Food volumes - 5 months

[LittleMilla]

After a chat with my HV, I started to wean my DS about a week and a half ago. It's going really well, but he seems to want more and more food.

I'm just giving him breakfast and tea and the mo and maintaining his milk intake. I mix his baby rice with about 2oz of formula, and he has about 7oz of formula for his dreamfeed. He then has 4/5 bf throughout the day.

This morning my DS nailed, and I really mean demolished, a small-ish banana mixed with 1.5 tablespoons of baby rice. He was then crying for more. I'm keen to make sure he's not starving by giving him a bf an hour or maybe two before any solids.

Can anyone else advise? Really keen not to overfeed him. He's on the 75th percentile with lots of gorgeous chub and rolls. Already starting to crawl, so seems to burn off a lot of energy...it's just all a bit of a minefeld!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Little you are doing the right thing by bfing an hour before he has solids as his main source of nutrition at this age should be milk. It would be nice to know why your HV advised early weaning, are you having problems with sleep? There is some info here on solids and sleep.

There is no need to give him the baby rice really as it will fill his tummy up. While this sounds good its not as it has such a low nutriional content he may end up missing out on vital nutrients as he will take less milk and other foods.

We develop a taste in later life for the foods we are first weaned on so its a good idea to start him off on fruit and veg. If you are doing purees you can cook them in batches and freeze them in ice cube trays. I weaned DS at 16 weeks, 4 months was recommended then, and did purees. I cooked the purees plain at first and then started adding a tiny bit of spice, like apple and cinnamon or cardamon. If you need some ideas there are some recipes here. It's a bit of a pain weaning early as there are some foods he can't have like eggs, shellfish, fish, nuts and seeds, soft and unpasturised cheeses, wheat, rye and barley and honey isn't recommeded until a year.

If you are worried about him being hungry you could up the bfs, something like this.

7am bf.
8am breakfast
10.30 bf
11.30 lunch
1 pm bf
4pm bf
5pm tea
7pm bf

Obviously if he's still hungry after meals then offer him the breast and if he's asking for a bf during the day or night don't deny him, he's a growing boy

Just wondering if you go to a bfing group Little? Its good to go along and have a cuppa and a chat and you can usually pick up lots of tips on weaning and sleep. Your local Children's Centre may give talks on weaning and check out your local La Leche League as they often have talks on weaning too.