Started weaning

[Rosieroo]

Spoke to DH earlier and have decided to hold off weaning. She's not that interested in being spoonfed, so I am going to just give her rice cakes and bits and bobs for her to try and feed herself. She isn't 6 months yet, but I thought that she was ready. Will hold off for at least 2 more weeks and then I can give her more finger foods.

 

[beanie]

Spoke to DH earlier and have decided to hold off weaning. She's not that interested in being spoonfed, so I am going to just give her rice cakes and bits and bobs for her to try and feed herself. She isn't 6 months yet, but I thought that she was ready. Will hold off for at least 2 more weeks and then I can give her more finger foods.

I am trying to do that but have messed up a bit Seren wants a breakfast so we are spoonfeeding her slop in the morning but isn't too fussed at night so we are letting her have rice cakes, rusk etc. I saw the HV today and she recommended putting Seren on 3 meals but I really want to do the baby fed weaning so am going to give her some finger foods such as banana etc very soon as she handles rusks well.

 

[Rosieroo]

Seren's obviously taken to the puree though, so don't feel bad. Ella got irate again with it this morning. I roasted some parsnip and sweet potato and let her feed herself with that and also gave her rice cakes today. Plus she nabbed my whole apple off of me to suck and chomp on. TBH she didn't eat much and she's happy just boobie feeding. I was planning on giving her baby rice for breakfast and trying to follow BLW for the other meals, but she's not that interested. Don't know why I am worried as the guidelines are 6 months, but it seems like everyone else is doing it and she seemed ready Plus my mum said if I don't do it soon I'll have problems getting her to eat, which frankly is bullcarp but did make me wonder for a teeny while. Also don't know why as my mum told me to give her some mashed up veg with gravy and when I explained gravy is far too salty she got all irate and said 'so she's never having it then?'

 

[beanie]

Seren's obviously taken to the puree though, so don't feel bad. Ella got irate again with it this morning. I roasted some parsnip and sweet potato and let her feed herself with that and also gave her rice cakes today. Plus she nabbed my whole apple off of me to suck and chomp on. TBH she didn't eat much and she's happy just boobie feeding. I was planning on giving her baby rice for breakfast and trying to follow BLW for the other meals, but she's not that interested. Don't know why I am worried as the guidelines are 6 months, but it seems like everyone else is doing it and she seemed ready Plus my mum said if I don't do it soon I'll have problems getting her to eat, which frankly is bullcarp but did make me wonder for a teeny while. Also don't know why as my mum told me to give her some mashed up veg with gravy and when I explained gravy is far too salty she got all irate and said 'so she's never having it then?'

lol, I also have "in my days babies were eating roast dinners by 3 months etc" and I feel like going "in the olden days they gave babies opium as it was meant to be good for them but we have changed since then". I had to laugh at the apple thing as Seren is exactly the same when I eat one, and she loves chomping on pears too. She seems to get bored of solids very quickly, dinner tonight was a hassle, she likes to be able to put things in her mouth so I am thinking of giving her some banana tomorrow. What do you think?

 

[Rosieroo]

Definately - only problem is that babies trying to pick up a piece of banana is like us with slippery soap!! Ella just can't grasp it. Plus she'll only push it to the back of her mouth to swallow if she wants, most of the time Ella bites of chunks of stuff and spits it out. Othertimes you can see her working at it then swallowing a teeny bit

 

[beanie]

Brilliant, I feel much better after reading that link about baby led weaning you gave out a while back. She can have some banana tomorrow

 

[Rosieroo]

This was Ella after having some banana the other day

That BLW site is one of the only decent resources there are. After prompting several times at the bf group I went to last Thursday they finally produced a print off of that website, it was the only info they had and they weren't that familar with it.

 

[beanie]

haha I love that picture, she is too cute even with banana everywhere.

I have struggled loads with finding info about BLW - that link was just fab so massive thank you

 

[Rosieroo]

I can't take the credit I'm afraid as I nabbed it off of another website. Remember you said about the breastapo? Think it's the same place

 

[beanie]

hahahaha, think I'm becoming a lactivict anyway so may as well embrace it full heartedly

 

[Rosieroo]

Be careful, I ended up really depressed as I wasn't the 'perfect breastfeeder' as I express etc. Have avoided there since I gave Ella a bit of slop a few weeks ago as I think they might lynch me.

 

[beanie]

Hun I know what you mean, I gave Seren formula when she was wee so I am not very good either. I already have the PND though...but thanks for looking out for me xxx

 

[Lauz_1601]

hi girls what is baby-led weaning? Im scared to give ella finger food like a banana if it is not pureed? Im worried about her choking?? I also worry when there are small lumps in the veg purees that I have made up for her and I pick them out! please reassure me! im dreading when it comes to finger foods for this reason!

 

[beanie]

hi girls what is baby-led weaning? Im scared to give ella finger food like a banana if it is not pureed? Im worried about her choking?? I also worry when there are small lumps in the veg purees that I have made up for her and I pick them out! please reassure me! im dreading when it comes to finger foods for this reason!

if you give a baby finger foods they can only move the food back and will only swallow it if they are developmentally ready to, therefore there is very little chance of choking. However when spoon feeding this puts the food at the back of the mouth and if the baby isn't ready then there is a risk of choking. Will try and find that link I was on about.

 

[Lauz_1601]

thanks hun that makes sense! I think Ill wait til 6 months though before I give her finger foods and Ill get a baby safe feeder!

 

[beanie]

When is she 6 months (I can't see tickers). Go with what you feel is right.

 

[Rosieroo]

Found this on ABM. Gill Rapley is the main spokesperson for Baby Led Weaning.

