BLW

[alex_22]

My health visitor advised me that the benefits of waiting until 6 months to wean were totally skipping pureed foods and moving straight to finger foods, she never pushed it on me and also gave me advise on what she can and can't have from 4 months

I've been weaning her a couple of weeks now and she will be 6 months in a fortnight and there's absolutely no way on earth this baby is going to be ready for finger foods

My question is how many of your baby's actually are ready at that age?

It seems a little unrealistic to expect a baby so young to manage moving straight to finger foods even if there's the littlest of lumps in dd food (I'm a terrible terrible blender) she will choke on it

 

[staralfur]

My LO wasn't interested in food at all at 6 months - wouldn't have even been interested in purées so I didn't bother. I just kept offering her bits of stuff every couple of weeks. She didn't actually swallow anything until around 8 months. She did gag quite a bit at the beginning but that's fairly normal and different from choking. I found it took a few days to get used to seeing her put whole chunks of food in her mouth but I did become comfortable with it/her ability pretty quickly.

 

[JoycesMum]

6mo is a good starting point but some aren't interested at that age. Since mine was teething at that age I bought a teether/feeder called kidsme. It's a pretty snazzy gadget. It helped with her teething and it also introduced her to solids without worrying about her choking on the food. She wasn't fully interested in solids till she was around 7mo.

 

[alex_22]

6mo is a good starting point but some aren't interested at that age. Since mine was teething at that age I bought a teether/feeder called kidsme. It's a pretty snazzy gadget. It helped with her teething and it also introduced her to solids without worrying about her choking on the food. She wasn't fully interested in solids till she was around 7mo.

Ah yeah i forgot about them had one with my son, think I'll have to pick one up tomorrow x

 

[MindUtopia]

If you mean, are most 6 month olds ready to eat mass quantities of finger foods, equal maybe to the volume they might when being spoonfed, then some but probably not many. If you mean, are most 6 months able to handle exploring finger foods and starting to eat them, then yes, most are. My daughter didn't even have any teeth at 6 months and she was able to handle finger foods just fine. My friend's daughter ate 4 chicken strips the first day of doing BLW, again with no teeth. But the quantity of food is not massive for most babies and most will just be playing until about 9 or 10 months. My daughter was certainly eating finger foods and I would see it come through in her nappies from about 2 weeks after we started, but she wasn't eating huge amounts until she became a big more confident and developed her pincer grip and better coordination around 9-10 months. But she's never once choked. She's 23 months now and the only thing she's ever choked on has been water while drinking water in the bath. One thing I'd read up on is the difference between gagging and choking. A lot of folks get these confused. Gagging is noisy and looks like what we think choking would look like (sounds like a cat coughing up a hair ball). Choking is usually silent and much less dramatic. If she's gagging, that's good. They are supposed to gag and it's perfectly normal, particularly at 6 months, when her gag reflex is still strong. Also, I would imagine that it would be much harder for her to eat spoonfed lumps at 6 months than finger foods, the reason being that finger foods give more control that spoonfed foods. So if she encounters a lump that's too big for her to handle, she can't get it out (mainly because you're pushing it in with a spoon), but also because she has no control over the size or placement in her mouth. With finger foods, she can just pull it out of her mouth with her hand, or bite off smaller pieces that she can handle. It's also easier to push unsafe food out when there's no spoon in the way. You might consider giving it a try and seeing how she does. You'll probably be surprised how well she can do it.

