@hayleyf Puree or food is different in texture to milk, and because of the way they latch onto a bottle/breast they can swallow it. But with weaning...usually if food is spat out or theres more around their face than in their mouth...its a sign they arent ready. But look up the tongue thrust reflex i think its called. Yeah the labelling is confusing...but this year I believe everything will be changed to 6 months xx

Start at 6 months to be safe. You can do puree and blw at the same time, she'll play with blw foods and you can control how much she actually intakes (the bare minimum) by puree. In fact you can do either at 6 months and it will work. Babies on puree tend to gain weight better, so if you feel your daughter is underweight, puree might be slightly better?

@missashleyanne my daughter was 5 months and she is a healthy 11 year old never had any health issues with her x

@missashleyanne cheers for backing me up. I will try my son at 4 months and see if he isn't ready then I won't carry xx

Thank you everyone for your experiences, I knew everyone would have different views and have done it differently, which is what I was interested in! @michellewiggins1985, @winterbaby95, @mezaab, @missashleyanne, @chloemcmahon96, @kate_smith, @noshinxoxo, @muffinmay, xx

@michellewiggins1985 Yeah true. But they say their gut isnt ready until 6 months. So i think thats more important than signs you can see :)

@winterbaby95 every baby is different though

@winterbaby95 I'm only saying what the book says xx

@michellewiggins1985 To me putting things to their mouths is exploring and development...not a sign they are ready for food

@michellewiggins1985 I think thats not true tbh. Their gut isnt ready until 6 months...so whether they out things in their mouth or not shouldnt be part of the readiness...Maya was putting things to her mouth at like 1.5 months...Theres no way she was ready that little 🤔

@hayleyf, my baby is nearly 8 months old and he can't sit unassisted yet but i had idea when he was all ready for weaning. But I strictly avoided giving him any food until he was 6 months old. As @winterbaby95, said they have immature stomachs and can't digest well so this is all I bear in mind xx

Thanks @winterbaby95, that’s really helpful, I’ll look it up later when I sit down lol x

@chloemcmahon96 Thats the tongue thrust reflex which should be lost before weaning starts x

@hayleyf But yeah, you should wait until closer to 6 months unless baby has reflux or isnt gaining weight on milk etc xx

@hayleyf There's Not Much Differnce but cos milk is a fluid they just drink it where as when I make sweet potato with milk it's abit more thick so she moves it round with her tounge and puts her tounge in and out to swallow x

@hayleyf Puree or food is different in texture to milk, and because of the way they latch onto a bottle/breast they can swallow it. But with weaning...usually if food is spat out or theres more around their face than in their mouth...its a sign they arent ready. But look up the tongue thrust reflex i think its called. Yeah the labelling is confusing...but this year I believe everything will be changed to 6 months xx

@winterbaby95, thanks for this! This may be daft but how do you know if baby can swallow? They swallow their milk so what’s the difference? How come you still see purees aimed from 4 months if the guidelines have changed? This is all so confusing! I haven’t been given any advice from my health visitor @chloemcmahon96, x

@winterbaby95 I'm just going of what my Health visitor said

@chloemcmahon96 If baby cant swallow when it comes to weaning them..it means they arent ready.. x

@hayleyf Hands in mouth isnt a sign. She needs to be sitting up whether its purees or baby led weaning. Age of weaning has been 6 months for 15 years or so. Its only advised younger if baby has medical issues or has reflux..as the benefit of weaning can outweigh the cons. Babies guts arent mature until 6 months...they cant process food like we do until then. Weaning early in the long run can give baby stomach issues such as IBS. Maya wasnt ready until almost 8 months...she wasnt really interested in what i gave her...she just chucked it around. She wouldnt be spoon fed either xx

I give my little girl sweet potato mashed up with her baby milk and she loves it and eats it all and she 4 and half months she loves it and it's takes them about for weeks to learn to swallow food probably x

@michellewiggins1985 Putting things in his mouth and watching you eat isnt a sign they are ready. All babies do that..its just because they are aware of things...and discover their mouths...teething...development etc :) xx

@kate_smith, wouldn’t say is underweight, although I’m wondering if she should be having more milk by now? X

Thanks @mezaab and @noshinxoxo, there are so many things to consider! Layla isn’t sitting up yet so I haven’t got to make a decision yet, but I may try some purees next month. She has her hands in her mouth all the time but isn’t showing any other signs really. I’m looking forward to it though, although I might change my mind once we start haha x

Start at 6 months to be safe. You can do puree and blw at the same time, she'll play with blw foods and you can control how much she actually intakes (the bare minimum) by puree. In fact you can do either at 6 months and it will work. Babies on puree tend to gain weight better, so if you feel your daughter is underweight, puree might be slightly better?

I started at 4 months to help with my son's reflux. But I didn't want to, I wanted to wait it out as long as possible. Having said that my son was more than ready. He was sitting up on his own at 4 months, bringing food to his mouth himself, his tongue wasn't pushing things out. Those are the physical signs you should be looking out for, not just them noticing you can eat, because it's to make sure they won't choke and can physically handle foods. Having said that, I did baby porridge for a month, with fruits as finger foods to play with using those mesh bags. And then at 5 months I started more BLW, then soon after a few months that was just too messy, too long, had to find recipes and cut things up a certain way, watch him eat and then clean the mess. Puree was so much easier, steam it all, stick it in the blender and you have days of food for the fridge. I was too lazy for BLW for every meal. Breakfast was easy so I did for that alot

There are some signs my little one showed like making a munching sound and snatching our food.i started with baby rice and he was nearly 6 months then ; all ready for weaning.later on, slowly you can introduce purées etc but every baby is different I would say so it may be a different and new experience for you and baby good luck xx

@muffinmay, thank you. Layla is only on 5 ounces and has 5/6 bottles throughout the day. I won’t see my health visitor until she is almost 1 year old now so won’t get any advice off her x

I started aggie at 4 months on the health visitors guidance. 😂 aggie was guzzling milk and by the was on 8/9ounce bottles every 3/4 hours ! we started with porridge and then started with purees of fruit/veg trying to do one new one every other day. we just did it for breakfast to start with then when that wasn't enough started adding tea and lunch in too. after this we starting mixing ones she'd already had together like putting banana in her porridge and stuff like that then as soon as she hit 6months started baby led

@michellewiggins1985, thank you, appreciate that x

@hayleyf putting things in his mouth. Watching us eat xx

To be honest weaning is a proper hassle and messy I'd wait until 6 months and blw that's what I done with my second x @hayleyf

@michellewiggins1985, I’ll try again later. Sorry to bombard you with questions, but what kind of signs is he showing? This is al new! X

@hayleyf he has the signs so I will try him on a small amount of porridge to start off with then try puree vegetables. Strange it won't recognise your address xx

@michellewiggins1985, it won’t recognise my address to let me join! What makes you think he is ready? And will you be starting him on purées?x

@hayleyf I am gonna start Oliver at 4 months as think he is ready x

@michellewiggins1985, I’m joining now, thank you. Just wanted to know what people on here do practically, rather than just the “guidelines” if that makes sense x

@hayleyf order that copy of the weaning guide I put the link on my post. It tells you what to give them and when xx