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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Weaning using Gina Ford book's after following her Contented baby book

32 replies

airhostess · 10/11/2011 20:17

Hello,

My DS is 16 wks and I'm going to leave it as long as possible before weaning him. I feel that I need to get ahead of the game by doing my research now. I have him in a really good rountine mainly Gina Ford with bits of The Baby Whisperer thrown in the mix too. He's thriving on on it and has just started watching us eat. Has anyone used Gina Ford's weaning book or have any suggestions before I embark on this next chapter. All advice welcomed.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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fortyplus · 10/11/2011 20:20

Best advice is don't mention GF on mn! Report your own thread and ask for it to be deleted. Then repost without any mention of she-who-must-not-be-named. Seriously...

girliefriend · 10/11/2011 20:21

Hello my advice is be relaxed about it, start slowly and try and enjoy it!!!

It can be fun - honest!!

UrsulaBuffay · 10/11/2011 20:22

I had a baby then fed it and it slept, so not much help sorry.

Lolling @ Forty

girliefriend · 10/11/2011 20:23

at fortyplus!!! Surly if you are mentioning her in a good way you don't have to delete it!!!

smackapacca · 10/11/2011 20:23

Probably a good idea to check out the weaning board on here - loads of good advice. I did purees and BLW. Both worked for each child.

The best advice i could give is not to rush it - it's a bit of a ballache!

One of my friends was a GF fan, but i was never comfortable that she gave calpol at 5pm to try and stave off hunger pangs so her son could have his tea at 6pm then keep to the routine.

Ktay · 10/11/2011 20:25

I had the book and while I didn't bother following her timings religiously (having had a non-GF baby myself, despite my efforts...) I have to say lots of her recipes were really good. My Dsis (29yo) loves the lamb casserole for 9-month-olds!

lukewarmmama · 10/11/2011 20:28

I did. I found it useful to have some idea of what steps to take. But - and the book says this too - they are all different, so use it as a guide only. It may be much slower than she suggests, and if it is, that's fine too. Her emphasis on the importance of finger foods, self feeding and variety is pretty good I think.

Also just introducing one thing at a time was good for us personally, as dd1 turned out to be v allergic to milk and eggs, so we could identify that straight away. Perhaps no need to be quite as circumspect as she is though, there was an awful lot of pureeing!.

Ultimately do what suits you and your baby, you'll get there in the end. And make it fun, no pressure!

naturalbaby · 10/11/2011 20:36

our perfect routine went totally out the window at weaning age for some reason. part of the problem is i have 2 older kids though. (i could never get his lunch sorted quick enough for the lunchtime sleep running round after the older 2)
i left it as late as possible, it goes quicker and is much easier. i used bits of the annabel karmel book and got a free Hipp weaning guide that i used. i used some of the GF recipes later on.

my main tip would be, when you think baby is ready then wait few days and give them a spoon to play with to get used to having it in their mouth. the first time you try to put a spoon with food on in their mouth they will be more interested in what it is than what you are trying to do so will probably just try and get it out their mouth to investigate.

ItchyChin · 10/11/2011 20:38

I liked having a step by step guide as felt a bit clueless! DD loved the sweetcorn chowder... :)

girliefriend · 10/11/2011 20:47

at smaccapacca - don't think Gina would have condoned that!!! And if I remember rightly Gina always suggested 5pm for tea anyway .

StrandedBear · 10/11/2011 20:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

yumcha888 · 10/11/2011 21:00

I used the Gina Ford weaning book (it came free with something) and found it really helpful. One of the hard things about weaning is that it is really hard to know how much to give your baby and GF tells you, down to the number of cubes and how big a cube should be. While I don't think you should follow her advice to the letter (because that's just stressful), her book was a super useful guideline for me.

