Early weaning

I mention the without my speechie hat on thing because sucking for comfort and nutrition is different. But, anecdotally, you might get a sense of how much tongue control there is.

As ever, guidelines are but that. Take them with a pinch of salt and be led by your little one.

@soupdragon, I've been trying to gage DD's tounge movement but I don't think I'm sure? She appears to be moving her tounge around a lot now rather than just in and out, but how can I tell if it's the correct type of movement to be able to manipulate her food properly?
Sorry if this is a really silly question but I don't want to start her too early and yet she seems so eager to get at everything we are eating and drinking. I don't want it to become negative before she's even started because I am now always moving food away / taking it out of her hands when she manages to grab it and sometimes she's getting really frustrated with it now.
Also not sure whether she will be getting enough just from me if her body is ready but I don't give her food?... Don't want her going hungry or not growing properly.
I find a lot of the info out there confusing and / or contradictory and my health visitors were really unhelpful when I asked, they just blanket say 6 months for everyone and then said she'll need to begin with baby rice and then a bit of mush 2 mins after saying they were really encouraging baby led weening now which I thought was the opposite of this??

I've looked at the guidelines given in this thread and I think she meets them... Would be great to get a second opinion though from one of you that's done all this before cos health visitors made me a bit worried to start and this all feels very new still!

- She is 5.5 months old.
- 2 weeks ago she weighed 18 lb 2oz (just over double birth weight which was 8lb 7oz).
- Sitting steadily without support for about 3/4 weeks.
- Good head & neck control.
- Can push up with straight arms (and either rocks back onto knees or pushes herself backwards around the floor).
- Puts her hands, feet, toys (and anything she gets her hands on really) in her mouth.
- She leans forwards with open mouth and trys to get my food but she hasn't moved back / turned away from any of it yet (don't know if this is because she hasn't tasted it yet to know what she likes / doesn't like?).

Am I worrying unnecessarily? Can I leave her another few weeks or is she ready now?

@ems101, did you try it with your LO in the end and if so how did it go?

@dancingmum personally I would start her, I started both boys inbetween 5 and 6 months. We did blw for the most part but with a bit of rice or porridge too. If you don't feel comfortable then leave her a little longer until your confident to start.

@Dancing mum - if it were me, I'd try giving her some finger foods. She'll let you know soon enough whether she's ready or not. From what you've said, she's probably capable of managing solids. And waiting a couple of weeks until the magic six month mark aint really gonna make all that much difference. But!!! You're the expert on your daughter. Go with your gut and not what anyone else says/thinks. Whether you wait or start, enjoy the mess!

For what it's worth, parenting can still feel very new here, too! Most days I make it up as I go along. I've never parented this person, at this age before. Having no idea what you're doing is par for the course, I think.

Oh, as an aside, it's also worth remembering that choking is actually pretty uncommon. Gagging is perfectly normal and to be expected as a little one learns to manipulate food. Babies have pretty strong in-built survival mechanisms.

I found it hard to distinguish his tongue movement and although he is well on his way to meeting the development milestones above he's not quite there so weve decided to hold off for a couple more weeks. He is very interested in food and gives us death stares when he sees us eating. Weve been giving him carrot and cucumber sticks to gnaw on but that's more for teething and a little taste of things to come. His nappies are still bf yellow so hes not getting much from them! He did sort of accidentally eat a fig last week... we were eating fresh figs snd I let him hold and lick one. They were whole do he could get anything from them, but he seemed so desperate to get into it I let him suck on a open one and he loved it! Ill keep tgem at hand when he is ready in a couple of weeks!

Sounds like your dd is ready. I started my otger two at 5.5m

Thanks @ems101, @Soupdragon and @Sunset, I think I'm going to give it a go today. Feeling quite excited now, I hope she likes it