How will i know when LO is ready for solids?

[optimistic1]

I got awhile but I live in the US and I'm sure her doc will probably mention it at her 4 month check up. I don't want to start til either she's showing signs or she's, atleast 6 months or sitting unaided. There is something weird to me about spoon feeding a baby that can't even sit up alone...plus I was thinking of doing a mixture of BLW and spoon feeding if its possible. I know its recommended in the UK to exclusively bf until 6 months. But what are the signs of my baby being ready to start solids?

Also if you bf do you give your LO expressed milk in a cippy cup? I was thinking if by that time she's only eating like 4 times a day that I'd only bf before bed and first thing and give her a cippy cup of bm the other times because I'm hoping to wean her by 12 months (just want my body to myself) but I also don't know how that works...I don't know why I'm thinking about it now guess I'm a bit excited to start the weaning process!

Random question. Is it harder to wean a bf baby than ff?

 

[MindUtopia]

For us, it was really when she could sit unaided well enough to not topple over in her chair and had the motor skills to pick up her food (doing BLW). We started just a few days shy of 6 months letting her have a few things like cucumber sticks and melon sticks, but she still really struggled then to pick them up herself. She could manage them if we handed them to her, but not pick them up off the table herself. So for me I felt like she still wasn't quite ready then, but we started to at least sit some food in front of her at 6 months. She struggled a bit at first to handle it, but after about 2 weeks it got much easier. I think if you want to do BLW, I'd just try at 6 months and see what happens. If she takes to it right away, you'll know she's ready. If she struggles a bit, it's still safe to keep offering food, but she'll take it when she's ready. Personally, I wouldn't start before 6 months and I wouldn't bother with spoon feeding, but that's just from my own personal experience. To me, it just seems like too much work when you really don't need to do it.

Not sure about giving milk in a sippy cup, as we haven't mastered it yet! I've tried with water, but she doesn't really grasp the concept and understand she has to tip it up for any to come out. She just likes to chew on the spout! You might try offering water and she how she takes to it.

As for the difficulty in weaning, I don't think there's any difference in how easy it is to get them to take to solid foods. My daughter is FF now (was BF when she was smaller though) and she is really enjoying eating. But I think probably it is more difficult to cut down on BF even after you've started solids, if that's what you mean, as BF babies tend to comfort nurse even when they aren't hungry. My daughter has no real attachment to her bottle and doesn't use it for comfort, so yes, probably it will be easier for her to drop feeds altogether eventually. I don't know if it would be as easy if we were still BF.