My two children could not be any different. They are complete opposites in every way. We practise child led solids (CLS)… at least I thought we did. With Mary I said that we did CLS and it worked great, she was hardly interested in food at 12 months, never mind 6! I watched for all the signs, pincher grasp, sitting unassisted, interested in us eating…. she wasn’t interested. At all. We would give her little bits of whatever we were eating but she would rarely want more than a taste. She didn’t start eating regular meals until around 16-18 months. Enter Luke… I figured we would do the same thing as Mary and let him lead the way. Well if I did that Luke would have been eating solids 3 months ago! That kid sat unassisted at 4 months and has been staring us down while we eat since then too. I don’t believe that starting kids on solid food is early is good for them, especially when it is just rice cereal. If I had my way I would wait until 9 or 10 months to start them on foods like avacado and other healthy veggies. However, that isn’t child led solids is it? Luke’s situation really made me question how we wanted to do this for our kids. Do I truly want to do child led solids? If I do I am going to have to let Luke start having something to eat while we do (he started pitching fits every time he saw us eating because he wanted some). After discussing it with Nathaniel we decided to start giving him some veggies and seeing how he did. He had his first foods the week he turned 6 months old and let me tell you, he is the happiest kid on the block! Finally my babysafe feeder and my foodmill are getting lots of use… Mary wanted nothing to do with either of them. Luke has had avacado, sweet potato, pumpkin, pear… pretty much any veggie we eat he is eating now. I threw a handful of peas on his tray last night and he totally went to town! It was harder than I thought it would be to start him on solids, he is growing so fast and it makes me sad. It was easy to say we do CLS when it was Mary and she was doing it how I wanted it anyway… it was harder to let go and let Luke lead the way and give him the same freedom I gave Mary but I’m glad we did, this boy LOVES food!