Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

milliebear00001

Actually, you didn't ask for advice about early weaning, you asked for advice about what signs there are that your baby might be ready - I answered with some viewpoints that I felt you might not have considered.

I NEVER said you shouldn't feed him til 6 months - I actually stated that if you did he would probably be fine. I NEVER said you were damaging your baby's health - I simply asked what you have to gain from early weaning. Seems to me you have read my posts as criticism when they were meant to be helpful - not just to you, but to whoever else might be taking part in this discussion and facing similar issues. In return, you have been downright rude and defensive without justification.

I don't know what other issues you have faced in terms of feeling judged by others, but I suspect they don't end with this Board - your response has been totally disproportional.

Spendless

what about moving onto lumpier food from 7 months? Has that been changed too? Both my HV said the lumpier food was to help develop speech by exercising muscles in the tongue I think they said.

When I weaned mine at 4 months, there seemed plenty of time to get them used to eating from a spoon, trying different tastes, increasing amounts of solids before moving onto lumpier food 3 months later. Are you still told to do this?

nadnad

"Actually, you didn't ask for advice about early weaning, you asked for advice about what signs there are that your baby might be ready - I answered with some viewpoints that I felt you might not have considered.

I NEVER said you shouldn't feed him til 6 months - I actually stated that if you did he would probably be fine. I NEVER said you were damaging your baby's health - I simply asked what you have to gain from early weaning. Seems to me you have read my posts as criticism when they were meant to be helpful - not just to you, but to whoever else might be taking part in this discussion and facing similar issues. In return, you have been downright rude and defensive without justification.

I don't know what other issues you have faced in terms of feeling judged by others, but I suspect they don't end with this Board - your response has been totally disproportional."



actually everyone i know told me to wean him earlier than 17 weeks - friends family, the h.v even hinted at it as did my GP although neither actually came out and said it until he was 17 weeks.

i don't know what i'm getting annoyed about - must be the tiredness - because i've just reread the thread and every person who answered bar about 8 started spoon feeding long before 26 weeks. Some as early as 4 weeks up to 5 months. Nobody else got annoyed only me, so sorry about that.

you are of course entitled to your opinion, and you gave it.

and you are right i did ask whether my child start to wake every 2 hours was a sign that he needed more than milk. your response was that it was prob a growth spurt. which we have established its not as it was happening for 2 months basically. you asked what i gain from weaning this early, apart from not having to feed so often, well i gain a happier little boy. you mentioned having teeth and losing the gag reflex are not indicators. well according to many sites and info leaflets regarding weaning the following are indicators:-

• being unsatisfied after a full milk feed
• demanding increasing and more frequent milk feeds
• weight gain slowing or levelling out without a period of illness to explain why
• after a period of sleeping through the night, your baby begins waking because he/she is hungry

lifted from bupa website,

kellymom also mentions an interest in food, the ability to lift food and baby losing tongue thrust reflex.

the same list is repeated time and time again, together with the fact that if your baby is willing to eat the food then its a good sign.

so i'm happy in myself that my boy was ready for a little bit extra.

milliebear00001

Spendless wrote: »

what about moving onto lumpier food from 7 months? Has that been changed too? Both my HV said the lumpier food was to help develop speech by exercising muscles in the tongue I think they said.

When I weaned mine at 4 months, there seemed plenty of time to get them used to eating from a spoon, trying different tastes, increasing amounts of solids before moving onto lumpier food 3 months later. Are you still told to do this?

When I had my son, 2 years ago, the advice was still to move them quickly on fro puree at 6 months to lumpier food at 7 months to get the chewing and speaking muscles going - I think that's still 'official advice'. There is a growing movement now towards Baby Led Weaning though, where you don't puree at all and just give them smaller (less salty etc!) bits of what you're having. They pick it up and stuff it in themselves! I was pretty suspicious of this, but my second hated purees and so I gave it a go, and it seems to work. It's pretty funny to see a 6 month old picking up and eating a bit of broccoli though.

nadnad

Spendless wrote: »

what about moving onto lumpier food from 7 months? Has that been changed too? Both my HV said the lumpier food was to help develop speech by exercising muscles in the tongue I think they said.

