Ok so how is this weaning lark done?

[Annie050408]

Ella is now 16 weeks (4 months on Sat) and although she was a month prem I generally treat her as a 4 month old rather than her adjusted age. She now sleeps between 10-12 hours per night and takes 4 bottles of 7oz per day at 4 hour intervals.

When and how do I wean her? Do I start adding a spoonful of baby rice to her last bottle in the evening or do you go straight to blending simple veg and giving her a taste? I have the Anabell Karbel (sp?) book so I know what I'm going to blend but I'm not sure when to give food. Do you just give baby rice for a week or 2 first?

Also, and finally....when do you start this?

Thanks in advance. x

 

[Sam's Mum]

It's not recommended to put baby rice in the bottles, but if you want to start her on little tastes of baby rice, mix a bit with her milk in a little cup or bowl and feed her it with a spoon
Sam wasn't that keen on baby rice though, and I started both of mine on pureed veg - you can mix it with a bit of milk if you like, although they were both a bit older (5 and 6 months). You're meant to try one thing for a couple of days just in case they have a reaction to it, and then you can try something else and then start combining things - apple is good for mixing in with carrot, butternut squash etc. It's also best not to give food just before bed just in case they do have some sort of reaction (although it's unlikely if you don't have a family history of allergies). I started at lunchtime at first, with just one meal a day for the first couple of weeks - but everyone does things differently and of course all babies are different so you'll soon see how well she takes to it and go from there!
The Annabel Karmel books are great x

 

[lanny]

I've just started Herbie I just got him the baby rice with flavours in it so he has different tastes, I started him on a morning because he sleeps through the night anyway like ella and I get him his before I get him dress as he likes to put his hand in his mouth as he eats and can make a right mess of himself,
The last couple of days I've started giving him a bit more at supper time before his bath as he loves it so much.
this wk I just wanted him to get use to swallowing etc and I think next wk Im going to start him on some veg xxxx

 

[inky]

Cahal had his first pureed carrot today, he loved it!

 

[tinkerbell86]

i was wondering this too! when you add their milk to food does it have to be warm or room temp?

 

[Annie050408]

Ok so last night I gave Ella her normal bottle, then around 15ml of baby rice from a spoon (only half or so went down and the rest smeared across her face!!) then bath and the rest of her bottle- she was confused at first but then started eating from the spoon reasonably well. As usual she slept 11 hours so so far so good I think.

Just one question- is the baby rice supposed to be that runny- It just seemed like thickened milk?

 

[lanny]

you can make it up as thick or thin as you like just adding more or less milk, herbie likes his like a paste if its too thick he borks and too thin like you say it just runs out of there mouth,
sounds like its going well for ella xxx