im just wondering if there is a reason i can't start giving elijah little bits of toast, boiled egg etc....

he has been on fruit/veg/cereal purees for a month now almost, and desperately wants to do it all himself (has always wanted to from his first meal but i dont let him cos he pushes the spoon down his throat...hm!). he is also still trying to grab food from our hands so i feel finger foods might be of interest to him....

are there any safety reasons why i cant? he doesn't have any toothypegs yet but hasn't rejected anything we have fed him at all (except mango - yuck!)

Nope non at all - BLW aims to start at 6 months, its around that time they are able to hold food and put it in their mouth

Give it a go - try to cut things into mouthful size portions at the start because he might not be able to bite things off

i started ava on finger foods at 6 months for the same reasons, i've had no probs with it.

thanks ladies....pinky, did you put ava in her highchair when she was eating finger foods? i think it might be better for eli as he will be sat up, and i dont want him to get into the habit of not sitting 'at a table' of sorts...or did you let her eat as she was playing?

im sort of wary about making mealtimes an event if you know what i mean, but also want elijah to know when he is having food and that that is mealtimes (although i wouldnt say i am setting a good example )

ava was a bit too small to put in her highchair as she couldnt reach the tray, she has a an entertaiment centre with a removable keyboard so i put the food onto that for her to grab. She goes into her highchair now for meals but for snacks she just sits on the floor and happily munches away.

Go for it hun! I started weaning Hannah at a similar time to you and Eli and tbh she has had chunks of banana and steamed carrot sticks since the start really (infact she had banana before I even started thanks to her ever so helful big brother ). In the last week I have introduced buttered toast crusts and organix carrot sticks and she had a munch on one of my roast tatties last sunday . She sits in her highchair for all food although yesterday I did find her rolling around the floor with a chunk of Thomas's toast in her trap that he had very kindly given her whilst I was washing up, I can't turn my back for a second! xx

hahaha its nice to have a little helper! i was thinking of the thomas incident today and thought hmmm well hannah was smaller than eli when that happened - i think next time he is trying to steal something i will just let him have it, and give him a bit of banana tomorrow

we also have some of these (well, the ones we havent already eaten ) http://www.ellaskitchen.co.uk/baby-cookies/ they say 7 months but i guess that's just a guide?

I bought some of those mari and they're really hard, ava threw hers away in the end out of frustration (maybe i had a dodgy box). She loves the organix crumbly rusk ones
http://www.organix-shop.co.uk/finger-foods-14-c.asp

rice cakes are a great finger food too, i snap them in half to make them easier to hold.

tylers favourite finger foods at that age were steamed sticks of carrot and broccoli (they hsould be sticks so that they can hold it with the hwole of their fist but still have some to get in to their mouth) sweet potato sticks, pitta bread, avocado
steamed pear and apple or any other fruit and veg.

I'd be wary of giving toast and banana (toast more so than banana) because it will probably bung him up! rusk is good but that also made tyler constipated.

they were quite tasty, but yeah quite hard...i wonder if i could find a ripe avocado atm...steamed things are definitely easy to do and we only have wholemeal bread so i guess it wouldn't bung him up too much but its really just to help him join in when we are eating for now