When to start solid food?

My baby will be 5 months on Monday. There is so much conflicting information of the internet. It mostly says you can start at 4 months but it seems 6 months is the preferred time. I tried a little bit of carrot with my daughter the other day, but we mostly just played with it. She was kinda grumpy to begin with so she wasn’t too into the whole event

Personally I would just wait until 6 months, they eat so little when they start solids that they receive basically no nutritional benefit from it so it’s not worth risking filling them up on purées which might lead them to reduce their milk intake before 6 months, especially if they were pre term.

If you start at 6 months you can skip purées altogether and go straight to BLW. X

People used to start weaning at 4 months but then research showed it was better to wait until 6 months. Lots of people get swayed either by older relatives saying “we weaned you at 4 months and you were fine” or by the baby food industry who don’t want to miss out on £££s and therefore still advertise their food as as 4 months +.
As your baby was born pre-term I’d check with your doctor or health visitor whether to wait until 6 months or 6 months corrected.
Lots of info about weaning here 😊 https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/weaning/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_mvBhDwARIsAA-Q0Q6gP7r7nObRSsZPo2lnu1tnnWebDDiiqu0SQ-GXPIN1DMbZl8UIoegaAgxgEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I wouldn’t start now, will think about it when he turns 6 months and will consult a paediatrician first.