MSE Parent Club

bexxie90

Claire_Jones wrote: »

A bit of information that may help those of you with hungry babies like my little monster. Charlie was waking up nearly every 2 hours during the night, having a feed, change etc and then putting back to sleep (say goodbye to an hour!) and then awake for more an hour later. It was killing me and my Nan suggested feeding him some crushed rusk with milk before bed to keep his stomach filled longer. It worked!! The last 4 nights we've had about 4 to 5 hours straight, then a milk feed and he'll sleep for another 4ish. He's only 6weeks old but already has a fit if I stop feeding him his rusk before he thinks I should!! Nan was told this when she had my auntie 40 odd years ago by a midwife and it's been passed down through the family and not done us any harm!!

Hope it helps someone else as well. p.s I'm doing about half a rusk each day

I would be so careful hun at this tender age,the Gluten in Rusks is really not good at all. Their digestive systems find it so hard to tolerate after time as they need to mature. Please dont think I am getting at you I am not but just try to bear this in mind first,speak to HV first just to check out the danger side of things with this.

Good luck
Bex.x

jo_b_2

bexxie90 wrote: »

I would be so careful hun at this tender age,the Gluten in Rusks is really not good at all. Their digestive systems find it so hard to tolerate after time as they need to mature. Please dont think I am getting at you I am not but just try to bear this in mind first,speak to HV first just to check out the danger side of things with this.

Good luck
Bex.x

I'd tend to agree with you, Bex. My Grandma recommended the rusks to me too - it was common practice back then, but not really advised nowadays.

Hope this doesn't come across as preaching, Claire.

SusanCarter

I think since those days they've discovered things they didn't know back then. They say not to give any solids before four months because their digestive system isn't fully developed till then and I did notice with Alice that her poos became much more solid and smelly at four months even though she was still exclusively breastfed so I think there must be some kind of change in the digestive system about that age.

Becles

My HV said they recommend weaning at 6 months now, to stop people doing it way to early.

She said when it was 4 months, you would get impatient people starting it at 2 or 3 months, when baby was far too young to cope with solid foods and it can cause health problems later, such as the gluten allergy which has been mentioned.

She said by raising the recommended age to 6 months, you still get people starting early at 4 or 5 months, but by that age baby is able to cope with solid food and it's healthier for them.

You must start weaning by 6 months old though. Baby has a store of iron from birth but this runs out by 6 months old. They really need to be eating some foods with iron in by 6 months to keep their bodies healthy.

cha97michelle

i think the weaning thing needs to be with health visitors advice.

Mine was quite happy for Charlie to have some baby rice at 16 weeks as by then he was having so much milk per feed (about 8-9oz) that he was then being really sick- we then did baby rice on its own at one feed for a couple of weeks before introducing pureed carrot/swede/sweet potato.

I think it probably depends on a lot of factors like how big your baby is at birth, how quickly they put weight on - what you feed them.

For us this was best as he was really collicky for about 6 weeks round the 7-12 week mark, and we didn't want to swap him to hungry baby milk in case it set him off again.

The rusk thing was said to me by DH's aunty - she had done it with his cousin from 2 days old, and the cousin is an absolutely massive chap nowadays. Seriously overweight.

As always, it is up to the mum, with the best advice, as if you are not getting any sleep, that is no good for anyone either and will lead to other problems.

SusanCarter

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between slow, medium and fast flow teats and why you would use particular ones? I ask because we've been using the slow flow teats for Alice that came with the bottles but we're now down to the last one. I was going to just buy the same but the shop over the road only sells medium and fast but not slow and the petrol to go somewhere else would cost more than the teats. I'm guessing they are easier to get the milk out but I'm not sure that would be a good thing as Alice can already get an oz/minute out with the slow flow.

heather38

it is the speed of flow from the teat and roughly goes by age
slow 0-3 months
medium 3-6 months
fast over 6 months.

Becles

Slow has a small hole, medium has a medium hole and fast has the biggest hole.

If they are sucking so hard that the teat goes flat or pops inside the bottle, then they need the next size up!

heather38

or if you're feeling cheap do what i did, tesco had the teats i use reduced to clear but only the slow flow. i took a pin to the hole and made them bigger!

purplepatch

If your baby is anything like mine, it is quite apparent when they are ready to get the next teats as they start taking an eternity to down a bottle or start leaving feeds unfinished because it's all just too much effort:rolleyes:!

Izzy is going to the docs later as she seems to have conjunctivitis - just appeared this morning out of nowhere. Crap mum me, I was in such a rush getting DD1 ready and out for school that I never noticed - just bunged some clothes on Izzy and shoved her in the buggy. Standing in the playground one of the other mums who's a nurse pointed it out to me!! Slapped wrist for me!!

She is very snotty at the mo and has been for a while, but I think it's teeth causing it rather than a cold, so wondering if the manky eyes are related to the teeth in some way....?