Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

black-saturn

Don't take this the wrong way but a baby is like a dog in many ways. If you give a dog expensive dog food for a week and then suddenly go back to the cheap version they will go without eating for a few days but eventually eat when they get really hungry. Well it's the same for a baby. Just keep offering your home made food and eventually he will eat it.

I had the opposite problem in that neither of them would eat anything out of a jar.

Madmel

Something else you could try is either mixing the butternut squash type foods with the things you want him to eat. I used to do this with potatoes as mine only liked sweet potatoes. At first it was 90% sweet, 10% normal, but I gradually introduced more normal potato until there was just a whiff of sweet potato

Alternatively, put a tiny amount of the sweeter puree from the jar on the front of the spoon with the home-made stuff at the back. Often bubs will open their mouth good & wide for the yummy jar and take in the home-made too. It looks disgusting, but it certainly works.

I agree with previous posters about the bottle. If you want to give formula, at this age don't bother with a bottle as you then have the trauma of getting rid of it later. Choose a brightly coloured cup with a soft spout and I'm sure it will be fine. It's hard getting them to take formula if you are there, so is there someone else who could get him used to it whilst you are out of the room?

When DD2 first went to nursery she was 18 weeks old. She would eat some pureed fruit & veg but had never had any other milk than mine. I started her then because I am a teacher and I thought it would be easier to go back to work at the start of the Autumn term. The very wise & experienced lady in her room used to feed bf babies by putting them on her lap and facing them into the general noise & hubbub of the room. She woiuld waft the teat or pout in front of them, and usually the baby would be so distracted by the atmosphere that they would chomp or suck on the milk and be fine. Of course as soon as mummy appears, they would howl as if they had been starved, but that's the joy of being a parent Good luck

BernadetteN

Sorry I haven't read the replies fully, sorry if I am repeating here? Have you tried finger food rather than pureed/mashed veg/fruit? Perhaps finger food dipped into the purees you have frozen?

Our 2 eldest were weaned in 1996 and 1998 when 4 months was considered the earliest weaning time and so were brought up on purees for the first few weeks, Our 2 youngest were weaned in 2002 and 2006 when 6 months was considered the earliest weaning time and the 2 youngest have just gone straight in to mashed food and finger food. I much preferred weaning at 6 months because it meant less time preparing purees and spoon feeding. Our 17 month old holds her own fork and spoon perfectly now, better than the 10 year old sometimes and I put it down to different weaning experience....so perhaps finger foods may be the way forward.

When it comes to milk, perhaps your baby just doesn't like formula? Have oyu checked the problem is not with the container or with the contents? Have you tried expressed milk in a bottle or cup to check it's the container? Perhaps it's just a case of finding a cup that your child likes. Bottle feeders frequently say that they get through a shop's worth of teats and bottles before finding ones that their babies are comfortable with.

Our eldest 2 went straight from breastfed milk to water or cows milk in a lidded cup at around 6 months. The youngest 2 just hate cows milk and drink just water!!! I couldn't persuade them to drink milk in any form, other than breast milk. Some kids just don't like milk and the calcium has to be made up in other ways. It's a pain but I have to get loads of natural yoghurt and cheese instead.

PS You could always try putting your own food into empty jars, if you are feeding directly from the jars, you never know your baby may be reading the labels, so maybe you could pretend you are feeding jar food!

fsdss

what i would do is wean him off jar'd food by mixing it half and half with your home made.

no 2. normal for a baby to react like this with a beaker / cup, he is just developing his co- ordination. also i would express milk rather than introduce formula as he is unlikely to take it now

MonkeySaving?

Nipple everytime!! Bittty!

Cruiksl

Hi,

I had a similar problem with DD. She refused all homemade food when she was being weaned and I ended up feeding her on jars. She's now made a total turnaround and hate processed food and prefers home made.

I went through a terrible guilt trip until a woman I'd known for years (she had 5 girls) had a chat with me when I was heating a jar. She'd spoken to the dr about one of her girls and had felt the guilt trip of not feeding her lo homemade food to which the dr replied - do you think they spend hundreds of thousands of pounds developing these products for them not to be ok ! I used to feel dreadful though watching my mates pull out the homemade stuff as I brought out my jar !

Good luck !

Trying_to_Budget

Hi

Have you so far only given your baby water from a cup? I ask this because my 11 month old (breastfed) daughter barely drinks any water we try and give her,(after every meal) but happily takes expressed milk from a cup!
She takes great pleasure in spitting any water we give her back at us, or letting it all dribble out..lovely child.

As far as jars are concerned, I give both and not personally had problems, but I remember a friend of mine saying her daughter went through a stage of only eating from jars, but she did grow out of it.

HTH

rls1973

dd1 would love apple and carrot puree (hidden veg?)could try that
(dd2 would only eat out of a jar!)
saw ben elton on paul ogrady the other day, saying they get the frozen chopped spinach, defrost it, then mix it into other foods a bit at a time. worth a try?!

MrFlibble

Hi - hoping for some good advice here from people more clued up than me

Our son is 4 months old (well, 4 months and a few weeks) and we're starting to think about moving him onto things like baby rice - the question is, what's the best way to go about this?

At the moment he has a 7oz bottle every two to three hours,and he's fed when he's hungry, he hasn't got any problems in sleeping through the night (goes to bed between 7 and 8pm, and will sleep right through till maybe 6:30/7:00 am) Everyone I tell that to hates me with envy!

What's the best way to introduce something like baby rice, into his diet? It'll just be a spoonfull or so to begin with, and supplemented with his milk for the time being (how long should we do this for though?)

What's the best time to introduce him to the rice? breakfast time, or bed time? We've got a high chair for him at the weekend, but he's not quite at the stage of sitting up by himself yet, so we thought we'd pop him in his bouncer, and go from there?

Are we trying to introduce him to baby rice a little too early? Some have recommended waiting till 26 weeks if possible, but I doubt he can hold out that long, he's a very tall baby and needs his grub!

Thanks for any advice

Rachie_B

if he is still being satisfied my milk then there is no hurry to wean him onto "solids"

HVs etc now recommend waiting until nearer 6 months

If you are going to go ahead with it,then "sandwich" a spoonful of rice inbetween milk,at a time when he is wide awake and not grouchy / sleepy etc

at first its just learning process,to push the food to back of mouth,so not much will go down ! in fact most of it comes out and you retrieve it from their chin lol

but they soon get the hang of it
and once baby has been having one solid meal a day and is fine with that

then you can start to introduce another until within a few months he will be on 3 solid meals a day, with milk feed usually 2/3 times a day ,depending on his intake,you can always add milk to his food

feeding him in the bouncer is a good idea,just be equipped with muslins / cloths etc as if he sneezes with food in his mouth you will know about it lol

good luck !