Weening

[Xmaxsmumx]

When weaning how much fluid should your baby be taking?? My baby is taking a full bowl of porridge which has increased from a taste and full bottle, right up to full breakfast and no milk. Maybe an oz. same with dinner. But he doesn't seem to really like water .. or atleast want it. How much does he need to stay hydrated?? Getting bit worried. He's nearly 6 months weened early adv by peadiatrician xx

[MrsBriteSide]

Try spacing out the food and bottles. So I’ll give my 7 month old a 6oz bottle upon waking. Then a couple of hours later she has solid food (porridge, fruit, weetabix etc). I give her water from a sippy cup with this. An hour or so later (might be longer) she wants a bottle so I give her another 6oz. She doesn’t always drink it all. If I give solid food and then a bottle straight away, she’s too full to drink it.

Keep offering water with all solid meals. Have you tried different types of cups?

[Xmaxsmumx]

I was saying to my husband they usually still have a morning and an evening one. But I don't understand where all these meals fit in aswell cz he goes to bed at 6,30 🤷🏻‍♀️ so when he gets up at 5,30 give him a bottle...then around 8ish give him porridge? Then 10.30 milk then 12.30 dinner? I don't think he'll touch his dinner doing it that way because he was on 6 hourly bottles and seems to be ok for 5ish hours now he's weening..dya think it would be ok if I gave him his bottle at 5.30-6..porridge at 8..then his dinner with no milk, tea at around 4.30 and then a bottle before bed?? I don't even know if he'd take that last bottle. He's not awake enough hours to take all that spaced out 😂 I'm offering water between meals. If he only takes maybe 10/20ml at a time is that normal??

[MrsBriteSide]

I had exactly the same trouble as you - wondering how the hell to fit all the food, naps and bottles in. Then I remembered that milk should be their main source of calories at this young age so I made sure to always give a bottle on waking and then try to fit solid meals in. If it helps, a typical day for us looks like this:

6.30am wake
7.00am 6oz bottle
9.00am nap
10.00am solid food for breakfast
11.30/12 noon 6oz bottle
12.30pm nap
2.00pm solid food
3.30pm/4.00pm 6oz bottle
5.00pm might squeeze a solid food snack in before bath.
6.00pm (ish) 6oz bottle
6.30pm bedtime!

She wakes between 10pm and midnight for another 6oz bottle. Then sleeps through til morning.

Of those bottles, sometimes she will only drink 3oz. I learned not to stress as she’s still getting a good amount of milk in between eating solids.

Bear in mind you are working slowly up to getting him on to 3 meals a day by 9 months old. Even then he will still be having bottles (but probably less). Solid food is still secondary to milk at the moment. You just got to offer food when you can.

I don’t know how much water my DD drinks as I don’t measure it but she will take a few good glugs/sips when offered with solid food. I don’t offer her water in between times. She waits for her milk bottle. How about just offering your baby water with his solids? Then you aren’t filling him up with water instead of milk. I let my DD eat for a while and offer her water towards the end of the meal.

[mindutopia]

I would carry on offering him his same bottles as usual plus food. He may not want the bottles, but I would offer them. When you start weaning, at least for the first few months, you are literally feeding them all the time. We started on solids at 6 months, but mine continued to have 6 months until around 9 months, then it dropped down to just 4. Then to two around 13 months.

It really doesn't matter if he's not hungry after the bottles. Food is just for fun still at this age and he should be getting most of his nutrition and calories still from milk up to about 1. I would continue to offer milk first around when he usually wants it and then food an hour or two after, but don't be too bothered if he doesn't each loads. He will eventually. He's just still very small. Mine didn't start to eat loads of solids and drop milk til about 9/10 months.

[mindutopia]

I didn't even offer water at meals or between until 9 months as they'll get plenty from continuing to have as much milk as they want.

[Hanconelly]

My baby is just coming up 5 months and is ready to ween ! He is always hungry I've started giving him some baby porridge or fruit purer's which all say 4+ on the packaging at dinner time and my health visitors has gone mad saying he shouldn't be allowed anything untill 6 months !? Am I hurting him he seems to enjoy it and eats it all don't really want to take it away now unless it will harm him !

[AssassinatedBeauty]

@Hanconelly The baby food products say 4+ months because the manufacturers want to sell them to as many people as possible. It's not illegal so they will keep doing it. NHS advice is to wait till around 6 months to start weaning. There's no rush to start. However at 5 months your baby is unlikely to be harmed by weaning, although there's no benefit to it. Breastmilk (or formula) is more nutritious than any porridge or fruit purée, so that should be the priority for a while yet. Don't try to drop any milk feeds or increase the food you're giving him - you don't want to replace milk with less nutritious food.

[rubyroot]

We found a nuk bottle really helped. It’s the transition one, maybe it’s abput finding the right bottle. Keep offering and he’ll get used to it in the end. It doesn’t really matter at this stage if he’s still having a fair bit of milk