I gave my babies their own spoon whilst I had one too, so they can try whilst I give proper spoonfuls. & as for texture, mind went straight in for soft solid e.g over cooked corrots/broccoli/boiled potatoes etc. If you're too anxious maybe gradually change the consistency, this week puree, in a week or 2 just squish with a fork then chopped up with knife & fork. You'll get there, I'm 2 kids in & still winging it most days 😂
My son now 18 months struggled woth food so he had puree food complelty until he was 1 then he managed to go to slightly lumpy and I mean slightly anything to big (pea size) he would projectile vomit however at about 14 months he just stsrted eating everything all of a sudden now he doesn't stop is only slightly fussy but eats pretty much anything I give him pr atleast tries it
I was the same with my grandson and weaning him. He’ll have soft mashed up food and the baby snacks that go squishy when he puts them in his mouth. Tried him with the odd chip but he chokes sometimes as he tries to ram the whole thing in before he’s swallowed the last piece of I buy the 7+ month jars from Heinz which have small lumps and tiny chunks of food in to get him chewing. It also depends kn what health visitor you get. One of the ones we had right at the start was “no you can’t do this and that” and another one was “that’s fine”. They’re trained on how things should be not how things are and every baby is different in how they develop x
We’re doing purées (blended meals) at almost 8 months still, with just the melt in the mouth puff snacks as finger food. Think I’m going to gradually start making them lumpier with the odd finger food as well. I was puree fed and eat everything now and have no aversions to anything. It’s fine if you want to do finger foods but it’s all so new that I don’t know how they can say that’s the only way of doing it! Do what you’re comfortable with
HV are there to help but take what you want from their advise at the end of the day as long as you are fed you're doing amazing. I was fed the old fashioned way where I had basically purees and soft food until 1, I will eat basically everything, or at least try it before going nope (admitidly I've had a few picky stages as a kid, as I'm sure everyone has, but I grew to love most foods and only some textures make my brain go nope! Like hallumi my brain hates the squeak but I love hallumi so I eat it usually listening to music).