time for rice cereal and problem pumping!

[becknnico]

DS is 5 1/2 months and doc says in 2 weeks is the time to begin experimenting with solids, beginning with rice cereal. I am very excited but I have had trouble pumping my breastmilk and do not want to be mixing the rice cereal with formula. I dont know why it seems like I can never get enough milk while pumping. Then I will maybe get an oz or something very small and end up dumping it out because it is too little to save and I dont want to mix milk from 2 different sittings. People keep suggesting the expensive pumps and this is simply out of the question for me. Right now, I have a Medela hand pump. Any advise????

Begin with rice cereal if you want to, or just begin with food!! Steamed vegetables are a good start. You can give whole cows milk as part of cooking or preparing food from 6 months.

Can I ask why your doctor is giving you weaning advice?? If there's something specific then you might need to ignore my advice :)

Pump off enough for each day first thing in the morning when you are fullest. Take from the fuller breast while the baby feeds from the less full one. I have an avent little hand pump and I can only really pump off in the morning first thing, otherwise its also little drops. Also its ok to mix milk from 2 sittings for the cereal.

Otherwise organic full fat milk?

I couldn't get anything with a hand pump, had to get an electric....got a medela swing and get loads out with it, at least 5oz every time I use it, although feel like a cow when connected to it!!!

I have just started the weaning process DS is 5 and a half months old and I feed him the cereal that gets mixed with water so I didn't have to use expressed milk for that only feeds.

can you get a better pump on ebay cheaper...the medela swing is FANTASTIC. i tried hand pumping with ds1 and no joy at all, this time have got the swing and it's easypeasy, so worth it.

You don't need to give baby rice. At 6 months you can go straight in with finger foods like par-boiled carrot sticks, breadsticks, sliced mango etc. There is a weaning board on here that will have some more ideas for you. At 6 months you can also use cows' milk on cereal, in sauces and in cooking.

On the pump front you can mix milk from more than one pump session. I have stripy bottles in the freezer where I have added milk I've just pumped on top of frozen milk! If I've pumped straight after a feed I might not get much more than 15mls but I still keep it to add to a bottle in the freezer.

I also have a Medela hand pump which for me is better than the commercial twin electric pump but not as good as the hospital grade twin electric pump I have hired from NCT previously.

Ok, first of all you don't need to start with rice cereal (unless there is some medical reason?!), you can go straight to veg/fruit purees. If you do want to mix milk in to cereal then you can just use cow's milk from 6 months (just don't use it as their main drink). If you want to keep things really simple you could always try baby led weaning - giving them bits of food like cooked carrot/brocolli etc to hold in their hand and chew on. Search on here there's probably loads of threads about it!

Also not sure whey you can't mix milk from 2 different sittings? I've never heard of that being a problem?

Random question but are you in the US? If so the guidelines might be different (but I don't suppose it makes much difference really!) Have you heard of baby led weaning, which skips the mush stage altogether?

if pumping is a problem, you can make baby rice up with water if you want to and keep the milk for normal feeds.

Look on the packets of the baby rice in the supermarket - some can be made up with water - that's what I did because I was breastfeeding but did not want to express (can't stand the thought of it for some reason!).

No, there is no medical problem that is causing the doctor to recommend the rice cereal. I suppose they suggest that first because it is so mild on the taste buds?? I am in the US, yes:). I plan on continuing to breastfeed for 18 months hopefully along with foods. So, they suggest that I begin with the rice cereal then move on to pureed pears, carrots and peas to start. I have never heard of skipping the mush stage all together. I am certainly not opposed to it though. Would you then be concerned with higher risk of choking?

I will begin to try pumping in the mornings on the one breast. I guess I always just assumed combining the milk from 2 sittings would be a no no, but I guess not! Im thankful for this since now if I get frustrated and stop for a while, at least it will not go to waste.

Also, how do start a 6 month old on finger foods? DS has no teeth yet.

Yes, the US are far more procedural about these things - partly marketing, with the "stage 1/stage 2" baby foods.

If you're interested in skipping the mush stage (I did, couldn't be having with all that faff and how tedious it was sitting there spooning it in) have a look at this site

Their gums are very hard, that's how they manage. We started with spears of banana (rolled in dry rice cereal for grip, but that's just a hack) and avocado, so no need for chewing.

Re: expressing, have you tried hand expression? It's rarely talked about, but some women find it more effective.

I skipped the mush stage with my third child and went straight on to finger foods and it was very easy. With the first two when weaning was done at 4 months I did use rice cereal but the amount they take is so small at first I used to just lean over the bowl and squirt some in

becknnico - we've just started weaning and had no gagging yet. Not done anything yet that requires milk (think DH is too screamish for that).

If she picks everything up and puts it in her mouth then BLW is a nice easy way to go. We just give her versions of what we had the night before for both her lunch and dinner, (just don't add salt to the cooking stage) unless it's crap and then we break out fruit/soft veg (zucchini etc). She had mashed potato the other day, also had dal, curry, burgers, peach, cooked carrots, cucumber (great for teething), strawberry, pasta, broccoli, toast etc and we've only been going two weeks. For the softer stuff, I pick it up and let her take it from me. For pureered type stuff, she has a spoon, which we load and then give to her.

Ours also has no teeth. Remember if doesn't matter if they don't eat much. For the soft fruits though DD does eat them. Today she ate two whole strawberries for lunch and half an orange for dinner (its the weekend we're lazy then). For other harder veg, she mainly gums it and doesn't take much, but that doesn't matter at this state.

We leave skins on, then she can grab it easily. Make lengths long (enough for her to hold it all in her hand and still have some poking out to go in her mouth) and thin. Green beans are fab for another quick one, they only need top and tailing, and a quick wash. Sometimes we soften them in hot water first.

Rice cereal is over-processed wallpaper paste and not a nutritional requirement. Save your time, and your money, and don't bother with it. :)

Baby Led Weaning is the term if you want to google it, but the gist of it is that you sit your child up straight in a highchair or similar and offer them soft foods like cooked veg or fruits (sticks are easiest to handle) and let them pick it up themselves and eat them. You can also incorporate more "traditional" finger foods like triangles of toast or rice cakes.

After a few weeks when they have got the hang of it you can start giving them anything and everything - avoid whole nuts, honey, chop round foods like grapes in half, but anything becomes a finger food, even something like spaghetti bolognese! You will see their pincer grip develop and they will be able to pick up things like raisins and peas.

Babies tend to gag a lot to begin with - this is often mistaken for choking, but it's not, it's actually the baby's protection mechanism from choking. If they are sitting up straight and they have got the food to their mouth themselves (ie you have not helped at all) then they will just cough and it will fall out forwards. If they are sitting up straight then it's no more likely that they will choke this way - actually it's probably less likely, BLW teaches them to chew before they learn to swallow, whereas purees are the other way around!

Thankyou everyone! I really appreciate the advise and am excited to get started. I think we will be skipping the cereal and trying some cooked carrots tomorrow. Tried the avocado today! He loved it!!

hi beck, i really recommend blw. We're doing it with ds and love it! The blw thread on the weaning board here is fantastic! I also really recommend the book "baby led weaning" by gill rapley. I do think there are too many books around on babys, but this one is really worth while. I read it because the idea of blw really appealled and made sense, but my family where a bit scared of the choking risk so i wanted to arm myself.