Baby Led Weaning Advice

[mrsbee]

I have just started weaning my six month old and was intending on doing purees as I did with my older two. However he doesn?t seem keen ? just holds the puree in his mouth and some is swallowed and some spat out. But today I gave him a cooked carrot and he was quite happy to suck on so maybe baby led weaning is the way to go. Though the problem is I know nothing about it ? I have ordered in the book but until it turns up what do I do? Just give him bits of fruit and vegetable to suck on??? Any tips would be most welcome.

[Ko]

people i know who did this gave banana, apple slices, carrot sticks, cooked veg sticks, cucumber, crackers, rusks, organix finger foods, bits of rice cake. the babies who took to it soon moved on to bits of bread with cream cheese/humous etc, also bits of chicken and pasta. i wished my little one had wanted to do this but he was not keen!

[crystal7]

My 6 month old is also not keen on being spoon fed. I have been giving him a loaded spoon and sort of guiding it into his mouth with some success plus spreading purees on lightly toasted bread. I haven't tried yoghurt yet but I'm hoping he'll let me feed him that, was just about the only food my daughter would take from a spoon. The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook is great, some lovely family friendy recipes. Urgh weaning...was hoping this one would open his mouth like a little bird but with his sister as a role model that was probably never going to happen!

[sophiechristophy]

It's simple = on the condition that your own diet is a healthy one, leaving out salt and sugar, each meal time just protion some from your food on to your baby's tray, and let them play! Food under 1 is just for fun, so don't worry at all about what they are actually eating. Just focus on enjoying your babies company at meal times! Treat them like any other guest at your table. x

[hanstands]

at six months I'd give: soft avocado cubes, soft banana, sticks of sweet pepper dipped in organic hummus, I wouldn't give apple yet as hard and can get stuck! dates and prunes to suck on. slices of soft pear. the odd raisin. softly steamed small broccoli florets, porridge made with coconut milk or water [avoid dairy at this age if poss] except natural yoghurt on spoon is ok I think. My baby takes the spoon ok, but most of the time it ends up everywhere but her mouth. So load spoons shallowly at this age...but defo start them practising, doesn't take them long to work it out.

[mrsbee]

Thanks for the advice - I have tried pear (but he really struggled to hold it - any tips on how to help him hold slippy fruit??) and some toast. I have to say he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about either but I'll keep trying some other foods and hopefully he will start to get the idea.

Crystal I was hoping he would also open his mouth like a bird like my other two but this one obviously has other ideas.

[goldilocks]

For pear, leave the skin on or its too slippery for them to hold at that age. I was initially a bit worried about the skin but my 6 mo just spat it out once he'd eaten the pear off it. BLW is messy, but good fun. I'm the opposite from you - was v keen on BLW but my son went through a phase of being more keen on being spoon fed. Now we do a mixture with mostly self feeding, but spoon feeding for yoghurt or other messy stuff.

[Fuschia]

Peeled cucumber spears or slices