MSE Newborn to 1 year Club

euronorris

Mia developed bottle preference. I was exclusively breastfeeding, and DH would give her a bottle of expressed milk once a day. Around 12 weeks her weight gain slowed. Everything else was OK, but the health visitor had me really worried so I did a full day of expressed milk via bottle, so I could see exactly how much she was taking. She then refused breast. I battled on trying to get her to relatch, but it just ended in us both crying in frustration. One day was all it took. I think it may have been different if we'd done that further down the line. I then exclusively pumped for a few months, then my supply started to dip as I couldn't keep up the pumping schedule along with everything else, so we started supplementing with formula before switching to formula fully around month 9/10 I think it was. I wish I hadn't done that so early on. I cried many tears over it and felt like a complete failure over it all. I should've trusted my body more as her weight continued on the lower centile until solids were introduced. My milk wasn't an issue, and formula never saw her gain more.

Nipple confusion and bottle preference are real.

penguingirl

That sounds really tough euronorris, and so frustrating.

J has been like a different baby today! So much happier, and has slept. Still feeding lots but we're all happier and I even managed to have a bath for the first time since he's been born!

Good luck on Monday April- I found OH going back to work not as bad as I thought, so hopefully you'll be the same

Beckyy

That sounds really, really tough, euronorris, it can be so easy to doubt yourself, especially when HCP don't always offer good BF support but you did an amazing job expressing for so long, it's the hardest part of both sides.

Toots, that's really great to hear. I think some other parents must think I'm nuts when their babies are having 3 puree meals a day and my LO isn't eating very much at all. I'm sticking with it and hoping he starts to increase around 10 months too as I'll be due back to work so no BFing on demand through the days I'm working.

sweetbabu

We're also planning to follow BLW, so any tips and advice would be much appreciated

My wrap arrived today. He seems to love it and it will be so easy to carry him; I could barely feel his weight at all.

FreddieFrugal

Ohh what a great idea cats!

I haven't looked on here in ages as there was no follow on thread really after birth. Great to hear from familiar people again!

Fred is nearly 9 months. No teeth yet. He's really close to crawling and very chatty. Great fine motor skills.

Can't complain about his sleeping patterns at all, obviously had harder times when he's been having a regression. But he's tended to sleep through, or only wake once from a few months old.

We've done BLW - he was interested in food very early on and we just started letting him have bits of what we were having from 6 months - we adapted meals to include more veg if needed, or just cut it all into bigger chunks that were easy to pick up.

It's worked great he eats anything that's put in front of him.

We didn't start with purees although he does have, mushed food sometimes just for a different texture, he started with things like brocolli florets, steamed sweet potato wedges, mango, carrot.

Now he eats pasta, curry, wraps (he manages to keep it together quite well!) home made fishfingers, Moroccan chicken... Just whatever we're having. I'm just careful with salt and sugar, but then we never add salt to anything anyway!

Anything he can't pick up he's happy to be spoon fed.


Breakfast use to be the most tricky meal, he wasn't keen, but he likes it now. We give him porridge with fruit mashed in, or wheatabix, or sometimes homemade scotch pancakes

Obviously all babies are different but my boy loves food and he moved very quickly to wanting three meals a day. From a few weeks ago he started having a morning and afternoon snack as well. He's barely drinking milk now so we've got multivitamin drops for him.

ThinkPink

Good luck with ttc number 2 toots.

My little boy loves his food but he still likes his milk too!! He has proper food (won't eat puree) but likes us to feed him! He has 6 teeth( and I think more on the way) so we are encouraging him as much as we can at the moment to use them!! I have finally found something he will eat for breakfast- mini shredded wheat and I'm trying to get him to eat more fruit as a snack to help as he is getting a bit blocked up!

We have good nights and bad nights the bad nights seem to be when he has tummy ache or when he is teething!

I absolutely love being a mummy and we have already started saying 'when we have another one'! Although in reality we would need to ttc quite soon if we do want another 1 as I've just turned 34 and it took us over two years last time due to my pcos!

It's amazing watching him develop. He is doing so much now and there is just no stopping him, he crawls so fast and pulls himself up and down on everything! He is also a little attention seeker, so will deliberately chuck his hat or sock on the floor when we are out so someone will pick it up and talk to him, or he does the biggest smile showing off all his teeth or loudly babbles away until someone starts talking to him! I'm constantly being told what a lovely and happy boy I have because of it!! He does make me laugh!

I can't believe though that I've already had to start getting quotes for his first birthday cake, seriously, how fast is time going!!!

minimuffin12

aww thinkpink he sounds adorable! I just love watching them grow up, dd pretends to be shy when people talk to her! it's so scary with time, my eldest is 4 soon and it brings so many worries as he is starting preschool in sept, silly me worrying about him making friends etc it's the next chapter in his wee life, I want to wrap him up forever! lol

my dd 17mths is climbing on the sofa at the min, so we've spent most of the weekend preventing her from falling off the edge :eek: we got her a cake from m+s for her bday altho d's got a nice made one for his 1st one and I think it was about 50quid!

hope all new mums and babes well, I miss those early days!x

april87

Penguin def did not find it as bad as I thought it would be. Logan did seem a bit fussier today, bless him. Managed to get out today to our local NCT bumps & babies group, so I'm quite chuffed with myself

So interested to hear how those with slightly older LO's are getting on with weaning, the tips will definitely come in handy. My MW was telling me about the Annabel Karmel method. Something I need to look into but I still have a fair bit of time.

Sweet what wrap did you go for?

Toots14

My BLW tips are...

1. Read up on what to do if a baby is choking. If you can go to an infant first aid course.

2. Watch YouTube videos on the difference between choking and gagging.

3. It's easy to say it but don't panic when they gag. They will work that food out. Definitely do not put your fingers in baby's mouth as that can make them choke.

6. We started off with just single foods. Like carrot sticks. Just to let C get use to feel of food and the taste.

7. After a week we just gave her exactly what we were having but no adding salt to dinner anymore. Things like curry, shepherds pie, lasagne, quiche etc.

8. We just did dinner for about a month, then introduced breakfast and a couple weeks later lunch.

9. Enjoy it and embrace the mess :rotfl: because it can get disgusting. Prepare for sink baths!

There's loads of great Facebook groups that you can talk to others doing BLW and share recipes. They also provide handy guide on best shapes to cut food for little hands before moving on to practice the pincer grasp.

sweetbabu

april87 wrote: »

Sweet what wrap did you go for?

I went for a mobywrap.

I couldn't find one anywhere and ended up asking a customer in Mothercare where she'd gotten hers and she said she'd thoroughly recommend it as she loved it.