Weaning a 23 week old baby?

[paintedredroses]

Hi! First post other than my newbie one and just looking for some expert advice.

I've been to the weaning class, but DD spent the whole time screaming so I really didn't get much out of it bar a pack of information that is going over my head. Anyway, she has been showing signs of wanting to move onto solids for a little while now but I've been resisting, and only started to introduce a very small amount of baby rice into her diet yesterday and today, from late morning to early afternoon.

She absolutely loves the stuff! So, thinking of being brave, I have written up a schedule for the next week, and I just wanted to know if you thought it was viable/good for her. I've been doing a lot of research, reading, looking into it, but I don't want to make an error and muck up how good she is at feeding just because I'm excited about this next phase. Any help would be totally appreciated. I'm a first timer so a little anxious about getting things right.

Okay, I think that's my ramble over! The tl;dr: nervous first time mum has written up a feeding schedule for her baby, is she nuts?

[Artandco]

Hmm it's is a little ott, you do know a baby at 6 months can eat anything right?

So you can just carry on giving her milk as usual then at breakfast, lunch and dinner just put her in highchair and give her a bit of whatever your eating?

Baby rice has completely no nutrition btw and isn't recommended anymore also due to high Arsnic levels for a baby.

As an idea the first day mine ate food they had sometime like:

Wake - milk
Breakfast - a taste of Dh porridge, plus a half a banana in their hand to taste and play with and try themselves
Mid morning - milk
Lunch -milk
Second lunch - a bit of cheese and some chicken breast I was eating also.
Mid afternoon - milk
Dinner - some cooked veg from our meal
Evening - milk

[mrschatty]

Hi op
I have a 20w dd not weaning yet but started to look into it.
My HV said we should be starting with veg eg broccoli carrot etc as if we start with fruit they get a taste for the sweet stuff and don't eat veg has anyone else had that advice or is HV out of touch
Exciting times op

[paintedredroses]

art, really?! It's the one food everyone was telling me to start her off with It makes sense it has no nutritional value, I assumed it was more to get her used to the sensation of a different texture going into her mouth? I'll definitely look into it more, thanks for the help! (I know it's a little OTT, I'm just so unorganised normally).

mrs, yeah - I did wonder about the fruit thing because I'd heard similar. A lot of sites kept putting it up so I thought I was in the wrong. Thanks though, you're right that I should start with the veg. Very exciting, I hope it goes well for you

[Artandco]

Also the food is very little amounts so the milk feeds shouldn't be reduced yet. So if they usually have say 6 milk feeds a day, you keep that same and add the food after a few gradually ( feeding foods when they have already had milk means they don't get frustrated as not starving)

[Artandco]

Your better off giving a smooth porridge rather than baby rice if you want similar. You can give ready break as its just blitzed oats and contains no sugar or salt ( and far cheaper than 'baby porridge')

[BertieBotts]

Oh bless :)

You will probably look back and think this is a little nuts but never mind. If it helps, it's not doing any harm and it makes you happy then why not?

I did not do baby rice myself but I think there's no harm in it as long as you're not giving loads and hence displacing the milk which is much more valuable at this stage.

But yep, a friendly nudge saying you can relax if you want to. It's okay to be disorganised. As a disorganised person myself I had a great time doing baby led weaning, which is basically skipping the purees and just giving them soft finger foods to explore, it's fascinating and because they eat so little at first it means you can be fairly haphazard, just give her a little bit of what you're eating if she happens to be awake and interested when you're making food.

At about a year when DS was mostly on solids was when I found I had to be more structured about food and it helped him a lot at that point. But at 5/6 months, no desperate need unless it helps you.

[BertieBotts]

YY food is supplemental to milk from 6-9 months ish. So don't drop any feeds yet, just add food slowly as an extra, and consider cutting back on food if she is dropping milk feeds. By about 8-9 months it's okay to let the milk feeds start to drop following her lead and food take over.

[EmzDisco]

I've done baby led weaning with my DD, started a touch before 6 months with a roast dinner and not looked back! As PP just gave her whatever we are eating. Today she has had toast, berries, tuna, toms, cucumber and will have salmon and asparagus for tea. She's just turned 8 months and loves meal times, and especially loves going out to lunch!

You don't need to do schedules and purées and all that faff if you don't want to. I do make some purées but just to mix into yoghurt or porridge.

[nicolasixx]

What Art and Ems say is spot on.. I absolutely agree. The HV a pp mentioned above is clearly well out of touch! I just give a bit of whatever is to hand so long as not too salty/processed. At 11 months my baby eats anything at all that tastes good! If you want to follow a very prescriptive schedule, Gina Ford (!) has a weaning book with X cubes at Y o'clock sort of thing, if you are nervous, (more like your production above) but I really wouldn't recommend it. BLW is absolutely brilliant.

[nicolasixx]

And Bertie sorry... Great advice

[Windsofwinter]

Another BLWer here! We just gave DD chip-sized pieces of whatever (unprocessed) food we were eating from 6months-ish. No need for purée or baby rice (yuck!)