Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

onlyroz

My daughter is now seven months old and I want to stop breastfeeding her (those dang teeth :mad:). For the last few months she's been on a mixed feeding pattern - breastfeed first thing, a bottle mid morning, solid lunch with water to wash it down, bottle mid afternoon, breastfeed when I get back from work, solid dinner and a breastfeed before bed.

However, I've just read the side of the formula tin for the first time in a while, and it says she only need three 7oz bottles a day. This doesn't seem like much to me - and I'm now not sure of the times I should be giving her the bottles. Presumably one first thing and the other just before bed, but what about the third? I would have thought it better to give her four smaller bottles, with the daytime ones given mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Any advice?

moiramber

Hiya

My son is almost 7 months too but has no teeth!Although I currently express all feeds and feed him through a bottle (but thats another story!) Can I ask if you follow a weaning guide at all? I use the gina ford one and that gives times of when to feed solids and when to feed milk etc. I'll tell you our routine to try and help

7am - milk
8am - Breakfast
11.30/12 - lunch - with water
2.30 - milk
5pm - tea
6.30 - milk
7pm - bed

If your daughter is having so much milk during the day do you think you are possibly not giving her enought solids? I find it really hard to get the whole solids/milk balance right and struggle sometimes if I've given too much solids then my son doesn't have very much milk! Althought maybe if you're daughter is breastfeeding she is doing it more for comfort? Or is only having small feeds each time? Hope this helps a bit!

onlyroz

Isn't Gina Ford the one who's really militant about routines? I tend to prefer to be a bit more flexible, but my daughter starts back at nursery next week (after a two week break) so I need to decide how much food to send her in with. My current thinking is to go with four smaller bottles a day. Maybe four 5oz bottles. So that would be:

7:30 bottle
8am solid breakfast
10:30 bottle
Noon solid lunch with water
2:30-3pm bottle
5:30-6pm solid dinner with water
7pm bottle then bed

Sound sensible? The 10:30 and 2:30 bottles, and lunch, would be given by the nursery staff (she's in the nursery from 9-4.

moiramber

Gina ford is perceived as being "militant about routines" but personally I love the idea of sticking to some sort of routine. How strict you choose to be with it is up to yourself. We follow her routine as a guideline but generally things change on a day to day basis depending on what time my son gets up etc and if he's hungry I will feed him.

I think weaning is all trial and error so just do what works for you, You will learn what works and what doesn't. I am chopping and changing things all the time to try and get things to work better for us. Every child is differnt so let your child lead you

Krystaltips

The information given on the side of the tin is only a guide, do what you feel will work best for you and your daughter. If that's smaller bottles more frequently then go with it.

onlyroz

Thanks for the advice. I really should know all this because I went through it with my son (now 4), but at the same age my son was barely sleeping through the night, and I think any routine went completely out the window. My daughter is just so more compliant, and just goes with the flow, that I haven't really thought too much until now about whether I'm feeding her the right amount or not. I guess, with mixed feeding, it's harder to know how many bottles she should be getting, because I've got no idea how much breastmilk she's been getting.

angelicmary85

Hiya,

I kept my wee lassie in a routine that was really basic but I'm not sure if I done the right thing or not as now she will barely eat outwith the house! She has to be in her own booster at the table with her own cutlery... She won't even sleep anywhere but her own bed!

Routines are fab as it made the days run alot smoother but I would suggest not being to military about it.

Bear_family

Hi,

I'm not sure if there is a thread about this already, so if someone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

My little one has reached 3 months and, although he's not ready for weaning yet, he's such a hungry baby I'm sure it won't be long.

I understand the basic idea of starting with baby rice and introducing one meal a day of a certain fruit or veg and so on until babies have tried everything, but my point is when they are basically able to eat whatever we eat what sort of things do people give their babies at lunchtime - when it's not then main mealtime.

I was thinking things like scrambled egg, but could do with some more ideas for quick meals please? I really don't want to have to be cooking twice a day and I don't want to be relying on frozen meals of potatoes or veg cooked from previous meals or buying jars (as they are too expensive). I also don't want to do the whole finger food bit, as I'm sure most of it just ends up on the floor!

Hubby and I are veggie but eat most fish, incase anyone suggests food with meat in.

Thanks for your help.

Bear x

money_saving_diva

Hi Annabel Karmels books are good for ideas for each stage of weaning. I found loads of useful books in the library.
You can make loads of pureed fruit and veg and freeze it and defrost as you need it. Don't cook each meal each day!! (life is too short!) They hardly eat anything to start with.
I also wouldn't start too soon and if you do start before 6 months talk to your HV (although most of them seem pretty useless :rolleyes: but if you have a good one they are handy for this sort of info).
I can not remember off the top of my head when you can give eggs but I wouldn't give scrambled egg at the start of weaning because of the possibilty of allergic reactions and the texture of the food.
The first stage goes quickly (I started weaning at 6 months but lo was a hungry baby with milk but wasn't really interested in food until 7 months). I was giving him small sandwiches etc by 9 months. You just have to see how your baby takes to it all and use your common sense.
I did find the books a good starting point for information though and I started reading them when lo was 4 months old to get my head around the next stage coming up - so visit the library.
And enjoy trying new foods with your lo - We eat a varied diet but my hubby and I had never had butternut squash until I made it for lo and now we all eat it after trying it and loving it

**skinnyminny**

I started with the baby rice around 4.5 months with my first as they said at the time they could start weaning from 4 months but by the time i had my second 2 years later it had changed to 6 months again, so i did wait longer with him but saying that he was more satisfied on milk than my first!

I started with baby rice mixed with their usual milk, then i slowly introduced pureed apple as that was soft and tasty and they liked that and then i moved on to farleys rusks mixed with some milk but they are really high in sugar so i did buy the reduced sugar version and tried to limit how often they had those, but they loved it just befor etheir evening feed.

Next step for me i am afraid was the small jars as i really didn't know where to start, so many textures and flavours and i was so bewildered but i signede up to a lot of the mother and baby clubs with sainsburys and tesco and boots and got so many vouchers sent through it was cheap as chips to test the waters regarding tastes.

They do a very good range these days of baby pastas and things that are great for starting off before they can eat the same as us, poundland have got a lot of them in at the moment, but i see your original point is at what age can they eat the same at lunch etc, i suppose any age is ok once weaning has started as long as you don't use salt in your cooking, and once blended they will prob give anything a go:D

Ready brek was also a firm favourite in our house, but then i did eat it by the boxes when i was preggers!!

Enjoy trying out the new foods but to be honest my best advice is to go with how your little one reacts and introduce things slowly, it must be so starnge for them after having just milk to a fully blended sunday roast:rotfl::rotfl: