Please help me, haven't even started weaning and already terrified!

[fxmummyduck]

So lo turned 6 months on the 24th, we haven't started weaning yet because I just can't decide blw, or tw im so confused

My nephew was really bad with progressing from purees to lumps so it put me off tw, but I did give lo some pear blw style and the gagging and being sick really scared me off. Ive read so
much and yet im lost!

Stories and pointers would be so much appreciated now.

Ive just bought pears, carrots and sweet potatoes, should I get baby rice?

Sorry I sound so clueless, I just feel bombarded with information. I want to do what's best for lo

Thanks for any advice!

 

[ruby09]

My son was just over six months when we started him on solids. There's really no hurry, so don't worry. I think you might be over thinking it a bit. Just start slowly and your lo will let you know what they like.
If it helps, here's what we did as recommended by our pediatrician: At 6 mos, start rice cereal twice a day mixed with steamed/pureed fruit (once for breakfast and once for dinner). (My lo hated rice cereal so we switched to baby oatmeal.) At 7 months add a steamed/pureed vegi for lunch. At 8 months add a pureed meat to the vegi for lunch. At 9 months, we started subbing in finger foods slowly and by 10.5 months he was only eating finger foods (in addition to bottles obviously.) We found our baby was able to guide us on what he liked/disliked and what he was ready for. Finger foods were difficult for him, so we took it slow, and then one day he just decided he was ready, and that was it.

Best of luck to you!

 

[fxmummyduck]

Thank you so much for replying, you make it sound so much simpler!

Can I ask, did you make or buy pureed fruit? If you made did you have any special equipment? If you bought did you stick to a particular brand? Any suggestions? I can imagine doing a mixture of both.

 

[ruby09]

I made my own. I had a Beaba baby cook machine (don't know if you have that in the UK) that would steam and puree all in one. Although I think you can just use a steamer basket for the stove and a blender. Either way, then I would freeze the portions into ice cube trays. I tried to do a lot at one time so I would only have to do it once every two weeks. It really worked out well bc the night before I would just pop the cubes out for the next day and defrost them in the refrigerator overnight. I even did this with cooked meat, you just have to mix a little bit of water in so it freezes properly.

I don't think there's anything wrong with using the jarred foods though if that's easier for you. If you read the labels, they're really just pureed foods in a sealed jar. We also had good luck with store bought applesauce. If you buy the "natural applesauce", it's only got apples and water with no added sugar.

 

[MindUtopia]

If you are open to doing BLW, I really cannot recommend it enough. It's been one of the best things we've done and our daughter has always been a great, adventurous eater. We started at 6 months and she's now almost 16 months, so that's 10 months ago and she's never choked once. She does gag occasionally even now (funny enough, it's usually on water - just goes to show you gagging and choking have nothing to do with finger foods, and in fact, it's believed that the choking risk is greater with spoonfeeding that with finger foods because it takes away baby's instinct to be able to control where food goes in the mouth).

Apart from all that, and the fact that it's easier and less stress (I think), it's a great way to get your baby to love real food. My daughter eats things that other people can't believe. I take her out to restaurants and she'll sit and eat a brie panini, or chorizo, or a bowl of olives, or dried spicy seaweed. Pickled vegetables are a favourite and she ate a lemon wedge from my plate at lunch the other day. Just now, she ate some beetroot and horseradish dip that I was eating off my plate. She eats real, grown-up food and will try anything. She also uses her own spoon and fork already to eat (though she still uses her hands a lot too) Even the friends and family who thought what we were crazy for not giving her 'baby food' all say they wished they'd known about BLW when their kids were small. It's a really wonderful way to start on solids and I can't say enough good things about it.

If you are thinking about it, go get the Baby-Led Weaning book (by Gill Rapley). Your local library will probably have a copy and read about it. That really helped my confidence when we were starting and make me comfortable that was the right choice for us. It will be a learning curve at first and if you go the BLW route, don't expect to see much food going in for a few months. They need time to play and explore and taste and nibble, and the quantity doesn't matter. It took until about 9 months for my daughter to start eating any real quantity of food (enough to decrease the amount of milk she wanted). Also, there will be some gagging, especially in the early weeks, but gagging prevents choking. It's a good thing! And it means your baby is learning how to eat safely.