Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

kidtechnical

Woby_Tide wrote:

no worries on that front, even with his new meal at lunchtime he still takes c.30oz per day, he actually had his smallest weekly weight increase so far which was a bit bizarre last week!

I think that's quite normal, even if you make sure that they get lots of milk they inevitibly replace some calories for the solids so their weight gains can even out a bit. But then they also slow down their weight gains at around this time anyway, I read somewhere that if they continued their growth curve they'd be 10 times the size of the sum...I think it may happen with my youngest

Melanie_Stainforth

We weaned our two boys from 4 months (they're now 1+3yrs), in fact I think the temptation to wean our 2nd was too great and we started somewhere in the 3rd month.
The breakfast bottle was supplemented with a rusk, mixed in with the warm formula milk. Bananas and milk biscuits were soon to follow. We cracked open the 1st jar of 4mnth rice pudding the day they turned 4mnths and other jars were soon to follow.
I recall one of the hardest things was keeping the food in their mouths - since they often pushed it back out again as they toyed with the new sensation.
I ended up favouring a Heinz range of food which was labelled as 'recommended by mums' or 'mums favourite'.. they both adored these!
With the cost of food jars so high though, at about 6mnths we invested in a blender and blended whatever meal we were having ourselves. This has certainly eased their introduction to 'normal' food and we find they'll eat pretty much anything that we eat nowadays.

stardoman

Did weaning work for everyone then? I was just wondering, because I started my 2 boys on solids at 4 months due to them waking more often and it didn't make any difference to their sleep pattern at all. They just kept waking. My oldest child, who had never had colic, wind or constipation, ended up with really bad wind and constipation to the point where I stopped the weaning and returned to milk only. He was screaming in pain and the only thing which helped was putting pressure on his tummy. I did this 3 times before he seemed to tolerate what I was giving him. This also happened to my cousin's daughter and she ended up in hospital with a blockage.

With my second child, who is now 4, I'd heard of the WHO recommendation of 6 months and decided to delay weaning until then. However, he was waking so much at 4 months I decided to start weaning. Although he didn't have such a reaction as my older child, it didn't make any difference to his sleep pattern.

The only things which improved his sleep was to co-sleep and I also found that a warm (not hot) hot water bottle placed next to him, ontop of his covers seemed to settle him for longer (I always liked him to start the night in his cot and then when he woke for the first time I'd bring him into our bed for the rest of the night).

Judging by the number of posts I've seen on various parenting websites and discussions with friends, it seems the majority of much older babies still regularly wake at night, so I think there must be more to it than just food. I read somewhere than 80% of 1 year olds still wake regularly at night.

Rather than weaning in the hope of your baby sleeping longer, you could try gradually moving his bedtime back a bit, so you can benefit from the long bit of sleep at the start of the night. I used to go to bed at the same time as mine so that if they slept for 6 hours at the start of the night, I would at least get that 6 hours of sleep too. Remember that when health professionals talk about sleeping through they only actually mean a 5 hour block of sleep, not the 10-12 hours us parents expect. As they started sleeping long, I'd gradually make the bedtime earlier so that I could have some time without the baby. I also read recently that babies who get some fresh air between 12pm and 4pm sleep better at night. Many babies don't get this because we go everywhere in cars.

Your description of your baby dribbling, sucking on everything etc. made me wonder if he was teething rather than hungry, so maybe this is something else to consider. Both my children got their first tooth at 20 weeks.

HTH. Mandy.

kidtechnical

Hi StardomanI do breastfeeding peer support & somewhere amongst all my litereature is some research that found that introducing solids made little or no difference to sleep patterns. I found this interesting because HV often use it as a guide to rediness for solids. It seems to be a bit of an urban myth that introducing solids will induce a full nights sleep and one that many HVs are happy to go along with (and no doubt the people who make the weaning foods are delighted!). If you're interested I can dig out the info & let you see it. And you're absolutely right that a full night sleep is 5 hrs, not 12, unfortunately people have absurd expectations of how their babies should behave sleepwise.

stardoman wrote:

Did weaning work for everyone then? I was just wondering, because I started my 2 boys on solids at 4 months due to them waking more often and it didn't make any difference to their sleep pattern at all. They just kept waking. My oldest child, who had never had colic, wind or constipation, ended up with really bad wind and constipation to the point where I stopped the weaning and returned to milk only. He was screaming in pain and the only thing which helped was putting pressure on his tummy. I did this 3 times before he seemed to tolerate what I was giving him. This also happened to my cousin's daughter and she ended up in hospital with a blockage.

