Welcome aboard Ali
I did pure BLW- it starts slow at first
I did pure BLW (my version
) and there was nothing slow about it at all. I was shocked and exhausted by having to provide three meals a day from basically day 1.
By 'my version' I mean, I didn't read the book, but did read a few things on websites, I also read the standard UK guides for traditional weaning that says to offer finger food from 6 months so I just thought what's the point in puree lets go straight to real food. I didn't give him a regular adult meal to begin with though, instead I made baby friendly meals and I ate those with him. Limiting to one or two food types in each meal really helped to not overwhelm (think Tracy's HELP - Limit) and when the meals developed I always cooked with him in mind, left big chunks in stew, no salt, that sort of thing.
I didn't start with cereal, we started because I had been either starving myself or eating in secret for about a month because the sight of me eating made DS cry. Eventually I was in a tight squeeze at 5.5 months when in quick succession he had a meltdown because I dared to eat lunch (he had JUST had his bottle and had not drained it so he was 'full') and to stop the melt down I really had to offer food, a piece of melon that I held, he put his mouth to it (I did not put to his mouth, that was the difference), and another day after a very long time at the hospital when DS had eaten but my mum and I hadn't and were ravenous, we stopped for a pub lunch. I tried to fob DS off with a piece of raw cabbage thinking he would feel included but knowing he wouldn't be able to eat it, but he started really fussing, a LOT. Public place, never took a paci, had already had his milk...ended up sucking on garlic bread. I was still trying to keep food away from him at this point. Then few days later we had a lunch appointment with Nana and an aunt, I knew there would be problems, didn't want to be stuck with only salty cafe food to offer so baked some potato wedges and apple wedges.
He ate them all, then fed himself quarter spoon of icecream on a loaded spoon.
After that he asked for food constantly and we were on three meals.
For a couple of weeks I did give porridge or readybrek on loaded spoons, he was great with it but eventually he rejected the spoon and instead I made it thick and just dolloped a mountain of the stuff in front of him but after a while he wouldn't eat mush with his hands - too messy.
I now make muesli balls with baby muesli (it's from 10 months but I started at about 7 months) and just a splash of milk, rolled into mouth size balls so he can eat as finger food. You can also make these with baby porridge (I do for a change around). Just experiment with the amount of milk, it's a really small amount, leave to stand a couple mins to thicken then roll into balls. I really like that the baby cereal has such a mix of grains and added goodies in it, which I don't think any other cereal offers.
There are also muffins and cookies you can make with baby muesli to turn it into finger food.
But, you might be surprised by him using a spoon at 6 months, dS was great for a good while before he rejected it. The rejection was because the food wasn't getting in his belly fast enough. I'm sure many other babies have more patience!
