Bf and solids question

[CheekyGirl]

For those of you out there who are weaning your bf baby, what do you mix solids with???

i have been weaning ds age 6mths for a few days now and have been using expressed milk to mix his rice etc with, but don't really know if i want to always use it as I defrost the smallest volume I have in freezer but still end up wasting loads which I hate.

Does anyone else use formula or water or????????

[Lilliput]

I have started weaning this week too, I have put breastmilk into ice cube trays, take out a cube for babyrice, defrost in microwave.

[mears]

I just expressed the amount I needed there and then by hand into the bowl .

[misdee]

didnt thinmk its was advisable to microwave breastmilk?

[Gem13]

I used cows milk for mixing when I weaned DD at 6 months. All the advice said it was suitable for cooking.

I used expressed milk for DS who I weaned at 4 months (he is my oldest) and then switched to cows milk at 6 months for him.

It was great not to faff around for DD!

[FionaJT]

I started weaning my dd 3 weeks ago (just past 5 months) and after a few days of rice with expressed milk I went to half milk half water, and now she's happy to have it just with water. I don't have supplies of breastmilk in the freezer so it now depends on whether I have the time/energy to express some each morning. (Although I have started freezing some in ice cube trays.)

[chipmonkey]

Yes misdee, thats what I thought too, but maybe its OK for solids?? I always do one last express just before I go to bed and leave it in the fridge, I can then tip a little bit out at a time to mix with food. If its been there fot almost 48 hours and I haven't used it, I freeze it. Once they're over 6 months its fine to use cows milk anyway. I weaned ds3 a little early because I had been having trouble getting him to take a bottle and was afraid he'd have nothing all day when I go back to work.

[NotQuiteCockney]

I didn't do anything with milk in it for my DS2. But then, he's mostly just had family foods, as he started at almost 6 months. For my DS1, I used EBM or water.

[LIZS]

I used to heat the food - carrot puree or whatever - and then add an ice cube of ebm which would melt and cool it all down. For cereals I just took a few out at a time to thaw to use during the day or used cereals to which could just add water. For dd didn't really use milk when weaning unless happened to have some handy or until I had given her formula already.

[CheekyGirl]

Thanks all so far!!

Mears - lol, I will try that!!!

[hunkermunker]

I just gave DS bits of finger food and topped him up with breastmilk.

[CarolinaMoon]

I didn't do any babyrice, and just used tap water to thin mashed or pureed food if necessary. You can use cow's milk if you want in cooking and on cereals, just not to replace bf/formula (it isn't nutritious enough).

[sazhig]

Didn't need to mix food with anything as we skipped purees and went straight into finger foods. Purees are not necessary if you start solids after 6 months - they were only used becasue babies used to start solids before they could chew etc. Save yourself the work & just offer sticks & wedges of suitable food for your LO to feed himself.

[CarolinaMoon]

sazhig, we've both been on a similar thread before and I meant to ask you what sort of quantities of finger foods you give your baby. I find ds will eat far more of sloppy purees of sweet fruit and veg (esp stewed apple) than of finger foods like cooked carrot. I'm currently doing that sort of finger food most of the time, but a small doubting voice in my head (and tbh the rather more audible voice of dp) wonders whether ds is ever going to develop an enthusiasm for food that isn't breastmilk. He's just turned 8mths.

[sazhig]

CarolinaMoon - When I started DS on solids (when he was 1 week off 7 months) He barely ate half a stick (if that) at first. But then graduated up to about 1 stick approx - hard to tell from the bits he spat out & dropped etc. I then upped to 2 meals a day (lunch & supper) when he was 9 months. And he ate about 1 stick per meal. By this time he had quite a good range of foods so we started offering a mixture of things at evey meal. He usually had a bit of everything.

At 10 months his appetite increased loads so I started giving breakfast and he also started eating etc outside meals (usually if I have something to eat I give him something as well as he wants to join in!). He doesn't eat very much at breakfast anymore so I think that was a growth spurt, but I am still offering it as he likes to join in.

Today so far he has had (all self fed) -
2 teaspoons of quinoa porridge with banana
handful of grapes & blueberries
half a small carrot
(we were aout for lunch so I took lots of 'tidy' finger foods for him to eat!)
And I am not sure what he will eat for dinner as I haven't cooked it yet! But he usually has quite a lot at the evening meal - small bowl of meat, veg & potato or rice. Last night he even had some fruit for pudding (quarter of a plum) as he was still hungry!

I have only really started seeing solid food as nutrition or actually satisfying his hunger in the last month as before that he never ate very much at all. Mealtimes for him were really a chance to play with some new tasty toys!

Hope that helps - let me know if you want any more tips!

Sorry for the hijack as well!!

[CarolinaMoon]

Thanks Sazhig, that's v interesting. It's amazing how different that approach is from all the mainstream stuff (e.g. Annabel Karmel), and it is obviously working well for your ds .

[hunkermunker]

It's about letting hte baby set the pace. You don't "start your baby on crawling or walking" and if you said you were going to try, people would think you were mad, so why on earth "start them" on food by pouring it down their necks?

[CarolinaMoon]

I know, I know, HM... I just find it rather strange that people are so keen to get their babies onto solids - I waited till 6m and so many people said to me 'oh I tried that but couldn't, s/he was too hungry/not sleeping through/whatever'. Dp tends to throw his hands up in horror at the weekends when he sees ds throwing yet another carrot stick onto the floor. I suppose it's the fact that ds is quite keen to eat some things and not others that makes me wonder if he's going to be a fussy eater later on, but there's probably not much that can be done about that at this stage.

[hunkermunker]

I think they're less likely to be fussy if they've had control over what they're eating from an early age (ie, the beginning of eating). Obviously you're still choosing the food they eat, but they choose how much to eat of it, etc.

[sazhig]

Yep - thats partly why I did it - ds is breastfed on demand so I saw no reason to start physically feeding him - he'd been helping himself to my boobs since he was little!

I am also extremely lazy & was glad when I found a some info on the web about weaning without making purees!

[CarolinaMoon]

I actually quite like the purees, funnily enough. They are nice in this weather - just put a couple of cubes in a pot, take it out with you and by lunchtime, voila! A carrot and pear sorbet!

I suppose I've been thinking that ds spoon-feeding himself (with me handing him the spoons with food on them) is a necessary part of him learning to use cutlery for later on, but maybe this isn't the case.

Ds has always chosen how much to have though - I don't make him clear his plate before he gets down from the highchair

[NotQuiteCockney]

When they self-feed it is hard to see how much they're getting. But a stick of carrot, or bread with butter, or other finger food, is generally more nutritionally dense than a puree, as it's not got any added water in it.

I have no idea how much my DS2 eats, but he normally has some bread and some veg every day, and maybe some meat, in each case probably not more than one big english chip-sized portion. Oh, and I try to get at least half a dried apricot down him, to get some iron in.