When I weaned mine at 4 months, there seemed plenty of time to get them used to eating from a spoon, trying different tastes, increasing amounts of solids before moving onto lumpier food 3 months later. Are you still told to do this?

even at 6 months or a couple of weeks after you start you are told to introduce food you would eat yourself, just mashed up, and the baby should be able to chew soft lumps even if they have no teeth. also finger foods can be given from this time (toast, peeled apple, banana etc) - and yes its to help the speech muscles.

Floxxie

nadnad wrote: »

you see this is the problem you have when commenting on other people's choices - you do not know nor could you know the circumstances. my baby does not sleep well during the day. he never has. from he was a week old he will maybe have a couple of cat naps during the day and nothing will convince him to sleep for longer. i've tried darkened rooms quiet rooms, long long walks everything but this little boy hates to sleep. he will cry and cry and pull his face and do everything he can think of to stay awake during the day. he's incredibly inquisitive - the health visitor and doctor can't get over him as he's been this way from day 1.

so you see if he does not sleep at night he is grumpy the next day because nothing can convince him to close his little eyes and have a rest. :rolleyes: :mad:

I can really sympathise with you on this. My DS1 slept at the most for 30 minutes at a time. When he wasn't sleeping he was feeding or screaming. I didn't ask for any help as I thought that was how babies were. It's no wonder I went back to work when he was 11 weeks old (not by choice - had to take job or be jobless!)
I found that if I lay him on his front he would sleep for longer so that's what I did - figuring out his birth had probably hurt his neck and back of his head. As for the feeding it turned out that he had glue ear and was sucking on the bottle to relieve the pressure although it took 18 months to find this out.

Weaning him didn't help - he ate everything and had copious amounts of milk but still no change. My OH was surviving on Rocket Fuel coffee!
The first night DS1 slept through was June 17th 2003 when he was 2 1/2 and even now he is guaranteed to wake up at least once in the night.

Hope you get some sleep soon.

Floxxie

nadnad

well the hv could find nothing wrong with him and the doctor couldnt either, so looks like i've got a very nosey little boy who hates missing out on things so refuses to sleep, and also one who likes to eat - a lot! i am shattered, and have tried him on a bottle but he wont take it. he knows what he likes and it comes in the shape of my boob! pity my oh can't lactate i've read about men who do, i've tried the power of thought but them little man nipples havent produced anything useful yet!

Spendless

Thank you for your replies milliebear and nadnad. Then I have to say weaning how you do at 6 months today IS'NT the same as how I was told to at four months. (I am saying *I* because I've never watched another mum wean). You built up to it a lot slower because you had 3 months before you got to the lumpier food stage. My youngest is 5yo so my memory is sketchy, but IIRC after a couple of weeks, you might still only be on a few spoonfuls of baby rice (or fruit/veg puree).

I'm mentioning this as I'm aware there has been a conflict of opinion on this thread;) and perhaps this needs taking into account when people are saying their babies were fine weaned at a younger age, it was being done a lot slower as they weren't building to the lumpier stage a month later.

funky-footprints

it was ages before we intruduced lumps n bumps, we mixed with a bit of baby led weaning, mainly on holidays when we were a lot more chilled, and also we were earting different sorts of food.

must admit (to the original poster) my halo is not perfect, (my children are however ..lol ) i think some posters seem to forget that not all babies are text book, some just seem to like hearing thier own voice !

nadnad

i agree with you spendless, i think if you start weaning at 6 months and then introduce all the lumps and bumps within a week or 2 it seems quite fast. i intend to only feed my LO baby rice for about another week or so (so that will be nearly 4 weeks of just baby rice) and then introduce carrot, sweet potato etc and then once he gets to the 6 month mark (he's 20weeks now) then i'll start with the lumpier food and finger foods.