nervous first time weaning - do you have to puree everything??

[clarabell16]

Hi all, my dd is now 22 weeks, so in 4 weeks time il be weaning her. most of the books etc ive looked at are all going on about pureeing this that and the other. what i was planning to do is just to roughly mash up some of what im eating, offer finger foods, and just see what she likes to do with the food etc, do i really have to puree things?? or is that more of an approach to use when weaning earlier than 6 months? also after 6 months when weaning, do you offer a feed first, then dish up the food. ive found most of the stuff im reading is aimed at 4 plus months and not at 6 months, not that im against this, its just my dd seems satisfied by milk alone for the minute. very confused!!

Nope, no need to puree at all. I did BLW with DD (now 13 months) it's been fantastic and so much easier than pureeing. Basically it's finger foods all the way. Yet yourself a copy of this. Aitches Blog and forum are fantastic resources too.

I think you've got the right idea, thats exactly what I've done with my DC's! Never pureed, just mashed very smooth...I used to, depending on how hungry they were, give them a dish of whatever we were having then finish with a feed...whatever works for you really

We started weaning dd 4 weeks ago and its going pretty well. We are doing finger foods and she has learnt so much in a short space of time its amazing to watch. You can see that she understands different foods already- some are crunchy, some mushy etc. The only think I have found a little difficult is being patient. She will play about for ages before she starts eating, and it is so hard not to intervene when she is slowly taking a fistful of food to her mouth but then missing entirely and smearing it round her face!

I would certainly agree that baby led weaning is great - you can't beat the hand/eye coordination benefits (and amusement factor for the parents). Our boys both enjoyed broccoli green beans and stuff. We did try this cool baby food grater which was brilliant for making a near puree out of pretty much all raw fruit and vegetables. Mostly though we blitzed a pan full of whatever we cooked with a hand blender to a rough mashed consistency and froze it insome special ice-cube tray type things like these which they then smeared all over the place and even ate sometimes

have you thought of baby led weaning? I did this with my second child and it was so much easier. There are loads of websites on the subject if you are interested just 'google'.

great, thanks ladies, had a good look over the net etc, and think il do a rough version of baby led weaning, and bits of mashed up food, and see what she likes to do.

Nah - you'd be surprised at how quick they can eat once they getthe jist. I've never seen anyone eat a biscuit as fast as my niece who had no teeth at the time!

Another vote for BLW... I went from uber-nervous to thinking that weaning is so fun and hilarious. Clarabell, sounds like you've found a good way forward... enjoy it! (Yes, some days are better than others and sometimes you wonder if it's working / if she's getting enough. It'll all come together.)

I just mashed up most things, some things went in the food processor cos they were a bit too difficult to mash. But the DTs had lumps from pretty much straight away, so no I don't think there's any need to puree everything to a really smooth consistency.

At first I introduced solids at 11am, gave a milk feed about an hour before so they weren't too hungry. After a week or so I gave them something at 6pm too. If you start at 6 months you can 'progress' quite quickly. Good luck!

No need mash at all, as others have said. But personally I found it easier to mash some things than to stick to just finger foods.