MSE Parent Club

Agutka

A £7 that could have been better spent if the thing was broken . Says she who spent a small fortune today on weaning spoons, cups etc. I have no idea what I'll need, but our first attempt at baby rice this afternoon was a great success :T.

Question - when you're starting to wean how much of this rice do they eat? And do they have bottle too? I ask because I was surprised that J seemed to eat the whole 3tsp (unless it's hiding in his jumper) but refused much of his milk after . Do I need to give him water now? Or just 'offer' some. And one last question, what do I give this water in - too many choices of cup at shop, got confused.
Thanks.

Dormouse

Agutka wrote: »

Question - when you're starting to wean how much of this rice do they eat? And do they have bottle too? I ask because I was surprised that J seemed to eat the whole 3tsp (unless it's hiding in his jumper) but refused much of his milk after . Do I need to give him water now? Or just 'offer' some. And one last question, what do I give this water in - too many choices of cup at shop, got confused.
Thanks.

You do need to start offering him water, although he probably will only take tiny amounts to begin with.

Some babies do develop slight constipation when they move on to solids (both mine did , although Alex wasn't too bad as I was giving him lots of water and even fresh juice when he, ahem, needed it).

The best cup for the early months, IMHO, is the Tommee Tippee first cup (about 99p in the shops, I think). There is absolutely no need for the all-singing, all-dancing, non-spill, non-able-to-get-anything-out-of sort of cups at this stage (although they will become useful in time, when they're toddlers).

As for his milk, he does still need as much as before in the early weeks of weaning. What I do with Alex (although he is a bit older and will be ready to start dropping his milk feeds soon) is give him a milk feed about an hour before the solids, so that he's not too full but not too hungry, and still gets all the goodness from the milk.

A lot of the weaning process is a question of playing it by the ear, so see how things go. You two will be fine.

izoomzoom

For the first year of a baby's life, milk should remain its primarily source of food - solids are only there to add to their diet (ie iron, vitamins etc), so my advise would be to give a milk feed, and then give some solids afterwards, but like Dormouse has suggested, separate them by an hour or slightly less.

Also if you are BF it isn't vital that you give water (as the foremilk is very watery anyway) but getting them to have a sip or two out of a cup would be a step in the right direction.

If you are FF, then I believe that getting water into them is quite important, but I am not sure how much etc etc.

I am going to try and hold off weaning for as long as I can - hopefully another 6 weeks when she will be 6 months. I am quite keen to try baby led weaning, but not sure if I can handle the mess :rotfl: , or the urge to put the food in my baby's mouth.

cha97michelle

we did milk feed as well as some baby mush for the first bit, and then when he was sat in the high chair and eating a good meal we dropped some bottles and gave him water in one of those tommee tippee cups. DS still refuses all other cups.


I have had a really stressful day today - 2 lots of workmen here, and DS was a pain in the backside trying to get in one of the tool boxes, then the other guy was here all day banging about so he didn't have a sleep and was hugely grumpy. It makes me wonder how i am going to cope when number 2 puts in an appearance.

Plus, dragging the furniture out today for the dozy workmen set me off with braxton hicks, so i am going to make sure i take it easier tomorrow. I am 34 weeks tomorrow, and want to make it a bit longer yet. :rolleyes:


Midwife appointment tomorrow, and DS's nursery is back open thankfully, so i will be having a bit of a rest after the manic bank hols.

Michelle, x

Js_Other_Half

izoomzoom wrote: »

I am going to try and hold off weaning for as long as I can - hopefully another 6 weeks when she will be 6 months. I am quite keen to try baby led weaning, but not sure if I can handle the mess :rotfl: , or the urge to put the food in my baby's mouth.

I held my nerve until DS was 7 months - he simply wasn't interested enough in our food to even reach for it before then. Even then, I think left to his own devices completely he might have left it for another few weeks.

The first food he ever tasted was some yellow or red pepper from my stir fry (which I sucked clean before letting him have it). I'd hoped he'd be on 3 meals within weeks - not a hope! So don't be too disappointed if this doesn't happen for you either - at 15 months DS had a fairly decent sized portion of lasagne today whilst we were out:D

Becles

Agutka wrote: »

Question - when you're starting to wean how much of this rice do they eat?

I found this chart useful:
http://www.hipp.co.uk/WeaningChart/index.htm

I roughly followed it and went with what Charlotte seemed to like. Ignore all the Hipp suggestions though! You can substitute for home made food or other brands.

