brand new and not sure where to start

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

DS is 5.5months and I think might be ready to start weaning (waking more and taking TONS of milk in the evening and early morning, really chomping on anything that comes near his mouth, has a hissy fit every time I won't give him something I'm eating or drinking)...because he's not quite 6 months I'm happy to give it a go this weekend and if he isn't ready wait on it a bit.

I was going to do a mix of purees and finger food (though obv. not finger food til 6months, I think), so he gets a variety of flavours with purees (or mash anyway) but learns textures through finger food - does this sound doable? Everywhere in this section it sounds like you have to be one or the other. I was going to start with AK's 1st tastes but mix and match what is pureed and what is soild - is this a totally outrageous idea?

He can't sit unaided but is solid in his bumbo/highchair and has great hand-eye co-ordination (if this helps??!) and loves to chew on weaning spoons (always puts them in the right end and the right way up) so I'm assuming he'll want to feed himself purees soonish anyway

I want to try to follow DS and my own intuition on this, every time I get stressed about sleeping/feeding/etc etc I read too many books and get us both confused and upset so really hoping that what my common sense is telling me works!

Did anyone else start straight off combining?

also - is it better to introduce solids at the same time as milk feeds (eg 11am for "lunch") or an hour afterwards (eg midday)?

sounds perfectly reasonable to me GWTMH DS2 was 6 months last Saturday and I'm doing pretty much the same thing. He seems to cope quite well with rougher purees rather than ultra smooth ones. He is rather lazy with the finger foods just looks at them in a mystified way but we have only been going for a week or so.
I'm doing milk feeds 1st and then the solids a bit after or he is too hungry and just gets stressed.

It's fine to do both and lots of people do

We started at 5.5 months straight on finger foods - I don't see a need to wait, as the theory is that if they are unable to get the food to their mouth, chew and swallow, they probably aren't ready for it anyway. I think instead of 6 months, what you have to wait for to start finger foods is the sitting unaided or at least sitting upright in bumbo/highchair - if they slump sideways, that isn't good enough, they must be able to sit up straight for long enough to eat. It's really important as when they gag, the food needs to be dislodged back out of their mouths again. If they are leaning backwards or sideways it can get stuck further down their throat which of course is dangerous.

The other safety thing to consider with the finger foods is never succumb to the temptation to "help" by putting the food to their mouth for them - the most help I ever give DS is to hold something up for him to grab, if it's too wet and getting suckered to the highchair tray. And then finally the thing about foods which can break off in chunks like raw apple - best to start off with finger foods that are slightly mushy or go mushy when sucked, like toast, soft fruits or steamed/boiled veg sticks.

Finally I have used the "loaded spoon" technique for lumpy foods which might be difficult to hold - so far he's had bolognaise, mashed potato, scrambled egg, and mashed banana (this particular banana was too ripe to be finger food!) and it seems to be his favourite way of eating! I just load up the spoon and hand it to him (usually keeping a hand on it but letting him control the movement - in case he decides to redecorate the walls with it )

As for milk feeds/solid feeds - I just offered solids when we were eating, and carried on bf on demand. I wouldn't offer him solids if he was hungry, would always try milk first - at that age they don't understand that food will fill them up like milk does.

Good luck!

thanks for all that chocorange - DS sits up fine in bumbo but only manages a few seconds unaided completely, am yet to try him in his highchair so will def wait a bit for finger foods

All really useful - we'll try him on some mush tomorrow and see how he takes to it, I'm in no hurry to force him to start weaning, and want it to be a fun experience for him so if he isn't ready we'll leave it another week or so and continue following his lead