Her first food was very ripe, sliced avocado.

Followed by sweet potato, spaghetti squash, broccoli, butternut squash, cauliflower, carrots, etc. (All steamed.)

So what are some of the first foods you tried and how did you prepare them?

Thanks! This is all great info!

she is absolutely precious!!! :)

We loved giving DS all homemade foods and the peace of mind and cost savings that came with that.

BLW offers all of that as well as the fact that you get to skip the steps of puréeing the food.

Also, BLW was MUCH less stressful for us- we kept in mind that "food before one is just for fun!" We allowed baby to eat when she wanted and simply play when she wanted. We never attempted to feed her or MAKE her eat. And guess what, she eats great!!!!!

I definitely prefer BLW- less steps, less stressful, everyone eats together, and healthier for baby because baby learns to listen to their body for signs of hunger and fullness.

Look into the blog ahealthysliceoflife.com she has two kids, has done BLW with both of them and has written a book about it.

And yes, she tries to grab food all the time and can sit up really well. She tried to put everything in her mouth. :-)

@jennifer - what did you prefer between the two?

She's my third and with my other two, we did purées. We had the hardest time transitioning them over to real food which is why I am so interested in the BLW this time around.

@thats

I would not consider what you did to be BLW. It sounds like you gave baby puréed foods and introduced her to different textures and thicker and bigger foods gradually, as well as table foods.

With BLW, you do not spoon feed baby at all or give any purées. You simply put solid foods (usually steamed veggies and the like) in front of baby and they pick it up and feed themselves- right from the beginning.

I have done both. With DS I made homemade purées and spoon fed and then gradually followed the method you explained.

Then with DD we did BLW as I have described.

The whole blw thing confuses me? Isn't it just letting your baby try foods that you're eating when they reach for it or make an interest that they want to try it?

I'm not sure what it's called what I did. But I let my dd eat off our plates when she wanted things. Basically whatever. She tried eggs, but we have no history of egg allergies, she had pupusas, she had soups. Etc. just whenever she wanted something I let her have a taste and if she came back for more I gave her more. I know some people still season their food regularly but I tried to keep the seasoning to a minimum at first. Now I just cook whatever and she eats everything we eat. At 6 months she was still eating puréed foods as well as little nibbles off of our plates. She loved mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Also broccoli and carrots. Sometimes when she was teething I would peel a carrot and let her munch on it. She didn't have teeth though so she could just suck on it until it got soft. Bananas, you can cook peaches to make them soft, apples also. Idk Iet my dd try basically anything that wasn't spicy.

She is absolutely precious!

It's great that you are following the AAP & WHO recommendations to wait a minimum of 6 months. That's definitely #1.

Even more important than age are developmental signs of readiness, which MAY still take several months to develop. Our daughter wasn't displaying them all until 7 months, which is when we started solid foods through BLW.

Developmental signs of readiness for solid foods include:

1) Loss of tongue thrust reflex (where baby pushes out anything in mouth with their tongue).

2) Ability to remain sitting up on their own for several minutes when places into the sitting position.

3) Pincer grasp (picks up small objects using thumb and forefinger).

We LOVED BLW. What specific questions do you have?