Weaning onto solids

[Belle]

Is it just me or is weaning a bit of a nightmare at first? Even though we're doing baby-led weaning which is easier in some ways, I just find the transition impossible - n ever know whether to give milk before or after solids, (seem to be pros and cons each way), baby is grunting/straining to push out poos all day long and 90% of what we offer him or let him grab ends up on the floor. The health visitor at clinic last week was very full on, saying at 6 months he should be on 2-3 meals a day - which seems a bit of a steep curve given you're only meant to start weaning at 6 months! Any advice on how to make the adjustment or any fellow sufferers out there?! Teething and frustration as he's trying to crawl at the moment don't help much!

[Fuschia]

2-3 meals? Nonsense. The HVs haven't really got to grips with the 6m weaning thing, have they?

I know somewhere it says you now have a narrow window of opportunity between starting weaning aT 6M and children needing to replenish iron stores and sample a wide variety of foods by 7m, but really, common sense must prevail!

I never managed to combine the milk along with solids thing, and esp not with the twins (would have taken forever) and always just carried on breastfeeding on demand in between meals. Started with a sort of brunch and then added in a pile of stuff for them to play with while we had our dinner, to keep them quiet... and then at some point brunch became lunch and they began to have breakfast as soon as they got up... all much easier when you can just pop food on their trays and get on with your own meal.

If he's getting constipated, probably he's having a bit too much solids... is he breastfed or ff? Breastmilk has a very laxative effect, in my experience. If not bf, give plenty of water and fruit to keep things moving (not bananas)

They do strain a bit at first to manage the more grown up poos.

I'd offer the solids at the time that suits you best... the lazy parent way is to give them what you're having (allergies allowing) and eat together, which encourages them to try the new stuff.

Ideas: sliced nectarine, raspberries, grated cheese (if not worried about dairy) breadsticks and hummous (if not worried about gluten) Penne pasta with tomato sauce or pesto (ditto re gluten/dairy/tomatoes)

[Fuschia]

PS, it does get easier. The first 6w of weaning are hardest as you're still doing all the milk thing, plus solids on top... it IS a bit of a nightmare.

[Belle]

Ah thanks Fuschia. Forgot to say that i was prob too honest with the HV. She asked me how many meals he was having, and I said well calling them meals is a bit optimistic, it's more that he's tasting a lot of different things - not sure how much goes down. This prompted the '2-3 meals a day!' instruction. To be honest I have never found the HVs helpful.

He's FF, and so I'm giving lots of fruit and water, and v diluted orange juice. Despite the straining, he is pooing plenty (euch - was saying to husband the other day I cna't believe how many of our conversations these days are about poo!) so think he's not really constipated... Thanks for those food ideas, the good thing is they all sound v easy too! think perhaps i've been being a bit ambitious about how much he should be having. The BLW thing is showing me up for the poor dietary habits I have (eg not really having lunch some days), so if nothing else should sort that out!

[Fuschia]

The straining is just the gut getting used to passing solids, i think. When you see how much comes out the other end basically undigested (sweetcorn or raisins!) you can see what hard work they have passing it through. I have seen whole grapes in twin II's poo... I wouldn't have thought her little bottom would let something that big get out! (TMI)

I think the HVs are rather wedded to the old way of doing things and BLW is a bit of a foreign concept.

Good luck, if you're not really a lunchy person, try a brunch together.

xxx

[Fuschia]

NHS advice

http://www.breastfeeding.nhs.uk/en/materialforclients/downloads/leaflet_3.pdf

"From about nine months, offer your baby:

three to four servings of starchy food each day..three to four servings of fruit and vegetables..two servings of meat, fish, eggs, dhal or other pulses.

By now your baby should be learning to fit in with the

family by eating three minced or chopped meals a day as

well as milk. Your baby may also like healthy snacks such

as fruit or toast in between meals."

[Belle]

Lol, I know what you mean. The other day I was amazed to see flecks of bright orange which were clearly the carrots he'd tried the day before - at least it means you can tell if some is actually going down!

[Fuschia]

I was just thinking... while trying to resettle the two snotty ones...

If he has milk early in the morning, i wouldn't meddle with that... but do the main solids meal after his first nap... so brunch is a good starting point... and you can still do milk before afternoon nap... trying to do a 9am breakfast is hard in my experience as it's too close to their first milk of the day... and then later in the morning they're tired.. hence solids best offered after a nap...

