Yey Lucas! He's obviously strong Megan, if he can sit on his own. Hope you are pushing away that bug with lots of positive thoughts.

V - It's my understanding that all health professionals recommend cow's milk as a drink only after 12m. I can't imagine a hospital giving it to them before then - maybe it is formula? Autie has been quite good with the non-pureed stuff. I still mash it, but I make sure to leave some lumps and that whatever it is, it is soft, not hard lumps. I started with normal mashed potato and pumpkin. There is some great info on baby led weaning if you just do a google search. Basically, it says that pureed food is traditional because babies used to be introduced to solids at a much earlier age and didn't have the head control and tongue movements for real food. But as they are now saying 6m, they should be able to cope with soft finger foods and even normal adult variations of meals without too much trouble right from the start. I gave Autie a piece of avocado and sweet potato today that she didn't have too much problem with, just a few small gags at first. Then tonight I gave her a broccoli floret steamed real soft. It was hilarious. She kept putting it up to her lips and then shaking her head and putting it back down for ages so I just let her keep playing with it and about 10mins later she put it in her mouth and sucked away without any problem at all. You have to supervise well of course. Apparently, second and third babies are often accidently introduced to solids this way because of older siblings. I'd love to know if anyone here has had that happen, and how it went for you.