 

[alex_22]

If you mean, are most 6 month olds ready to eat mass quantities of finger foods, equal maybe to the volume they might when being spoonfed, then some but probably not many. If you mean, are most 6 months able to handle exploring finger foods and starting to eat them, then yes, most are. My daughter didn't even have any teeth at 6 months and she was able to handle finger foods just fine. My friend's daughter ate 4 chicken strips the first day of doing BLW, again with no teeth. But the quantity of food is not massive for most babies and most will just be playing until about 9 or 10 months. My daughter was certainly eating finger foods and I would see it come through in her nappies from about 2 weeks after we started, but she wasn't eating huge amounts until she became a big more confident and developed her pincer grip and better coordination around 9-10 months. But she's never once choked. She's 23 months now and the only thing she's ever choked on has been water while drinking water in the bath. One thing I'd read up on is the difference between gagging and choking. A lot of folks get these confused. Gagging is noisy and looks like what we think choking would look like (sounds like a cat coughing up a hair ball). Choking is usually silent and much less dramatic. If she's gagging, that's good. They are supposed to gag and it's perfectly normal, particularly at 6 months, when her gag reflex is still strong. Also, I would imagine that it would be much harder for her to eat spoonfed lumps at 6 months than finger foods, the reason being that finger foods give more control that spoonfed foods. So if she encounters a lump that's too big for her to handle, she can't get it out (mainly because you're pushing it in with a spoon), but also because she has no control over the size or placement in her mouth. With finger foods, she can just pull it out of her mouth with her hand, or bite off smaller pieces that she can handle. It's also easier to push unsafe food out when there's no spoon in the way. You might consider giving it a try and seeing how she does. You'll probably be surprised how well she can do it.

I knew not to expect them to eat a lot of the food I'm just petrified to try her she isn't 6 months for a couple of weeks yet so haven't tried finger foods but I'm just so frightened!! Yeah it is gagging that she's doing not choking even though it's very normal it just doesnt feel it and I just can't help but flap like an idiot throwing her over my knee and patting her back haha I think I'll try her with those things you put the food in first let her get the hang of putting things in her mouth to eat and taste instead of just explore then (when I finally feel brave enough) give her them on their own my son took to food like stuck to water and didn't gag all that much I'm sure he did a bit but not as much as dd, I thought second time around I'd have it all figured out oh how wrong I was lol x

 

[TWINKLES80]

We started at 6.5 months, baby is now 17 months and eats great. BUT.. in the beginning there's a lot of playing, mushing, sometimes throwing, and just sucking.

They're really just exploring the whole eating thing!

So i would say he didn't really eat until about 8-9 months, now i wonder where all his food goes!

 

[RaspberryK]

A baby who has never been spoon fed purees etc - yes but a traditionally weaned baby- no.

As you've already gone down the TW route I'd offer things that will easily mush or "dissolve" rather than ones that need chewing as such.

With TW baby learns to swallow first then chew later, with BLW baby learns to pick up, chew first and swallow later.

Xx

 

[noon_child]

I think most babies develop the physical abilities to handle finger food (grab, put to mouth, bite, chew, swallow, sit up straight, reach etc.) between 5-7months. BLW is not about giving them finger food bang on six months regardless of their development. It is about being baby led; letting your baby decide when they are interested in food, how much to put in, what to try next etc. My LO grabbed food off my plate at 5.5months - a lot came straight back out, but some she chewed so I took that as her starting to be interested and slowly gave her things here and there to try. Within 2 weeks (like pp said) I could see it in her nappies so became a bit more regular with offering her meals. Not all babies are ready though (like they don't all walk and talk at the same time, some were premie etc.).

 

[alex_22]

At 7 and a half months I'm still petrified every time I give her a finger food 😂 i was so much more laid back with my son! I've even found myself having to take things off her when I think they're getting a little small and leaving her in tears because she still wants it, I just can't cope my nerves won't let me do it!

What can I put on toast for her? It butter fine? Or smooth jam? Or is there too much sugar in jam?

Thanks ladies x

 

[smallhelen]

Rather than use jam, which is loaded with sugar, I put fruit puree on toast for my LO. Or peanut butter, cream cheese, or homemade hummus.
And don't worry too much. In nearly five months of BLW, we have had no gagging and no choking, just the odd cough that moves the food back into LO's mouth again for more chewing.