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Our daycare was the same so I sent purees to school (6-10 months)and did BLW at home. I started sending finger foods around 10.5 months.

I think you need to go with your gut on this one. If you aren't ready to send solids to daycare yet, don't. My daycare asked if we would like to bring solids in and I told them I wasn't ready yet. they said they were willing to feed her whenever we were, just let them know when. I would just make sure daycare knows you're going on your own schedule and will send them when you're ready!

You're the mom do what you think is best!

At 6 months, solids are developmentally apporpriate (purees and BLW) but you already know this. Babies will let their feeders know when they are not hungry/don't want it. It's very clear when my son wants to eat - he opens up nice and wide for the spoon. When he doesn't want it, he turns his head or pushes the spoon away. I tend to think it would be hard to feed him puree if he didn't want it. Sounds like he is getting plenty of milk so a small solids meal probably won't affect that much.

I started sending solids to daycare just before 6 months. They They say he is very interested/jealous when other kids eat and eats every last drop of solids. That's how I knew he was ready. keep telling me to send "more" but I already send cereal and one puree meal so I think that's enough - I am slowly increasing the amount of each meal though. He eats 2 solid meals plus 15 oz of milk at daycare (plus 10-12 oz of milk at home).

We told daycare we weren't going to start solids until 6 months, even though the other same-age babies had all started earlier. And then we would just do a BLW meal at home. After a couple weeks, daycare told us that LO was constantly staring at the other kids eating, would open her mouth like she wanted a spoonful of other's food, and eventually tried to grab the spoon herself. We took the hint

For the first month of meals at daycare, I took one meal of finger food and one meal of puree. Soon after, daycare told us that LO hated being fed and could we please just bring all finger food. So she's BLW full-time now.

@KayKay: That is too cute!

If they push it in that way and you're still uncomfortable, just tell them your pediatrician has advised you otherwise and that you will be starting her on a solids program that you've devised with your doctor, which doesn't yet necessitate solids during the day. You're the mama! I think some daycares like to have all kids doing the same thing sometimes so it's easier on them. Solids are not nutritionally necessary at 6 months, so there's no reason to be forcing them on you before she's ready.

Our daycare also wouldn't let us send finger foods at that young of an age. Mostly because of the mess but I think also the choking hazard.

We asked them to always feed her a bottle of BM first and then offer solids. When they fed her purees we did like you said and just stressed that we were not concerned about her finishing or eating it all. Let her drive it. We told them to feel free to throw away whatever she didn't want. It seemed to work well and never impacted her desire for BM.

The ladies at our daycare really started rubbing me the wrong way with pushing solids too. They first really pushed us to start him on cereal as soon as he turned 4 months. I had to tell them SEVERAL times we would be waiting. They even went so far as to say that they notice that babies that wait too long to begin solids just never really eat well. It really bothered me, but I kept reminding myself these were older ladies and they raised their children under a different set of guidelines. We stuck to our guns and introduced solids on our own terms, regardless of all their comments. Now at 7.5 months they say he's the best eater in the class... Gee, could that possibly be because we waited until he was ready to start solids?

@Mamabolt good luck! I think it's a great idea to bring some info on BLW.

Focusing on the positives, it does seem nice that they are picking up on your LOs cues and concerned with her seeming hungry between feedings. Maybe point out that, this early on, you wouldn't expect consumption of solids to really affect her bottle schedule anyways because so much of it would just pass through her. You could definitely offer more oz of milk per bottle, though, and see if she takes it.

LO is 8 months and just in the last few weeks we've really seen an increase in the amount she is interested in eating. She's still taking a bottle/nursing at the same frequency/amount, although is more randomly leaving a couple ounces than before when she would always finish each one.

@KayKay: Our LO did this too, we were just having them feed her lunch, and they said at breakfast she would crawl over and try to get the other kids food. We took it as a sign she was hungry for breakfast!