Moving on from purees - help!

[spritzer]

I cannot believe I am being rubbish with this She is my third baby and is 8.5 months and still on real baby puree I have told myself it is because she has been really poorly for the last two months but I now have to pull myself together and start her on chunkier stuff.

So, please give me your best tips for easy eating. Can she just gnaw on a piece of bread or a couple of cooked pasta swirls?

I just cannot remember what to do!!! The boys keep asking if she can have a bit of hot cross bun etc and I am saying no but I know it's me being a control freak

I think my plan is to put her in her high chair when we are eating and let her experiment with a few things, whilst still feeding her proper meals as she is hungry and I can't leave her to just BLW now as she is used to eating a proper amount of food not just practising with it.

I know I've got a mental block over this.

TIA

[claireh]

I would give bits of finger foods yes. I found thinks like toast, banana and rice cakes good for early munching.

For the mush what about making slightly chunkier? There is an anabel Karmel butternut squash risotto recipes that I added chicken to that was quite a good inbetween food. It had lumps but soft lumps iykwim. For things like spag bolg I would purée the ragu so that it was smoothish and then I added pasta stars.

[Oana]

I'd give her some bits to play with at dinner, she'll probably pick it up much quicker than your think as you have older children. I wouldn't restrict anything you give her unless there are allergies but give her a selection from your plate.
DS1 gave DS2 some hot cross bun about a month ago funnily enough
Could you mash her food with a fork so it begins to get lumpier in texture?
Another thing to try is spread some puréed food on toast so she is used to the flavour & texture but may help her tackle some solid food?

[TopStar]

Start slowly if you are worried. Bread sticks, toast fingers, cheese sticks are good.
When you purée stuff just do less puréeing, so same food she has eaten / likes but diff texture.
Give her food to handle like cooked pasta, spaghetti.
The more you relax the better eaters they are, ime.

[DDM]

Thanks for posting this Spritzer - H is a similar age and I have a mental block too. I wish I could remember from the first time.

I've been giving him very small bits of toast, small pasta pieces etc and the odd bit of finely chopped banana/strawberry/pear but I really need to start giving him more variety of actual food.

[spritzer]

Thanks everyone. I am biting the bullet and bought some rice cakes and she's going to have some chunks of banana. I think I'll mash her food up with a few more chunks when I next make a batch and see how she is.

Poor little deprived girl

[Sam]

I'm sure she won't have come to much harm - it's the same food just a different texture I'm sure she'll be nibbling away in no time