BLW - sorry, probably been asked thousands of times before but..

[naturopath]

what foods are good to start blw with? (bearing in mind ds is nearly 6 months and has only had small amounts of baby rice and pureed fruit so far.)

for example, isn't toast too scratchy and difficult to eat without teeth? wouldn't he have trouble digesting swallowed lumps of broccoli, carrot etc. without having chewed them first? He is still quite little! (and I remember ds1 swallowing chunks of stuff without chewing - but that was at 8-9 months).

I ask because ds1 went straight onto normal food at 8-9 months, and never had any purees - but he was older, so could handle different foods and textures better.

thanks!

My DD (coming up on 7 months, started BLW at 6) cannot get enough of toast. She loves it! I spread it with philly, or hummus, or mushed up avocado - she gums it until it's soft and swallows it down - quite big pieces, actually, but manages it fine. The one thing she has never gagged on is toast.

With carrots, I buy her baby carrots and roast them, rather than steaming them, well washed, but with the 'skin' still on. The middle goes soft on roasting, but the outside stays grippable and I have noticed she sucks the soft inside out and throws the skin away. Again, she gets some pretty big bits down - they come out exactly as they went in!

With broccoli, she just sucks the leafy bits off and chucks the rest. They come out whole, but white, in her poo.

The thing she has most trouble with is fruit - just too slippery to hold at the moment.

Mashed potato is the biggest culprit for gagging (odd, as it is basically a puree), but I think mainly because she loves it and shovels in WAY too much at a time...

You don't need teeth to chew with very hard gums. Start with whatever foods you are eating for dinner/lunch.

My 7mo DD2 loves mini-breadsticks, and boiled carrot sticks.

Hot buttered toast is another favourite - it's nice and soft and easily grippable.

Mini cheese sticks too (DD2 loves extra mature cheddar!)

what about potential allergies? ds1 has various allergies, and ds2 (5 months) can't have dairy or saya (reacts to my milk if I eat them).

Shouldn't I be careful with wheat? ie delay introducing?

If you're worried about allergies then delay introducing, there's no problem with that. I waited til 12 months to introduce wheat, in fact as it turns out DD was intolerant so could have waited even longer.

Normal babies of 6 months have no problems chewing food and as harecare says, their gums are pretty darn hard even without teeth.

Lots of great suggestions above, all of which worked fine with my DD at 6 months. By far the easiest is for baby to eat what you're eating (without the salt). You just have to adapt shapes and consistency so they can grasp it easily. For example, you might like to try ...

Meatballs (if not a veggie!)
Fishcakes
Pasta shapes and sauce(can be wheat-free)
Any soft-ish veg at all - steamed, boiled, roasted, your choice
Big pieces of apple, pear, banana, cucumber

It doesn't have to be bland or sweet - in fact babies seem to be extraordinarily accepting of a very wide range of tastes at this age. I found my DD would happily eat anything new (including spicy curry!) in the first few months.