Now, DS (8 months) loves to eat and I don't follow any guidelines, just puree up my dinner and feed him until he turns his head :)

smackapacca · 10/11/2011 21:03

Maybe girlie; but there were other things which GF recommended that I wasn't keen on hearing about; and I know friend definitely gave calpol to delay dinner.

fortyplus · 10/11/2011 21:44

See... put swmnbn in a thread title and it won't be long before someone talks about babies and rockets says something rude about it

smackapacca · 10/11/2011 21:45

MustControlFistOfDeath · 10/11/2011 21:51

GF tells you, down to the number of cubes and how big a cube should be

YIKES

Monkeymummy1 · 10/11/2011 22:39

I really liked the book for giving ideas of timings for feeds. We don't follow it exactly as i'd go insane trying to be that exact and i just don' find that level of routine to be needed for my daughter. But when we started solids, I had trouble fitting in all the milk feeds and the meals and gf was helpful for that. Some of the recipes are good too.

Sillyoldelf · 10/11/2011 22:42

Throw the book away ... I did. Best thing I ever did ! Swmnbn is so anal . My DD paediatric dietician really disagreed with that daft book.

scarlettsmummy2 · 10/11/2011 22:47

How can someone who uses calpol to delay feeding their baby, be in anyway seen as someone to take advice from? Regardless of the fact this will reduce the effectiveness of calpol when the baby may genuinely need it, this is a really nuts thing to do.

put the books down and use your natural instincts and common sense.

tryingtocookacurry · 11/11/2011 07:01

I used the contented baby book and GF's weaning book. I loved both books. I was just going back to work when dd was 51/2 months and had just started to wean and the book was brilliant. However, I love GF. It worked well for us! It helped me to feel planned as going back to work was quite stressful.

cbawden · 11/11/2011 08:05

I weaned my DD at 5 months and followed this book for the first 2 months. I found the guidance on quantity and what foods to introduce when really helpful. After 2 months I felt I had the confidence to play food by ear but still now use some of the recipes. I found it brill (as I did the contented baby book) and my baby is a brilliant eater. Nowhere in the book have I ever seen it suggested that you give a baby calpol to stave of hunger. The timings she gives are suggestions based on the contented little baby routines. If a parent isn't savvy enough to recognise that these are guidelines only and that inevitably they will need to be tweaked to adjust to the needs of their baby, I think that says more about that parent than about gina ford!

Magnumwhite · 11/11/2011 08:19

smackapacca Calpol? Have you read GF? thats definitely not in the book!
she recommends tea by 5pm at latest if you're on a 7-7 day.

most important thing about feeding solids is to be relaxed about it as girlie says. have fun seeing what your lo enjoys.

ah I see cbawden has just said the same thing...

nonickno · 11/11/2011 09:55

airhostess, great news that your ds is thriving on his routine - worked wonders for my 2 too. Imo now is the time to rip up gina ford. The comfort and sanity that an eat and sleep timing manual gave you in those early days will do your head in and do nothing but lead you to believe either you or your baby is failing to achieve what they "should". Relax and be adventurous! You totally know best!

girliefriend · 11/11/2011 16:30

No wonder Gina Ford gets fed up with mumsnet with that kind of slander smackapacca, tbh your friend needs reporting to ss - you can't give your baby a daily dose of calpol to fend off hunger pains ffs!!!

AnxiousElephant · 11/11/2011 16:49

Slightly confused at the person doing GF who was giving tea at 6pm - it isn't advocated in the book . FWIW I weaned DD1 on her method and it is fundamentally good because it encourages babies to begin weaning with savoury/ pure fruit flavours so that they accept them. It is good and dd1 eats almost anything.
DD2 we didn't follow the order of flavours she advocates and it took a long time to get dd2 to widen her range of veg. We used more jars with dd2 which was definately a negative as well.
Baby led weaning is also a good method if you wait until 6 months and offer healthy foods only at first, then once flavours and textures are accepted you can add in puddings/ yoghurt. Although yoghurt goes down easily beware that it is very sweet and often it is more difficult to get babies to accept savoury/ veg if you give this first. Likewise with baby cereals. They already have a tendancy to like sweet better because breast and formula are sweetish flavours.
If they spit food out in the early phase just keep offering it. It can take 15-20 times before they accept new textures and tastes.

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