MSE Newborn to 1 year Baby Club 1

*Ro*

Hope everyone ok behind as well with thread :eek:

Thanks for the birthday wishes for Scott yesterday

We have a lot of snow here !
Scott fell out of his sledge !! So it was a brief interlude ! He is a bit young really but it was our fault as the sledge tipped !

Mozzy yay for Charlie walking !

Tc all xxxx

*Ro*

Oh and hubby's not amused as Scott has lobbed his milk bottle out of the cotbed and broke the glass lamp :0 !!

*Nutella*

Fluff, we do formula, puree and a bit of fingerfood, so I can't advise on the specifics re. BF and BLW, but just a couple of general observations...

We stopped nightfeeds at six and a half months, but did it as a gradual process - for a while I continued to feed her every time she woke up, but gradually less and less until she didn't bother to wake up at all! Might be worth trying. I've not yet seen any correlation between quantity of dinner eaten and length/quality of sleep. For a while she wasn't interested in solids in the evenings at all (tiredness = I just want milk because milk equals comfort), so we didn't bother and concentrated on breakfast and lunch instead. We now do a fingerfood meal in the evening, which she enjoys, and do a bigger lunch instead.

Don't try solids when he's really hungry, it won't work. What I do for breakfast is give her 90ml of milk first thing (her usual bottle is 150-180ml), then she has breakfast about half an hour later. This works for us - she's not staaaarving, but she's not so full she's not interested in food.

You WILL reach a point soon when more food is swallowed than dropped on the floor. Take toast fingers, for example. In the beginning my LO would clutch them and eat the bit that she could see, then drop the rest on the floor. She now passes it from hand to hand, turns it around etc. and very little ends up on the floor. I think that's partly because she's more used to food, but also because her general motor skills are developing - she does the same with toys.

Baby rice really is rubbish and tastes of nothing. She hates the stuff, and the only time I use it is when I've got the liquid content of a dish slightly wrong and it seems a bit too runny - then I use a teaspoon of baby rice to thicken it a bit. Works wonders and she doesn't notice. Similarly, she won't eat bland baby porridge, but loves porridge made with proper oats and fruits.

My LO likes most fruit and veg, but unsurprisingly her favourites are the sweeter ones like mango, sweet potato and butternut squash, so if you haven't already they'd definitely be worth trying.

Don't despair - he'll soon get the hang of it

turtlemoose

fluffnutter wrote: »

You're doing BLW aren't you, turtle, and Reuben's, what? about a month older than Freddie. When did he start to take an interest in food?

Yes we are, and yes a month older (4th June is his birthday). I started giving him food occasionally from 24 weeks. Only because by that point he had already stolen and gummed a piece of melon, a piece of pineapple and an apple core :cool: so I thought hey might as well. It was more to keep him occupied while I ate than for him to actually eat. He rubbed it on his face, rubbed his hands together, mushed it in to the highchair straps, threw it at the cat, oh and occasionally put it in his mouth!! This happened for about, ooh 2-3 weeks! He did then start to actually swallow things (mashed potato, green beans, yoghurt, the soft bit in the middle of cucumber, banana) - you can tell when they are swallowing it as their poo changes massively!

Then he got a cold, and wasn't interested in much and mostly wanted booby. This lasted a week. Then he got a cough and totally rejected anything that wasn't a booby! That lasted another week. (this was over xmas)

I was worried about re-introducing solids as thought we would have to start all over again with the gagging and so on, but he was 30 weeks old by this point and something, for him, had just gone 'click' and he started eating (and swallowing) much more proportionate to what got chucked/mushed etc.

Now we are at 7.5 months and he will eat probably half of the portion I provide, the other half is split in to a quarter chucked away/mushed up and a quarter accidentally dropped.

As gilly said - the gumming, the mushing etc - it's all practice. Yes it's a bit annoying if you have lovingly prepared something, and yes it's a mess to clean up - but they are just exploring it for now, getting used to the smell and look and feel - not just the taste.

Porridge is great - we do porridge fingers here and these were one of the things he would swallow a little of even before we had proper eating. 3tbsp oats (i just use normal oats not baby ones) and 3tbsp full fat cows milk (or ebm if you want but i'm lazy). mix in a bowl (like a normal cereal bowl) and flatten it on the bottom. Microwave for 2 minutes, take it out, and cut it while it's still hot in to strips - leave to cool - voila, porridge fingers. If you use breastmilk the flavour will be more familiar to him I suppose.

fluffnutter wrote: »

I'm not one to get in a pickle but the book that's been recommended on here about sleeping (Gentle Sleep Solutions) states that, after six months, if you're giving your baby booby in the night, you're denying them the opportunity to fill up properly on solids during the day (as they won't be hungry). It clearly states that breastmilk is too low in iron to sustain a baby that age, so if you don't sort out the night-feeding your baby may end up anaemic.

That's NOT the impression I've got from my book about BLW. Both books are by 'experts' so god knows what to think.

Riiight, I LOVE that book (I've been raving about it to loads of people!) BUT I think they are too sweeping with that comment about the night time vs solids thing. I think the didn't go in to enough detail. At 6 mo Reuben would have been STARVING if I had not fed him 3 times overnight. Now at 7.5 mo he is eating much more (I can tell by the gross nappy contents) and he goes 5 hrs between milk feeds in the day - so I am confident he can go longer at night, but I don't think he can go a full 12 hours without anything at all, as he still has more milk than he does solids overall. It's a gradual thing over months, so it's not like any expert can say "right from X day every child doesn't need night feeds" - I think they've been a bit lazy in writing what they did in that bit

Gillyx wrote: »

The thing about anaemia if you're worried, buy baby vitamins, they do recommend all babies who are still breastfed at 6m plus have them anyway regardless of how they're weaned

Yup we had an NHS lady in to our baby group yesterday, and a physiotherapist too. They were both saying there's a huge problem in this country with vitamin D deficiency - there simply isn't enough sunlight to get enough. They recommended 15 minutes a day (come rain or shine) of sunlight on baby's face with no sun cream (obviously not in the heat of summer at noon!), plus a multi vit. Asda have got an offer on multivits at the mo - following the talk on Thurs I have bought these (http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/catalog/sectionpagecontainer.jsp?aisleid=1214921925065&skuId=910000412889&startValue=101&departmentid=1214921923791&referrer=cookiesDetecting) they are normally £5.30 each (it should last 30 days) but they are on 3 for £10 at the moment.

fluffnutter wrote: »

What's difficult is partial reinforcement. If you want to cut out night feeds, then they way to do it is just that - cut out all feeds during the night. What will massively confuse a baby and result in failure is cutting out some night feeds. How will Freddie know that when he wakes up at 3am he gets booby, but he won't get any booby if he wakes up at 5am? He doesn't know the difference and what I can't do with any certainty is predict or know which times he is genuinely hungry and which are just comfort feeds.

I absolutely see your logic here - however, I have just successfully cut out some night feeds...resulting in a definite increase in his solid intake (but don't forget we are a month ahead here). I started this at 7 months. Last feed at 7pm, in the cot by 7:30. If he woke before 10 then no booby, if he woke after 10 then some booby but restricted (I did 5 minutes), back in cot and soothed to sleep. Then next waking would probably be about 3 hours after that - so let's say 1am - now we are at 6 hours after the last proper feed - so that seemed logical to me he could be genuinely hungry - full feed given, but awake in cot and soothed to sleep. After only 2 nights, he simply stopped waking for that between-10-and-midnight feed, but wakes around 1 and has a full feed, and then will sleep til 6 (but will want a full feed then too - then happy to doze til about 8 then it's wakey wakey time mummy).

fluffnutter wrote: »

Thing is, I don't think Freddie realises that solid food will sate his hunger. If I tried to feed him some non-milk breakfast and he was starving, he'd just squrim and cry thinking 'why are we playing this game with the bib and the table and the funny-tasting stuff when all I want is some booby, mummy?'.

Yup I'm with you there, we had 2 screaming meltdowns in the highchair before I thought this through properly (silly mummy!). To avoid this, I offered him food an hour after a milk feed - so that he had time to be hungry but wasn't starving and in need of some booby cuddles. Eventually they just kinda 'get it'.

In terms of a routine of offering food - I would give him some whenever you have some. So breakfast - give him toast soldiers or porridge fingers. Lunch - fingers of cucumber, salt free rice cakes - can put a topping on the rice cake like a fruit puree or jam or hummus etc. Dinner - pasta (fusili is good, easy to grip), mashed potato (with butter, full fat milk and cheese in), steamed carrot sticks, steamed broccoli, steamed cauliflower - all are things he can pick up and hold easily.

Positive reinforcement also goes a long way. I went really over the top whenever Reuben put any food in his mouth - "Wow! Well done! Clever Reuben!" ..lots of smiles, lots of "yum yum!" etc. He loves it! I'm a little less in-his-face about it now, still positive about it but not quite so dramatic, now it's a calmer "good boy...well done...aren't you eating your lunch nicely" etc. He also loves clapping, so I clap him a lot at meal times.... :T:rotfl:

Ooh a good food is something called 'goodies' by Organix. They are basically made to look like crisps but are healthy/safe/salt free/organic etc. They do carrot puffs, cheese puffs, tomato puffs etc. Bit pricy but Reuben loves them! Early on they are good as the start to dissolve as soon as they get a bit wet (like a skip does!) so they are easy to eat.

Apologies for the mega post!!!!

Gillyx

Brill post Turtlemoose, everything I wanted to say but couldn't think of x

turtlemoose

The little sod has just proved me wrong by waking at 11 and crying for milk! Cheeky monkey he had a strict 5 mins (I tried soothing him in cot for 15 mins but he was proper going for it!), then back to cot. He yelled, and I thought "Ohhh we're in for a tough one" so I ran to have a wee quickly before I had to spend ages in the bedroom. Anyway I was halfway through my wee when he just went silent - fast asleep ! Weird!

In other news, our heating has broken tonight, eep! Our landlord has British gas emergency cover...but they won't send someone out without me telling them the policy holders full name and the landline phone umber given when the policy was taken out. I can't contact my landlord at this time of night, so we are just stuck very cold, brrr! The Angelcare is telling me it's 14 degrees in our bedroom, eek! I like it around 21/22!! Right I'm off to go shiver myself to sleep...night ladies.

Aimless

If you're breastfeeding you're meant to take a vitamin D supplement, no one tells you though! My health visitor said yes, that's right when I asked... at about 4 months old, why did she not tell me before then!

Mine is a particularly gaggy kind of baby, we had no joy with blw, or even more advanced babyfood, for months. Then suddenly something just clicked and he's eating things like toast and scrambled egg. He still pulls a face every time he swallows something solid though!

*Nutella*

Re. vitamin D - I've had the opposite experience, I've been given a leaflet by three different HVs now! All telling me how I should give my LO a vitamin supplement from 6 months onwards, and with me responding that no, I won't as I'm not breastfeeding and the NHS website (AND the vitamin packaging) says that you shouldn't give a supplement if your baby has at least 500ml of formula per 24 hours, as this has vitamin D added. To which they've responded 'oh, yes, that's right, but when she's a year old you should start giving vitamins'....

If you're BF you should start giving your baby a supplement containing vitamin D when they're 6 months old though. Around here you can buy them cheaply from children's centres and a couple of chemists that have had them subsidised by the Council, so worth checking with your HV, otherwise as Turtle said there are lots of different types in Boots.

*Nutella*

Turtle, hope you get your heating fixed today x

jediquigley

Gillyx wrote: »

No they don't. The thickener I use (and still use) is Carobel, it is made from carob bean, all natural

The stay down milks aren't thicker, they thicken in the stomach, to stop it coming back up, but they shouldn't cause constipation. Comfort milk will probably do the opposite, we had shrek coloured sticky poops on that, but it's apparently normal, so if that happens don't fear

Go back to another GP, saying oh gaviscon should sort it, it doesn't always. Randitidine should be the next step, if it doesn't work it should be a referral to the hospital, to start looking at diet, omeprazole and domperidone.

I know I sound really harsh here, and feel like I'm being pushy, but there will be something, to maybe not take away completely but it will ease whatever it is that's wrong with her. I have been there with a baby who was in constant pain and people telling me there was nothing wrong when I knew there was.

Gaviscon will constipate, definitely.

We started having probs with reflux about 3 weeks ago when Niall came off colief. He is 23 weeks today. He has been on gaviscon for a couple of weeks and has worked but caused constipation...he now hasn't pooed for a week. Cut down on gaviscon and am stopping today going to head back to gp next week. Their answer is give him a laxative but I'd rather not give one medication to stop the side effects of another. I breastfeed so trialling no cows milk products in diet at the moment, only a week in and no improvement yet.

Gilly did they test your bubs at all for intolerances ? Wondering if they test for lactose intolerance although I have read that this doesn't exist in babies?

Laura