Aitch how do you BLW a premature baby??

[SparklyGothKat]

I know I have 9 weeks before we start weaning but is it possible? Callum will only be 20 weeks adjusted.

[puffylovett]

you need Tinksmum if she's around anywhere... bumping for you...

[SparklyGothKat]

bump

[Lulumama]

surely it will be just the same as weaning a full term baby

the whole point is, when the baby is ready , physically and developmentally, they are ready for BLW... i.e can sit up, hold their heads up well, lost tongue thrust reflex, can pick food up, chew and swallow....... if you were doing puree weaning, would you not be waiting until around 26 weeks anyway....going from when he should have been born?

don;t know the rules but surely it would be better to wait until later to make sure his gut is mature enough?

[SparklyGothKat]

you start weaning at 26 from birth, rather than due date, thats why I am confused

[Lulumama]

really?? i am really surprised
i would have thought the reverse would be true..to wean from when he was due.....surely less time in utero is less time to develop ?? i suppose with BLW there is more chance of baby being ready for food if you let them take the lead

[SparklyGothKat]

its because he has been having milk from 34 weeks, so the gut delevopes faster (i think)

[Lulumama]

oh i see. that is interesting

have you had a look at aitch's blog to see if there is anything about it on there?

[SparklyGothKat]

any advice anyone, I have looked on the blog and can't find anything

[Aitch]

the forum might be more useful, sparkly. here

or here

and here

that'll get you started...

i know nothing aobut preemies myself, i have no experience there, but from what i've read the sensible thing might be to look at his overall development and go from there. after all, if he was a term baby at 6 mos and the mum was saying 'he can't pick stuff up', we'd be reasonably confident in saying 'just leave it a week'. so with preemies, what's the rush? is it something to do with stores of vits or something? why aren't they subject to the same kind of 'things to look for' as term babies? have the docs said, kat? (i'm curious to know, it's really interesting i think) [geek]

[TinkerbellesMum]

Awww Puffy

I've just read back through all those posts and there are some good ideas in there. The one I thought summed things up best (this is one of mine) though was this:

I don't think there is any proper advice for premature babies, it all seems to be based on normal advice and whether or not it should fit premature babies.

My advice for any baby is to follow their development. Some babies will follow the corrected age, some will follow their birth age, some will follow their own pattern (I know this is true for any baby, but when you are talking about prematurity you could be talking about the difference of 2 or 3 months rather than 2 or 3 weeks).

Look for all the standard signs and when they are showing them, try them.

TBH if you are following BLW and not trying to feed the child yourself, then it doesn't make any difference anyway.

I think the same goes with postmature babies too.

[TinkerbellesMum]

Aitch,

what's the rush?

No one has experimented on premature babies (AFAIK) so you get this mix of "think of them as two months younger" and "they are still six months" so it's difficult to know which one to follow when.

is it something to do with stores of vits or something?

The last weeks of pregnancy do several things, baby is fully developed, so they are:
growing;
their eyes are retracting into their head (why prem babies often have big eyes);
they are getting iron stores (which is why you have to give iron drops to a prem baby and partly why there is confusion over what to do for the best when weaning);
they are getting antibodies (which is why prem babies are prone to getting ill); and
they are getting fat cells (which is why they tend to be skinny as it's the only time in your life you get fat cells).

why aren't they subject to the same kind of 'things to look for' as term babies?

See above.

[Aitch]

but if they're already on iron then that's not an issue, surely? and fats-wise... they're going to get more of them from milk are they not, regardless of age. is the answer just that no-one actually knows? i'm just wondering what the doctors say.

[TinkerbellesMum]

You get fat from foods, but you don't get more fat cells, they're only made prenatally, you get fat (as in putting on weight) when you add fat to the fat cells because they enlarge. If you ever see a programme on lipo they will say that too. I'm no expert and it's been awhile since it's been explained to me so that's probably not the best way it can be explained.

Dr's say different things to each other, to MWs, NNMWs, HVs etc, because they just don't know. You end up seeing people who aren't experts in premature babies and they dish out the same old advice they give to other parents. There is some good information out there and some good professionals, but it's all hard to come by.

