If you started weaning with purees at 5mo....

[BotBotticelli]

....when and how did your LO progress to finger food? Did they at all?? Or did you stick with spoon feeding till they were much older?

DS is nearly 7mo and we have been weaning since 5mo. Mostly homemade purees, alongside the odd Ella's pouch (now stage 2) when out and about. I have been making the purees quite lumpy since he turned 6 months old and do lots of fork mashing too. I also give finger foods alongside a puree once a day (ie a few toast fingers with some scarmbled egg at lunchtime). He gets on well with finger food but gets very little in his mouth and makes an almighty massive mess in our v v small flat with cream carpets, which we are currently trying to sell so I can't have food all over the floor all the time for viewings

Do puree-weaned babies need to 'swap over' to solely eating finger food at some point? Or do people normally continue to spoon feed increasingly lumpy/chopped food until they're old enough to use a spoon themselves? With bits of finger food on the side (ie fruit sticks for pudding)?

Any advice gratefully received. There seems to be lots of advice out there for BLW but not so much information for those of us who deicded to go down the puree route!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

I've weaned 2, one at 16 weeks in the bad old days with purees and one started blw herself at 23 weeks by grabbing food and shoving it in her mouth. Both had lots of finger foods by 6 months.

Are you the MNer with the cream carpets who posted earlier in the week? Bids you try putting shower curtains und the highchair?

[Zara1984]

From just past 6 months I started giving finger food, in addition to purees. Took DS. a while to get a hang of it but at 8 months is now almost entirely eating finger food. After about 2 weeks of finger food options with every meal and snack he started to really like it and get more into his mouth!

Friends of mine have done different things - some eg 18 months old I know are still having their main meals spoon feed but are competent at feeding the self lumpy purees and eating finger food. It really depends of the child and how they prefer to eat. Just like everything else to do with parenting, all children are different! Sometimes, especially when he's tired, DS gets too frustrated with finger foods and I spoon feed him instead. He happily eats jars/pouches/fruit pots when we're out and looooves yoghurt.

As for the mess - unavoidable really with finger food!! Can you feed baby in kitchen (surely no carpet there?!)? Either that or buy a shower curtain or a plastic mat for under high chairs to put over carpet?

I think if you're offering a combination of purees and finger foods, and your DS likes it - you're doing great!

[theaveragebear1983]

It is messy but it's so important for a baby to have control over what they eat. They won't chuck it around for long once they resale how much fun it is to chew, crunch and gnaw different foods. My tip is don't give too much, they tend to chuck when they're full. I did BLW with my boy who is now one, but he will eat a fantastic meal and then chuck the bits he doesn't fancy (like sweetcorn!) over the side. Now at one year, we're having the opposite; he wants to use a spoon and will wrestle them off us if we're eating soup or yoghurt because he wants to do it himself! Be brave and try it, or try a picnic outside?

[YippeeKiYayMakkaPakka]

We started DD2 on purees at about 5mo, then at 7mo or so started introducing finger foods. After that she lost interest in purees so now (almost 9mo) it's finger food all the way! She'd gag a bit to begin with but got used to it within a week or two. Gagging is a normal part of the process and is not the same as choking. And I'm not sure how much of it she actually eats as 80% of it seems to end up on the floor or in the highchair. They still get most of their nutrition from milk until 1yo anyway; food at

[cleoteacher]

my DS is just over 6 months and we started weaning at just over 5 months. I think you just have to go along with your baby. I started with purees and followed the annabel karmel book. For the past week or so I have started giving him finger food too. He's really good with it and picks it up and puts it in his mouth himself and eats, sometimes he needs help to put it in his mouth but seems to enjoy it.

I am going to carry on with the purees though and the next batch, which will start to include meat and fish, I will be making lumpier. I will carry on giving him finger food before/after as he doesn't necessarily eat that much and so I feel better with the purees that I know how much he has eaten. However, if and when he starts to go off the purees I will move to finger food more, gradually upping the number of meals I am giving him it. I think teaching him how to use a spoon is also important and both ways but mainly purees seems to be working for me.

Let your baby be your guide is what I think and I try not to worry about what I should be doing/not doing.

[notso]

I don't really see the need for puree's with the new later weaning.
DD started weaning under the old advice at 15 weeks (I wish I'd trusted my instincts rather than HV) she needed runny puree because she couldn't sit up. By 6 months she could sit up and she was ready for finger foods and lumpier foods.
With my older three weaning has started between 5.5 and 7 months and DC2 and DC3 went straight to lumpyish mashed food and finger food, I did pure BLW with DC2 so he didn't have anything mashed up just cut to holdable size.