I'm glad I posted my question - I thought people would say that he's obviously not ready and don't worry!
Anyway, to answer your questions. I know it may seem strange to a lot of you - but my pediatrician tells his patients, no dairy, no grains other than rice, no citrus fruits, eggs, no red meat etc until the first birthday. This means that he advises only vegetables, non-citrus fruits, white meat and fish and rice based cereal or other rice things. I have chosen him as my pediatrician as he has an excellent reputation and I know he does a lot of research. I am not saying that his recommendations are right (as I am not a doctor!) - but as that's what he recommends, I'm going to follow his advice. I would prefer to go on the side of caution anyway - it's not going to harm him by following that advice. He has no allergies and we don't have allergies in our family. I just thought I'd say why I am following this advice as I know people will ask! I have asked him why he says this and he said it's not that babies get allergies the first, second, third time that they eat the food - it's that from the research he has done, if a baby has certain foods too early for their system, then they can develop allergies to things over time. He said this is why allergies are on the rise. Again, I am not saying that he is right - but wanted to just explain why he gives this advice to his patients.
Anyway, he eats pretty much anything - all vegetables including brussell sproats, asparagus, eggplant, cabbage - you name it. He always eats everything up with no problem (not always the fruit though). He is not as keen on sweet things but will eat my baked apples with raisins and cinnamon but will not eat banana. Banana is about the only food he doesn't like (unless it's organic jarred food!) I make all his food (I'm at home so I have time!)
I bought some rice pasta for him thinking it would be a good finger food but he just plays with it (he'll eat it when I feed him). I show him all the time how to pick things up and eat them. He'll hold a rice cake and munch on it quite happily but if I break up small bits and put it in front of him, he just picks them up and rubs them in his hand - and yes, I have fed them to him and he takes them fine but will not do it himself! I have also tried peas, sweetcorn,carrots, small pieces of cooked apple or pear but again he just plays with them. He's always hungry when I feed him - so much so that he cries when he sees his bowl going into the microwave rather than going directly to him! Generally he doesn't really have snacks - I tend to breastfeed him in between meals. He gets 4 breastfeeds per day and 3 solid meals per day.
I have cooked some big pieces of brocolli this morning and will try giving him a floret to hold and see if he'll eat that! I'll let you know how we get on as I haven't tried that yet - I've really only tried small pieces.
