit in three meals right away unless you never sit down. Once I figured that out I just did breakfast for a while, and she could grab my meals if she happened to be awake and hungry at that time. I introduced tea once that afternoon catnap was dropped.