[Belle]

Yes, that sounds like a plan. He normally has 7am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm feeds give or take quite a bit!

[Fuschia]

If he usually has that 10am feed after a nap, I'd substitute it with a meal with milk in a cup... then later do the same with the 2pm feed perhaps...

[Mellors]

I weaned No 1 son with purees etc and he seemed to take it it much quicker than my daughter who is BLW (much lazier 2nd time round lol).

I was very worried about her not earing properly for ages, but by about 8 months she had got to grips with it and now seems to shove down more than the 2.5 year old. I think its just a slower start when they are BLW as you are asking more of them. If in doubt I shoved a couple of yoghurts down to top her up.

[Pickle]

Try not to worry too much about what the HV's say when it comes to weaning (or really, anything, in my opinion!). I was "advised", due to my son being "small according to the graph in your red book" to not be scared to give him fatty foods. When I asked her to elaborate, she said "things like chips are good". He was 7 months old. Extra salt and vinegar?!

Let your baby lead you. My son took to solids really well and gradually worked up to 3 meals a day, daughter wasn't interested until well over 7 months old when she suddenly decided to start eating for England and gobbled down anything put in front of her.

My loose structure in terms of fitting in milk feeds was

7am (ish) milk

8am breakfast

10.30am milk

12 lunch

2.30 milk

5.00 dinner

7pm milk

It seemed to work for us. My daughter has dropped the 10.30am feed and is almost at the point of dropping the 2.30pm feed - and eats 3 meals (plus 3 "puddings" such as yoghurt/fruit, and anything she can grab off our plates/floor/cat's bowl) a day.

Have fun with it. Weaning can be really stressful if you let it get on top of you, but if you relax and let the little one lead the way it's much easier.

P x

[KateMontero]

When I started weaning, although with purees not BLW, my little boy didn't really poo for 7 days. He has been fine since but instead of doing one big breast feed splurge every couple of days we have smaller poos up to three times a day. Lots of nappies!

I think weaning is vey confusing. They are meant to start at 6 months and then by 7 months be on a proper diet??? or is it 8 months or 9? Depends on what you read and who you listen to.

I'd trust your instincts totally. My baby does a mixture of purees and BLW. Now he is 7.5 months he is suddenly finding it much easier to eat sticks of food. At 6 months he didn't have the ability really and I would get frustrated and pop bits into his mouth. Hence I also gave some pureed food alongside.

One thing to be aware of is that from 6 months the newborn iron levels start to diminish and need to be replaced from the baby's food. However, perhaps formula milk has lots of iron in it anyway.

Good luck.

[chantelle]

i agree that grabbing food and getting it into the mouth can be quite a challenge for a baby at 6 or even 7 months (depending on their motor skills, obviously). I did mostly purees to start but would give my son a piece of bread, or cracker, or sliced veg/fruit so he'd have something to hold and practice with. (cheerios are good for mastering the pincer grip.)

It wasn't until he was more like 9 or 10 months that he really could handle food well to get it in his mouth in an efficient manner. Now he's a year and he still gets most of his meals spoon fed, but always has finger foods too (and can now do quite well with the odd sandwich). I know it's one of these philosophical things for people though, so everyone has to figure out what they think works best.

[ludoscotts]

hi I can highly reccommend getting the annabel karmel total meal planner book.(either to buy or borrow from the library for a few days and photocopy the planner pages.) but I was at a total loss too, getting Ella to try things didnt bother me but I could get no advice when she did start eating'meals' as to wether she should still be having milk and how often etc. hv was no help with that and I was told that I waould work it out. After getting this book it really helped it gives you meal charts for every stage so it will say

am-milk

midmorning-snack fruit

lunch milk and ....

midafternoon snack and juice etc...

I found it really helpfull and although I didnt stick to her meal combinations It led me to know how often I should be giving juice and milk and I had a very happy baby.

also a lot of the recipies I found were really good to make up in bigger quantaties for you. Alot of the purees were really nice and she gives tips on making them up into soup for yourself so you dont feel you are totally cooking for little one then having to start over for yourself all the time. there is a really good spinich, leek and potato one that Ella loved and was great with fish for us!!!yumm

def worth getting a copy form library and just copying out the planner pages and it has a planner for each stage up to 1 year.

[ludoscotts]

actually if anyone wants to borrow mine for a week or so Ive promised it to my friend who is fast approaching that stage but will be a couple of weeks till she needs it so if anyone wants to borrow mine let me know