Weaning disaster

[Penguin13]

Not really sure if anyone will be able to help but just need to vent really. DD2 is 7mo and we started very gradually weaning at 6 months. I started off way too quickly with DD1 which caused painful wind and issues with her digestion so was determined to go slow and steady and allow DD's system time to get used to food, especially since she has suspected CMP and Soya allergies. I should perhaps mention by way of background that she is EBF and I have been dairy and soya free for a couple of months now which had, until weaning started, improved though not completely resolved her symptoms of silent reflux, painful wind, unsettled behaviour after feeds and muscousy nappies. We are awaiting a paeds appointment for blood tests to confirm allergies.

At first despite seemingly being ready, sitting up, reaching for food and well able to get food to her mouth etc she clamped her mouth shut when I attempted to spoon feed her and finger foods were not much better received apart from a cool cucumber stick to gnaw on as it helped with her sore gums.

We persisted with having her sat at the table with us and as spoons were a definite no go have offered the odd little bit of things we were eating ourselves (no added salt etc) She has gradually started to try very small amounts of a few things (fruit and veg mainly eg carrot, broccoli, pear) Regardless of what she eats however, we are ending up with prolonged wakings with DD in pain with trapped wind which is so distressing to see and once she gets in that state no amount of tummy massage, leg bicycles or anything seems to help to disperse the trapped wind. I tried giving her Gripe water today and she seemed absolutely hyper afterwards so I hesitated to continue with it. Do I need to back off even further and wait or will her system never have a chance to get used to solids if I don't keep going? Eg today I gave her the tiniest square of steamed Pear and DH is currently up trying to soothe her as she has been crying in pain for 30 mins

I am scared to give her any solids at all now but not really sure how to move forwards. Any advice or thoughts would be very gratefully received. Sorry for the essay!

[InDubiousBattle]

Are you certain it's trapped Wind? She's of an age where she might be teething? I think it would be very unusual for one, si gel mouthful of pear to cause such distress. I would have a word with your hv or gp.

[Sashkin]

We had this with DS. In the end (since it didn’t seem to make much difference what we gave him) we just assumed it would take as long as it took for his stomach to adapt, and fed him regardless. He’s much better now (four weeks later), and eating stuff like yoghurts, apples, bananas, pears, cauliflower, potato, cheese, refried beans, dal, egg and bread with no obvious ill effects. Farts are still really stinky, but he’s quite happy and back to sleeping through again.

I don’t know if it was the food or just coincidence (teething, growth spurt, something else). It just went away on its own though.

[Sashkin]

In our case it was obviously not an allergy though - I’d have been a bit more cautious if he’d had anything more exciting than wind.

I did chat to our HV and she was quite non-committal.

[Penguin13]

Thanks for your reply InDubious. She definitely is teething as well. She has, 4 teeth already and it looks like 5 and 6 are hot on their heels but she is dosed up with calpol and gel so would be surprised if it was causing that level of distress. I can feel that gas in her little tummy just don't know how to relieve it.

[Ploppie4]

Take the food slowly. Non of my 4 are much before 10/14 months and now eat anything.

[Penguin13]

Thanks for replying as well Sashkin. Good to hear your experiences. Sadly DD has only ever slept through once and waked at least 3 times a night regardless but she isn't usually this upset when she wakes. Glad you got through it and back to sleeping through. Not jealous at all

[Penguin13]

Thanks autocorrect for making me sound like an imbecile. That should read wakes not waked clearly!

[InDubiousBattle]

I would keep going with food as you have been, as in just small amount of whatever you're having (avoiding the usual salt, nuts etc). If you are certain she is in pain I would go back to the gp. I should say op that in my experience this age is a bit of a sleep nightmare (I realise this isn't what you need to hear, sorry! ), between rolling, teething and weaning I don't know of many parent who found this bit easy.

[Penguin13]

Thanks for the advice Ploppie. Not sure how much slower I could take it now short of stopping altogether for the time being bit maybe that's what I need to do to let her system calm down before starting again.

[Penguin13]

Don't worry InDubious you can't scare me. This is not my first sleep deprivation rodeo I will consider myself a lucky woman if DD2 beats DD's record of reaching 18 months before sleeping through.... (please please let me be lucky though!!)

[ShovingLeopard]

My DD had cmpi and terrible reflux. Weaning was also a disaster for us, as her reflux and wind increased dramatically. We had to stop weaning and go back to milk for a fortnight, and then introduce foods slowly, one by one, to see what was causing the problems.

Turned out it wasn't just milk she's intolerant to. We now have a long list of problematic foods, ranging from carrot, through grape, wheat, soya, banana, sardine, and a whole host of others.

Might the problem be food intolerance? It would be worth checking out. We see a consultant at a paediatric allergy clinic, with access to a dietician and testing. It has been a godsend. Maybe you could chat things through with your GP?

[Penguin13]

Thanks for sharing your experiences shoving. I was thinking the same thing regarding intolerances hence only giving her pear yesterday but perhaps I needed to give her system a little longer break before reintroducing food. To complicate things even with milk and soya out of my system she still has occasional reaction symptoms just through my milk so it would make sense that she reacts to other foods. Hoping our paeds appointment comes through sooner rather than later.

[ShovingLeopard]

We had similar, OP. I was suspicious she was intolerant to other stuff when I was breastfeeding (we were mix feeding,though the breastfeeding component was quite small), though could never quite put my finger on what. No wonder!

It might take a few days for symptoms to calm down so you can start again. We introduce new foods on the basis of tiny amount on day one, bit more day 2 (assuming no symptoms), slightly larger portion again on day 3, etc, up till day 5. If no symptoms, that food is ok. Then you can start the next one. It's a pain! But very worth it to avoid them being in too much pain.

Fingers crossed you get to see someone soon. Fwiw, I have found our GP to be well-meaning and eager to help, but not very au fait with current theory and best practice for allergy and intolerance. I'm not sure how up to date a general paediatrician is usually. Our allergy clinic are great, though we have long waits between appointments. I had to kick up a stink to get DD seen within farly short order of starting to wean.

[ShovingLeopard]

Sorry, meant to say that pear has a low likelihood to cause allergy or intolerance, so it is a good one to start with. Though, of course, any individual can react to any food.... Lamb is the meat that is least likely to cause problems.