With my second child, who is now 4, I'd heard of the WHO recommendation of 6 months and decided to delay weaning until then. However, he was waking so much at 4 months I decided to start weaning. Although he didn't have such a reaction as my older child, it didn't make any difference to his sleep pattern.

The only things which improved his sleep was to co-sleep and I also found that a warm (not hot) hot water bottle placed next to him, ontop of his covers seemed to settle him for longer (I always liked him to start the night in his cot and then when he woke for the first time I'd bring him into our bed for the rest of the night).

Judging by the number of posts I've seen on various parenting websites and discussions with friends, it seems the majority of much older babies still regularly wake at night, so I think there must be more to it than just food. I read somewhere than 80% of 1 year olds still wake regularly at night.

Rather than weaning in the hope of your baby sleeping longer, you could try gradually moving his bedtime back a bit, so you can benefit from the long bit of sleep at the start of the night. I used to go to bed at the same time as mine so that if they slept for 6 hours at the start of the night, I would at least get that 6 hours of sleep too. Remember that when health professionals talk about sleeping through they only actually mean a 5 hour block of sleep, not the 10-12 hours us parents expect. As they started sleeping long, I'd gradually make the bedtime earlier so that I could have some time without the baby. I also read recently that babies who get some fresh air between 12pm and 4pm sleep better at night. Many babies don't get this because we go everywhere in cars.

Your description of your baby dribbling, sucking on everything etc. made me wonder if he was teething rather than hungry, so maybe this is something else to consider. Both my children got their first tooth at 20 weeks.

HTH. Mandy.

stardoman

"Hi StardomanI do breastfeeding peer support & somewhere amongst all my litereature is some research that found that introducing solids made little or no difference to sleep patterns. I found this interesting because HV often use it as a guide to rediness for solids. It seems to be a bit of an urban myth that introducing solids will induce a full nights sleep and one that many HVs are happy to go along with (and no doubt the people who make the weaning foods are delighted!). If you're interested I can dig out the info & let you see it. And you're absolutely right that a full night sleep is 5 hrs, not 12, unfortunately people have absurd expectations of how their babies should behave sleepwise"

Hi,

Yes, I'd be interested to see this. I'm currently pregnant with number 3 and know I'll need something to keep me going when this baby hits the waking stage.

Mandy (due 2 weeks today).

scooper

i have a 5 month old girl, and was wondering how other parents were feeding their baby's.
how much food a day?how many times?.
she is a good eater and was wondering if i am giving her too much/little

jenpoptab

hi scooper,

I've just started feeding my 5 month old & I have been wondering same thing. Health visitor says she still needs 20 oz of milk per day, incl what goes into food.

As my little one has only just started weaning I thought I should slowly increase to three times a day but HV says I need to get her up to 3 meals a day quickly as she isn't really putting weight on.

It's amazing how much you forget. My 1st daughter is only 2 and it seems like an eternity ago that she was weaning!

At minute I'm using powder as I only started on Mon. I'm just giving her a couple of teaspoons of dry mix per feed. I hope to do some puree's this week and then I will start with a couple of ice cubes worth per meal and see how it goes from there.

Hope it goes well for you.

Jen

Nikki

It's been a while since I've been at that stage(youngest is now 5) but I would say be guided by your baby's appetite, if she's happy you're getting it right. Most babies will be different anyway, my oldest was a hungry baby and was on solids from 3mths and ate loads, my daughter was not so hungry and was weaned at 16 weeks, my youngest had no interest in solid food until i quit breastfeeding at 6mths. Solids 3x a day plus bottles in between would be a rough guide i think, she'll let you know when she's had enough.

Moose_2

Hi,
My little 'un used to eat a whole jar of porridge for breakfast, my own mix of mash and swede, carrots etc for lunch which was the same amount as you get in a jar and then for tea she would have a mix of something from the Heinz packet range. In between that she would have a yoghurt or mini rusk. She did eat quite alot.
Easiest thing to do is make up your own and freeze it in ice cube trays. If one cube isn't enough you can always do another.
She'll let you know when she's had enough.

scooper

thanks for all the replys,i do have a nearly 4 year old son, but as nikki says, but it is amazing how quickly you forget isnt it?
although with him i has to wean him early as he had reflux problems with milk.
sophie my baby has a 6oz bottle in the morning, mid morning she will have breakfast which is heinz powered breakfast orange, dinner is nearly full jar of food with a pudding few spoons full, juice.tea is the same as dinner only it is my own food.
then a bottle af 7oz at around 7-8 and then 11-1200 she will have another bottle.
she loves her food eh?