Started weaning at 16+5!

[LadyCarCar]

Really just posting for tips and info / advice.

So as title, started today. Have given one spoon of rice with milk for brekky and then botles as usual and one more spoon of rice for he 'dinner' time feed.

He doesnt really know whats going on. When we usually feed (bottle) IF the bottle comes out for whatever reason; you move, he sucks the teat in - then he will WAIL like a banshee.

When he is ready for a bottle, the second you sit down with him, as he knows the bottle is coming, he will WAIL till the teat is in his mouth.

As i was decided to give the rice first, as we sat down - he started wailing!! He did it between every mouthful and i ended up having to let him drink milk to stop the crying and get him to swallow/drink down the rice.

On the plus he didnt spit or puke any up!

Is there anyway to perhaps stop this wailing - im figuring perhaps feed him baby rice at a non-bottle time, so that he understands the difference - but would this throw him out of sorts?

Thanks

[Cattleprod]

Was there a reason for starting weaning so early?

[LadyCarCar]

He was barely going 2 hours between feeds. Spoke to a lot of people and just adding a few spoons of rice adds some substance which hopefully will make him go a bit longer. So far today it has worked. He's only really a week off 4 months which is when you can start.
Theres so much info out there, dont do this, dont do that. My mum weaned me at 12 weeks, and i dont think i turned out too bad!

My mother in law told me to put baby rice in the bottles!! But im giving that one a miss!

[AppleAndBlackberry]

I think the advice on weaning earlier than 6 months is to give the milk before solids anyway so you don't replace too much of the milk intake with other things.

[Seona1973]

Milk should be first as it is much more important. I normally gave solids an hour or more after milk

[clarinsgirl]

Hi Ladycarcar, Advice for a few years now has been to wait until 6 months before weaning (of course there are lots of stories of very early weaning from a generation ago)

How much milk is baby taking at feeds? In your position I'd try to get some advice on how to increase time between feeds rather than wean so young.

[LadyCarCar]

The rice is made with the milk and both times today he finished the rice and finished the bottle off. My son has no problem with bottles, he has finished nearly every single bottle he's had since birth.

Plus the amount of rice is so small. But it was useful to have milk so that he could 'rinse' the rice from his chops.

[LadyCarCar]

Hes on 6 x 6oz bottles, but he tends to get very frantic around 1 hour 50 mins. Using the rice is the best option ive discussed in order to get him closer to 4 hours without going mad. Hes done 3 hours 30 mins between after the rice today.

[YaMaYaMa]

I don't think that you should be weaning so early.

[LadyCarCar]

Without needing to up his bottles a significant amount, the rice just holds a little heavier in his belly - its pretty much just thick milk.

[purpleflower123]

I'd leave the rice for a couple of weeks and up his bottles to 8oz.

Good luck :)

[catsareevil]

Could he not just have a little more milk? If he is that hungry it sounds like he might need more.

[EauRouge]

Were any of the people you spoke to about early weaning paediatricians? 16 weeks is very early to introduce solids. I would ask your HV for a referral or have a good chat with your HV about it.

[ragged]

Why should a baby have to wait more than 2 hours between feeds? I don't go more than 2 hours without something to drink or eat, either.

[MigratingCoconuts]

go for it! I weaned both mine at 4 months for exactly the same reason. I think if I had left them for another two months they would have started eating the furniture in hunger.

it worked absolutely fine and my first was at the advice of the health visitor. They are now prefectly healthy 6 and 4 year olds...

I don't think it is too early.

[InFlames]

I weaned at 20 weeks - before this DS was having much more than 6x 6oz bottles.

If you think more milk won't work, then try spoonful an hour or so after food- but 2 teaspoons of baby rice a day won't make a massive difference.

Is he showing any other signs of readiness?

[essexmumma]

If you wean early you always offer the milk first! Before this though I would try hungry milk formula if bottle feeding and increasing to 8oz. I did this with my DD and it delayed weaning her at such a young age. She was 5 months when I started using baby porridge in the end, still a bit early but better for her digestive system. Good luck.

[Icoulddoitbetter]

It sounds as though he is going through through the 4 month growth spurt so he just needs more milk, not baby rice. You are starting very very early and without good up to date advice from HV's there are risks involved in what you are doing.
The BDA has revised it's advice recently, is your baby showing any other signs of readiness other than hunger? Developmentally it'd be very early for him to be doing so.
I know people who started at just over four months, but that was with dietician advice and mainly because of severe reflux.
The four month stage is horrid, I remember it well, but it does pass. Milk is what a baby needs at this stage, not baby rice. Sorry

[LadyCarCar]

Its true about the growth spurt thing. We had him weighed at one point and 3 weeks later he actually 'looked' bigger. We got him weighed again, and he had put on a kilo.
Im scared to increase the mlk to a big jump incase the causes him to gain more weight - more than a healthy amount. The thing with the rice is to just get something a little heavier in his belly. The bottles havent changed and he is only having in terms of calories - 2 spoons of baby rice - which as i said before - is literally thick milk.

I will put the milk up soon but i know he is going to want more than is on offer, but im not going to overfeed him - i think stuffing him full of milk is a lot worse than using a minimal amount rice to keep him satiated a little while longer.

Thank you MigratingCoconuts for your vote of confidence - should i say - the only one!!

I love my son - im not going to be feeding him maccy d chips any time soon!

[TandB]

36 oz a day really isn't that much, particularly given the big growth spurt around this age.

My DS was on 50 to 60oz a day at the same age and never went longer than 3 hours between bottles. Often it was 2 hours or so.

Milk is really all they need at this age - it is far more nutritious than anything else. If you give rice then all you are doing is artificially telling him that he has had enough. He will go longer between feeds because the rice fills him up, but he won't necessarily be getting what he needs. If he wants more milk more often then give him more milk more often.

17 weeks is the absolute minimum recommended age in the absence of any medical reasons. To be honest there really doesn't seem to be anything in what you have described that would force weaning even slightly before this age. Why not try more milk and then reasses the situation?

[TandB]

Forgot to say, we hung on until 5 1/2 months when the milk intake got silly and the HV said to start weaning slowly. It didn't really go well so we stopped and re-started with BLW after 6 months and he took to it much better.

He carried on having 40oz a day until he was nearly a year and had been on 3 meals a day for months. He is as skinny as anything so clearly he was just asking for what he needed.

[LadyCarCar]

Wish people would read what i write!!!

I actually cant be arsed to defend myself any longer!!

Off you all trot with you instruction manuals for making sure your baby fits in exactly as the goverment intended. And may God strike you down if you so stray one teeny tiny bit!

Good luck ladies.

[TandB]

Ah. It was one of those threads. Tell me I am doing everything right or I shall flounce.

Waste of everyone's time then.

[EricNorthmansMistressOfPotions]

6x6oz isn't that much, my DS was on 8oz bottles then and I'm sure he had between 6 and 8. Doesn't sound like he likes rice very much does it? And it won't 'fill him up' or have more substance, it has fewer calories than milk so he'll get hungry quicker than if his tummy was full of milk.

[TandB]

Don't bother, EricNorthman. There has already been "waaah" and a flounce.

[EricNorthmansMistressOfPotions]

Your attitude is really weird you think offering him more milk is 'stuffing him full' and you are worried about him gaining too much weight? He's a baby, you don't need to control his calorie intake like that! Just offer him milk, milk he wants and milk he needs at this stage, forget about the rice that is making him wail. And get that chip off your shoulder.