Personally I don't understand wanting to start early as solids are a lot of hassle! It was so much easier when I only had to prepare feeds throughout the day. I was happy to wait until nearly six months as milk is so much easier!
I personally don't believe in not doing something for my child just because it isn't easy. But to each their own!
It's true - solids *are* a lot of work. Take a trip out, for example: previously it was prepare enough bottles and formula for LO; now it is prepare bottles and formula, plus snacks. Will we be out for lunch? Where are we going? LO is BLW but there is still salt content to consider so I prepare a back up lunch in case what we have isn't suitable. Oh and let's not forget the packets of wipes to clean surfaces and unhygienic highchairs... Plus food often gets on the floor and LO needs cleaning afterwards. I have no idea how it would work if purées were involved - maybe some defrosting and heating? I dunno! Whereas with milk it was simply mix formula, feed baby and burp! My thoughts are simply that a lot of parents are in a rush to wean as it's new and exciting (I couldn't wait and it was tough to get to nearly six months) but it comes with its own set of hassles.
On the plus side, now LO is weaned going out for lunch is loads of fun as he loves sitting at the table and eating with us. We get to eat (share) our lunch with a happy (greedy) baby and there's no fussing because he's bored!
Kiddo will eat both finger foods and puree cool when we're out. (as adults, we eat our fruits and veg cold quite often- if you're baby's willing, no reason not to) We're college students so 2-3 of our meals are out of home most days, and our college rarely has baby-safe foods (once in a blue moon). So:
-Container with teething biscuits
-Jar of storebought puree
-Container with fruit/veg finger food
-Container with home made puree
-Spoons. So many spoons.
(the storebought puree can be left at room temp unless open. The last two should go in a cooler of some sort. Everything except the spoons is optional, it's a mix and match of what we have ready and available.)
Those are four small containers, sometimes in a cooler- which you often need when dealing with bottles anyways- sometimes not. The wipes you need to deal with cleaning up after diaper changes or after going potty if you're doing EC anyways and, frankly, are a good idea with a baby. Unless your baby is a positively meticulous bottle feeder, you need to wipe milk off their faces either way.
I really don't find it any more difficult, especially with eating out. Thanks to BLW it's actually WAY easier. Now, instead of having to take turns on which adult gets to eat while the other holds and entertains the baby, kiddo gets to eat finger food and feel like one of the grown ups while we both eat our food. Even if we had no interest in kiddo learning to self-feed, we'd go with finger food just because it buys us time to eat in peace.
