about to wean DS but a bit confused with routines?

[mumofben]

My Ds will be 6 months in a few weeks, and will be starting full time nursery at the same time as I'm going back to work. Therefore, I basically have to let them wean him, although I have to give him a taste of everything before they will give it to him in case of reactions etc.

I need a bit of advice though - he currently has 7 - 8 oz formula at roughly 7am, 11, 3, 6.30 and a small amount at 10.30pm.

When he goes to nursery, I'll still give him the 7am and evening milk and see if he cuts out the night feed. BUT, they do lunch at 11.30 and tea at 3.30. This alternates between fresh veg or fruit purees.

Should he still have the 11am bottle before lunch? what about at 3 ish? will he have milk and then tea? If I was going to wean him myself, I would have done tea at around 5 ish, then bath, milk and bed at 6-7.

Also, they can offer breakfast when he goes in at 8 but not all kids have this. Should he be having breakfast? and what do they have at 6 months old? am a bit wary of giving wheat products too soon.

I would be really grateful if anyone has been in similar situation and had to start a weaning routine at around these times.
x

[nappyaddict]

well my niece is 7 months and she has

bottle 7:30 am fruit puree for brekkie
bottle 11:30 am and some form of veg, meat puree
bottle 3:30pm some puree as above
bottle 7:30pm
bed 8pm

[belgo]

mumofben: all babies are different when it comes to weaning, some are ready way before others. Milk should still form the biggest part of his diet until the age of one, so don't be in any hurry to cut out his milk during the day.

You say the nursery gives food at 11.30 and 3.30. I would use these times as a basis to start weaning. For example give him half of his usual milk at 11.00, then offer him food. Then offer him the rest of his bottle.

If that goes well, then do the same for 3.30. The hardest part is trying not to stress out about it if your ds doesn't seem keen on weaning.

If you do have problems weaning him onto purees, there is another method of weaning you can use called baby led weaning.

[mumofben]

Thank you, nappyadict, that's reassuring that she still has all her milk as well as the solids, I reckon DS will follow a very similar routine once he starts.

Belgo, I would have done the baby led weaning if I wasn't going back to work - I have to do whatever the nursery does though, and they use purees. At least it's freshly prepared though, and they don't give any sweets / biscuits etc or white bread. You're right about the stressing though! It all seems so complicated at the moment - eg what if as you say he has half the milk but then doesn't have the rest after the solids?

[clairemow]

hi mumofben,

I remember with DS1 that I used to offer him half his milk around 11, then solids, then offer the rest of the milk. He may naturally cut down on the second half of the milk once he's eating solids. I wouldn't worry too much, as he will eventually drop milk at lunchtime anyway as his intake of solids increases. Also, once he's having solids at breakfast after his milk (DS still has milk when he gets up before bfast at 2.8), you'll hopefully find that he can happily go until 11.30 before he has his lunch. The nursery will probably offer a snack between bfast and lunch once solids are more established which will also help.

In the afternoons, you may find that his routine is just different at nursery to at home. At home, DS always had milk after his nap at around 2.30/3, and then tea at 5, so the milk was essentially a snack. If your nursery give him the milk at his normal time and then offer solids at 3.30, he may not want the solids at that time, but you could give him some when he gets home instead.

It always amazed me how my DS coped with different routines on the days he was in nursery. For a long time, he always had a banana or some toast when he got home as their tea time was much earlier than we had it at home, and he would eat less as he was having milk when he woke up. It didn't affect his intake of milk at bedtime at all.

I've got the same issue coming up with DS2 (4 1/2 months now), when I go back to work when he's 6 months. Sigh, not really looking forward to leaving something so important to someone else .

[DizzyBint]

dd's going to nursery and i've got them on board with baby led weaning. ok yes she did start off with me at home, she's 8 months now and starts nursery next week. however, if you mention it to them they may go for it if that's what you want to do. so when dd's having her food she'll have what they call 'toddler meals' while the others are on their purees.

[Mumpbump]

I would ask the nursery if they can give him his lunch at 11, rather than 11:30. My nursery fitted in with my ds' routine, rather than the other way around.

There are lots of books on weaning routines and they all seem to be different, but I followed one where you introduce babyrice at 11 for 3 days, then changed it for different purees (changing every 3 days) whilst giving baby rice at 5 (or probably 6:30 in your case if he's happy to wait that long). You mix a bit of pear in with the dinner to prevent constipation and the idea is that you only introduce new foods at lunch in case they cause indigestion - you don't want a baby with indigestion overnight!! Seemed logical to me and worked quite well. HTH.

[Twinklemegan]

Mumpbump - think I've got the same book lol.

Mumofben - I'm not very experienced with weaning yet, but perhaps if he did have breakfast then he'd be able to wait until their lunchtime at 11.30? Then it'd only be the same 4 hour gap before tea at 3.30. I think they're supposed to progress pretty quickly on to three meals a day. If he won't take three meals straightaway, then he could maybe have a smaller milk feed at 11am followed by solids at 11.30 as other posters have said? I'm sure the nursery will be pretty experienced at all this.

I really sympathise though - I'm going back to work soon (Monday in fact ) and took the decision to start some tiny amounts of solids before 6 months (also for medical reasons) so that it would be getting established before I went back. My DH is looking after DS though - he's only going to nursery one day a week. I'm certainly not recommending you to wean early though, before anyone jumps on me!

[mumofben]

Thanks everyone, I also have the book that can't be named!! I suppose I will have to let them give him his tea early at 3.30, then when I pick him up at 6, there'll be just enough time for bath bottle and bed.

Good luck for Monday, Twinklemegan, hope it all goes well! I have actually given him his first teaspoon of babyrice after his 11 am feed (as per book) but he vomited a few hrs later. I think I'll give the rice a miss and try potatoes and carrots this weekend, as by the time he starts at the nursery, all they'll be giving him are fresh fruit and veg but he has to have tried it at home first. It's buggered up the weaning routine I had planned to use, but as all the posters have said, it seems he'll be ok!

[Twinklemegan]

Well I didn't use babyrice on it's own for more than two days because DS hated it. Went pretty much straight onto mixing it with pear or apple which he absolutely loves. The book is really useful as a guide but I've not stuck to it to the letter. For example, I don't give solids at his early evening feed.

[mumofben]

when do you give him his "tea" then? I'm hoping once he has his tea at 3.30 at nursery, that he won't need anything else other than his 7pm bottle?