[WillTurner]

This might help - it's been researched extensively by a mum of 25 weeker on another site I use and she posted this recently:

There are NO guidelines for weaning a premature baby.Even Bliss acknowledge in their literature that the guidelines for weaning are based on healthy FULL TERM babies and not prems. Also there is currently more and more research to show that weaning a prem baby at uncorrected age can lead to a higher risk of allergies and food intollerances than if you leave it till corrected age especially in extremely prem infants.In the states they have recently done research which suggests that the GUT of a prem infant does not 'speed up' developmentally in order to make it ready for solids at 4-6 months uncorrected and in fact matures at a slightly slower rate than if it had been developing in the womb still.
Weaning ages are based on the World health organisation guidelines which also are JUST for full term infants and not prems.

Hope this info helps a little.

[SparklyGothKat]

soooo confused (doesn't take a lot lol) Callum is 4 months now and I weaned my other kids at 4 months (before guidelines changed) but he is sooooo not ready for food yet. Should I wait till he is 6 months or 7.5 months? He can hold his head up and seems to be devolping at the same rate as my sister's baby who was born 4 days before him and at 38 weeks.

[Lulumama]

you need to wait until he is ready, and not compare to a full term baby

the whole point of BLW is that it comes into play when the baby is developmentally ready for food. so take your lead from callum. there is often a growth spurt around 14 -1 6 weeks and 18 - 20 weeks, which can lead parents to introduce food.

remember that staring at food, and waking more are not signs of readiness, milk is the most important source of nutrition for the first year anwya, and the start of weaning is about tastes and textures not whole meals, or replacing milk feeds

from what has been posted, it would seem that going by his corrected age would be a good thing?

[SparklyGothKat]

He isn't sleeping through the night yet so am still happily feeding him, and knowing that he doesn't need food yet is very strange.I weaned Dd1 (who was a 31 weeker) at 15 weeks old (so 6 weeks corrected) I am actually shocked that I was adviced to do that.

[Lulumama]

yes, that is kind of early just keep on doing what you are doing, and wait to see what happens in a couple of months or so

[SparklyGothKat]

My Hv adviced me to do it.. I didn;t think about it at the time. We are still breastfeeding and he has one bottle a day of formula in the evening. I will follow Callum's lead.

[TinkerbellesMum]

It is scary when you look at it in those terms, my SIL weaned my neice before she was term! She wasn't even as early as Tink

Latest studies have found that children don't need food in their first year, it doesn't have as much in it as milk does so there isn't the same rush anymore (theoretically in advice) to get solids into children or to replace the milk meals with solid meals. It is a shock I should imagine when you have older children and have been told the importance of solid food for years!

Don't think of Callum as being any age, just watch his developmental age, when he is behaving like a six month old, then think of him as six months. Age is a horrible thing with a premature baby, you end up having several "ages" to factor into things, real age, CGA, size, clothes size, developmental age...

WRT growth spurts, they will happen at the CGA, but you may also find him having them at his birth age too, so try to look at both ages when he goes through them before you decide if it is a hunger thing.

If it helps, Tink is 18 months old and I'm looking at all of this thinking "how do you remember all of this?" but I did, it becomes second nature as you go through it.

[AitchTwoOh]

before term? blimey.
i think your instinct just to let him lead the way is correct, really. i mean the thing is, with BLW you just let them do it when they're ready so if there's no urgent nutritional need because he's prem then i'd take my time.

[SparklyGothKat]

I spoke to my HV today and she said that I should wait till Callum is about 7 months. And that we shouldn't use purees and should go onto finger food (I think she has heard of BLW lol)

[AitchTwoOh]

oh she sounds Very Cool Indeed...
isn't it amazin to think of what you were going through about a year ago, skg? all that heartache, and here you are.

[SparklyGothKat]

Yep, this time last year we were just getting over the EP, and wondering if we should try in feb. and the on the 28th feb, I found out I was pregnant with Callum

[AitchTwoOh]

it's so wonderful, isn't it? and here you are talking about weaning him...