From breast to fingerfoods??????

[archiesmummy]

Hiya, My boy is 5 months and a bit old now and we have been holding on for 6 months to start foods. I've heard you can go straight to fingerfoods and skip pureed stuff. Has anyone got any experience of this? Also any tips on what kind of fingerfood he can have?

[NotQuiteCockney]

If you have a look on here (and elsewhere) for baby-led weaning (or BLW), you'll find loads of threads on this, particularly in this section.

We did this with DS2, particularly as he completely rejected purees. It's a lot easier than dealing with mush, and makes for a much more independent baby.

A good starting finger food, I think, is chip-shaped bits of carrot, steamed for a bit. First foods are easiest if chip-shaped, so your baby can hold onto one end, and eat the other. He won't learn to open his hand and eat the other end for a little while.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, and well-done on waiting. You may find your DS doesn't want food right at 6 months, mine was nearly 7 before anything actually went in. But we started offering food around 6 months, and let him see what he wanted.

[archiesmummy]

Thanks for the replies. Can all foods be steamed? And also how long would I steam the bits of carrot for?
I'm not gonna start til he is over 6 months but I want to have everything ready ( and buy steamer)

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, if you don't already have a steamer, just boil things a little. I'd boil them until reasonably soft.

If you wait until 6 months, and do BLW, and don't have strong allergy concerns, you can pretty much move your son onto family food asap. (Watch out for: salt, really chewy/hard things, strange additives. You might want to watch: sugar)