The rice is quite bland, so she only had a couple of meals of pure rice. I started mixing apple and rice and pear and rice, then brought in sweeter veg like carrot, parsnip and swede. Then stronger veg like cabbage, then meats.

tsstss7

Agutka wrote: »

Question - when you're starting to wean how much of this rice do they eat? And do they have bottle too? I ask because I was surprised that J seemed to eat the whole 3tsp (unless it's hiding in his jumper) but refused much of his milk after . Do I need to give him water now? Or just 'offer' some. And one last question, what do I give this water in - too many choices of cup at shop, got confused.
Thanks.

Having told all unsundry I was going to wait till Archie was at least 6 months he was weaned at 4 mnths as he just wouldn't wait any longer - as it was he had one or two days of one meal a day and then joined in at every meal...he can't bear to be left out! He could easily eat a whole jar or maybe more in a meal but my ds1 on the other hand would barely polish off half.

I do offer water or diluted fruit juice though even though he is mostly bfed as he gets very bunged up otherwise, Archie has his in a bottle as he is too little for a cup yet.

Our routine at present during meals is to do milk feed first- (attemping to fill him up) then solids then another milk feed if he is still hungry (which he often is).

I've gone with same as becles.. plain baby rice has moved on to rice mixed with apple juice etc to vary tastes - however he's not a fussy one (yet!) :T

daphne_descends

izoomzoom wrote: »

I am going to try and hold off weaning for as long as I can - hopefully another 6 weeks when she will be 6 months. I am quite keen to try baby led weaning, but not sure if I can handle the mess :rotfl: , or the urge to put the food in my baby's mouth.

I've been trying to last till 6 months too and have been looking forward to doing baby led weaning - look at the pictures here! http://www.babyledweaning.com it makes it look sooo much fun and stress-free. Babies don't need to be spoon fed at this age because they have the dexterity to deal with pieces of food.

That said Elliot is 22 weeks today and showing signs of being ready (and I don't mean hunger - sorry but at four months hunger is a growth spurt) - he is almost sitting properly now and as for grabbing :rolleyes: in the last week he's tried to have my toast, DP's veg lasagne, and he also pulled a bowl of (thankfully lukewarm) porridge into my lap and smeared it over his face :eek:

Because it's still a little early though I did get sucked in by marketing and bought some banana and apple puree. It's organic though in my defence! But when he can manage it, bring on the broccoli trees.


Has anyone here successfully introduced a dummy at this late age? Elliot is teething and wants to nurse all flipping night long. I don't mind obviously when he's actually feeding but the comfort nursing is getting me down a bit.

Agutka

I spent the whole weekend listening to 'in my day' comments from older family members. Apparently I was weaned on mashed vegetable and chicken soup, much earlier than 6 months.
My SIL is the worst. She acts like an authority on children, or worse than that, a baby nutritionist! Grrrr. All her 'advice' comes with a good dose of 'you should be' 'you can't' 'why aren't you' :mad:
She gave my lovely son cake (!) to suck on, then a carrot 'look he loves it! why aren't you feeding him, poor baby' 'My son was already eating meals'.
(her lovely son who refuses to eat now, apart from running around with green beans - I swear I have never seen him eat a meal in his 3 years).

I thought peer pressure was bad enough at school!

Fac, was he never interested in dummies? They either like them or not don't they? Don't get down, teething only lasts a few months :eek: :cool:
Introducing a dummy? 1. Find screaming baby 2. Put dummy in hole (some work better than others :rotfl: ) teat first 3. The noise you can now hear is silence, enjoy.

daphne_descends

Oh tell me about it Agutka! My mother tells me that my aunt had my cousins on Weetabix at 5 weeks :rolleyes: and has been saying for weeks that Elliot needs some food, milk can't be enough etc etc. I am really looking forward to the weaning stage but nothing is as calorie packed as milk - breast or formula - anyway. I think she has visions of him eating like an adult within days of a first taste

I bet Joseph loved a bit of cake though, I mean, who wouldn't?! *slightly jealous*

Elliot didn't really know what to do with a dummy. He sucked a bit then pulled a face and spat it out. Maybe once he realised milk doesn't come out. We've tried a few times, OH got him to suck for maybe ten minutes once but that was it. My mum's advice? Dip it in sugar! :rotfl: