MSE Newborn to 1 year (& beyond!) baby club 3

*Nutella*

minimuffin12 wrote: »

Can someone help with weaning please? Lo is 6 months today and we are doing trad, weaning. I think mrsh did this? Did you give lo breakfast before his morning milk? I really havent a clue what to do, its so daunting. Im mostly mashing stuff and will start finger foods in a few weeks time.

We did traditional weaning too - I found that giving LO milk before breakfast worked better in the very early days; if she was really hungry, she'd just get frustrated with the spoon and scream. So I gave her milk first thing, and then breakfast a little later, but earlier than I'd normally have given her the next milk feed if that makes sense?.... But I don't think it matters which way round you go for - just see what works for you and your LO.

In the beginning I gave LO solids once a day (pick a time when your LO isn't too hungry or tired) and I found it helpful to write down what I'd given her so I could watch out for any allergic reactions, unusual nappy content (fascinating and disgusting in equal measures!), make a note of likes and dislikes etc. Things she enjoyed include sweet potato, carrot, butternut squash, parsnip, apple, pear and mango. She hated baby rice, so that ended up in the bin!

I found Annabel Karmel's weaning book extremely useful - I'd be very happy to pop it in the post to you if you want to PM me your address. I'm on a decluttering mission at the moment, and it's currently sitting in the charity shop box

*Nutella*

continualdiamond wrote: »

Weirdly enough I have come on here to ask about weaning.

Thought it was from 6 mths until yesterday when got chatting to an ex colleague who was at the same bday party as me and she mentioned introducing baby rice from 4 mths of age.

Have just had a look on the asda website and in fact seen baby rice suitable from this age.

Did people use this? The person I was chatting with mentioned she just gave her son baby rice, no other weaning products and then obviously his milk as well.

So he had 2 mths of having baby rice before being introduced to other foods. Just after thoughts really if people did this or would consider doing it. Scarlett is 3 mths old today so got time to think about it.

Personally I wouldn't do this unless your LO shows signs of being ready for solids before 6 months. Baby rice has minimal nutritional value, and until 6 months they get everything they need from milk. Even at 6 months I'd rather give nutritional vegetables than rice.

As an aside, my LO couldn't stand baby rice, and once I'd tasted it myself I knew why - it really is vile! :eek::rotfl:

*Nutella*

Mrshaworth2b wrote: »

Afm, my lo's head has improved by 6mm, which is great. Hopefully in next few weeks it'll do the same again then we won't have much more to go. Consultant said you see the best results at the beginning so I'm willing his head to grow fast lol!

:T Yay! That's fab news!

snozberry

I second the Annabel Karmel book. I started with baby rice at lunchtime and then, after a few days, pur!ed carrots.
I have given my son a wide range of root veg. My son is a confident and independent child so I ended having to go off him and his needs. Sometimes I give him the cooked insides of a sweet potato or a few healthy spoonfuls of roasted butternut squash and let him feed himself. It's very messy but sometimes that is what he wants. It's a bit weird saying that when he can't talk but that is how it is.

vic3

Evening all, has anyone tried dream feeding? Something I'm quite interested in but not sure whether to give it a go as Thomas only wakes once in the night to feed.

snozberry

You should wean when your baby is ready - ideally at six months. Remember that baby food manufacturers are in it for the money and will push us in to buying their products at as young an age as possible.

*Nutella*

Weird question coming up...

My LO came home from the nursery today wearing a nappy that wasn't the usual Pampers. It had a happy little yellow sea horse at the front (size 5), an elastic bit at the back and a green square bit inside the nappy. I really liked it - the elastic bit was perfect for her little Buddha tummy!

I'll ask them on Wednesday when she's next in what brand it is, but given the amount of nappies they go through, they might have moved to something else by then. So - does this nappy sound familiar to anyone? I know they normally buy their food and nappies from Tesco, so my best guess is some kind of Tesco own brand....?

Answers on a postcard please!

amus

continualdiamond wrote: »

Weirdly enough I have come on here to ask about weaning.

Thought it was from 6 mths until yesterday when got chatting to an ex colleague who was at the same bday party as me and she mentioned introducing baby rice from 4 mths of age.

Have just had a look on the asda website and in fact seen baby rice suitable from this age.

Did people use this? The person I was chatting with mentioned she just gave her son baby rice, no other weaning products and then obviously his milk as well.

So he had 2 mths of having baby rice before being introduced to other foods. Just after thoughts really if people did this or would consider doing it. Scarlett is 3 mths old today so got time to think about it.

The recommended age is 6 months, apparently early weaning is the reason many adults now suffer with conditions such as IBS, baby's bowels aren't mature enough to handle food too early (this is what HV was telling me). She said if you are going to give baby food before 6m it has to be smooth pur!ed and gluten free. If waiting till 6m she said its fine to start with lumps straight away. I've looked into BLW but not sure how confident I feel with it!

Would also recommend the Annabel Karmel book, used it with both my boys.

TTC40

Don't get chance to post much although follow the thread.

DD is 10 weeks & on SMA. We are going to Spain - nr Torrevieja (Murcia) in a couple of weeks for a few days & was thinking of using the ready made. Have given it to her a few times. I have a friend in Spain checking what's available but wondered what others have used. The friend said that she thinks it's available but expensive & someone she knew had used a Spanish alternative. I can take it with us but would be easier to buy over there.

Oscar_the_Pug

BeNice - I had similar issues with my LO - she dropped more than 2 centiles and I was very worried about her, so I turned to exclusively pumping about a month ago and top her up with formula if I don't have enough breastmilk for a full feed.


It's going really well: at the start of December she was under the 2nd percentile heading towards the 0.4th, and now she's above the 9th centile and I'm having her weighed again tomorrow but fairly confident she's still catching up (she was between 25th and 50th at birth). I am now sure that the problem was a very poor latch: she had a posterior tongue tie which was not diagnosed for 8 weeks and although she was resnipped at 12 weeks it never really got good enough for her to feed efficiently, and she feeds better from a bottle.


I have really noticed that she takes quite a lot of milk and that her intake varies quite a lot from day to day: for the first few weeks it was 40 odd oz per day, then it dropped to 30-odd over Christmas and the past few days she's been ravenous - she's had about 35 oz today. I am able to produce about 28oz a day and the rest is comfort milk (she was sick on the normal stuff).


As well as her weight picking up it has also made us feel more confident about her needs, and I've found it easy taking her out knowing that I have a couple of bottles to hand. She is generally sleeping better (but is 5 months tomorrow, so part of her poor sleep may have been 4 month sleep regression) and I am more confident about putting her down for naps (though these are still very short - today we had 2 x 30 mins and 1 x 40 min, and she was up from 8 til 8).


I am expressing about 6 times a day to get that 28 oz: she often wakes for a feed at some point in the night - sometimes we dreamfeed, sometimes we don't, but OH is *wonderful* and feeds her via bottle then while I express. Because we always try to keep a feed ahead and make sure we have an 8 or 9 oz breastmilk feed in hand we find that she drops off again quickly, so it is less disruptive for OH than when I was bf'ing and she would be screaming with frustration and often taking an hour to settle again.


Sorry to ramble on, but just wanted to share in the hope that it might help. I'll post on about her gain tomorrow.