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Baby Led Weaning
Gill Rapley, Deputy Programme Director of Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative, spoke about baby-led weaning at the Unicef conference last year: "What is weaning?" asked Gill. "Does it mean starting solids or the cessation of breastfeeding?" We don’t apply a set time for other developmental progressions like smiling or crawling so why do we for weaning? A small group of babies were allowed to follow ‘baby-led weaning’ between the ages of 18-38 weeks. As the babies matured, they became more purposeful and their gross motor abilities and interest in food developed.

The study found that:

The babies began to chew at six months, about the same time as they began to reach out and grasp objects purposefully. At four months, the babies were not ready to feed themselves.

Six months seemed to be the right age developmentally to progress beyond breastfeeding.

Shared mealtimes are important. A baby learns about food from his family. The window of opportunity is for self-feeding rather than spoon-feeding.

Babies like to compare foods and make choices and enjoy mealtimes. The control of the weaning process can be given to the baby. Baby-led feeding from the start!

The study babies were able to attend a picnic at 8-9 months. They ate pizza and sandwiches while the other babies had to put up with babyfood from jars. The other mothers, who had been sceptical about the study, were envious of the study babies’ independence and dexterity!

 

[Rosieroo]

This is really interesting too, it strikes a chord with me about the lack of info over finger foods. What about you Beanie?

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Gentle Weaning
by Rosie Smith, trainee ABM breastfeeding counsellor
Even before Edward was born I was aware that the World Health Organisation and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. Minimising the risk of food allergies is one of the many health benefits. Then I discovered that this view is shared by the UK government, America and India, so I felt sure that this is what I would do. In my naivety I hadn’t expected virtually everyone I met to try to persuade me that introducing solids at four months was much better.

Research
On one of my early visits to my breastfeeding support group, I was interested to hear about some recent research done by Gill Rapley of UNICEF. She had found that those babies who had solids introduced at six months went straight onto chewing finger foods, missing out the messy puree stage completely.

What was more interesting was that those babies progressed quickly onto other foods and were eating virtually the same as their parents within two months. This sounded great to me. Life with a new baby is hard enough without having to cook separate meals and puree everything. So my intentions were fuelled even further.

My calendar
When Edward was 22 weeks old I took him to be weighed by my health visitor. She said that his weight was dropping and as he wasn’t sleeping through the night he needed to have solids. She told me to start with baby rice and handed me a leaflet of recipe suggestions produced by SMA. When I mentioned the WHO/UNICEF recommendations, she replied that 22 weeks wasn’t far off six months.

As my calendar works on 52 weeks in the year (not 44), that was the point where I decided not to return to that clinic where Edward was measured against an old chart that used bottle-fed babies for its statistics. How could something with no nutritional value possibly make Edward put on weight or sleep better in comparison to the full fat of breastmilk?

Stone Age parents
We’d moved to the area when Edward was just three months old, so I joined the postnatal group (run by the same health visitor) with the main aim of meeting other new mums locally. Not surprisingly much of the meeting we had on "weaning" discussed pureeing and how the essential equipment for introducing solids was a hand blender.

My immediate thoughts were, "Why aren’t we born with hand blenders attached to us then?" and "How did the poor Stone Age parents manage?"Much of the discussion mentioned how babies "need to learn to chew" and how they "might not learn if they start solids too late" — quite the opposite of the recent research.

Key signs
Everyone I met asked whether Edward was on solids and didn’t I think he’d sleep better if he was? With the support of my husband, mum, close friend and the support group I ignored all this and continued to breastfeed my son exclusively until he was 27 weeks old and had his six month birthday.

By then, Edward was then clearly showing signs of being ready for more. He was sitting up on his own, showing lots of interest in our food and had the ability to pick up a toy and put it in his mouth.

Big day
My problem was what do I give him? All the books tell you to introduce solids from four months and to puree it all. There was nothing at all that I could find on going straight to finger foods. I’d heard that pear was similar in sweetness to breastmilk and decided to go for that.

The big day arrived. The pear had ripened and softened so I dutifully peeled it and cut it into strips. I put Edward in his high chair and a pear strip on the tray and watched. After a few minutes of sliding it around the tray, he picked up the strip of pear and chewed. Yes, he knew how to chew. I admit he did need a little help to hold such slippery fruit at times, but he had made his intentions very clear.

Hearty meals
Since then he has never looked back. We introduced anything soft enough to cut into strips: steamed carrot, mango, melon, softened apple (in the micro-wave), butternut squash, baby corn, cauliflower, peach ... the list goes on.

Within a few weeks Edward was eating two hearty meals a day and insisting on feeding himself for much of this which is great as I was actually able to eat my own meal completely at the same time. I do confess to using the hand blender when we introduced meat. Apparently the Stone Age method was to chew the meat first which just didn’t appeal very much to me.

Very pleased
So, at the age of nine months does he sleep through the night? No! Don’t be silly! But he does love his food and everyone who watches the spectacle of Edward feeding himself is impressed with the quantity he eats, how well he chews (even though he still has no teeth) and how he has no problem with lumpy foods like rice. I’m pleased with how I introduced the world of solid food to my son and I’m grateful for the support I received. I would certainly do it the same way again if the opportunity arises in a few years’ time.

 

[beanie]

That strikes such a chord with me as Seren has dropped a centile and it was this that made me feel I needed to feed her solids (wish I had more confidence in myself). I diod wonder whether it was because I was a lazy mum as I have hated the thought of pureeing foods, and have only done one tray of carrot (now I only mush up the veg she reaches for on my plate) lol

 

[Rosieroo]

I wish I had waited until she was 6 months instead of losing confidence with myself. She's not interested, so it's fine. But it would have saved a lot of bad feeling if I'd just waited. Wish that there was better support locally. At my bf group last Thursday I was the only one that turned up! And I needed weaning advice but was just shown books, they didn't really have any advice.