Hellobee Boards

Very condensed version: We started with butternut squash and sweet potatoes - he mashed them up and learned to jam them in his mouth. Also good: bananas, yogurt (we spoon fed that actually), blueberries (smoosh them first). We gave him whatever we had around the house from that point on! Now he eats everything and his fine motor skills are much better so he can eat very easily.

@HappyBaker: With my DS I got all crazy about BLW, reading too much, overthinking it. With DD I just hand her food, and it is so much easier/more fun! She eats what we eat, once they are good at bigger grippable foods, I started adding in smooshed blueberries/peas, etc. We didn't even plan her first food, just decided to hand her a piece of steak during dinner and we were off!

Started with mushy food like avocado, banana, sweet potato, etc, all in like a nice size wedge form that she could hold onto (started this at 6 mo). But then she liked shoving as much as she could in her mouth and gagged a ton.. But I think gagging was good b/c she was learning her limit.

As her pincer grasp got better I started giving her small bits of everything we eat and let her go to town!

@HappyBaker: The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook has a good intro to the concept in the front that is just informative enough without being overwhelming. I wouldn't necessarily spend the money on owning it, but it'd be worth getting from the library. There's also a Baby Led Weaning Book which I think is overkill.

I second the baby led weaning cookbook. I found it in my local library. I started by steaming some big batches of apples, carrots, and potatoes then freezing in portions. That way I had food ready in the right size and not all of our meals had to be sticks. That only lasted about a month until he had better hand control, and we had made sure he wasn't allergic to anything. As much as possible just give them what you are eating in big chunks so they can pick them up.