How to know when to start solids

[Minnie24]

DD 17 weeks old tomorrow. Gaining weight fine and following centile. Doesnt feed much during day - 3 to 4 hrly for about 4 mins at a time. More frequent during night every 2-3 hrs for 15 - 30 mins. Im shattered being up so much in night. One hv suggested we start solids at 17 weeks, another suggested giving water at one of the night feeds and another said as she is doing well try to keep her just on breasmilk till 6 months. (Reason for different hvs is that usual one is off sick).

She is not showing signs of needing more than milk but has started to be more whiney and generally unsettled between feeds, although will not take any more feeds when offered. So in a dilemma about what to do.

I would try and hold off for a little longer. Sounds like you lo is getting all her food at night. Have you tried getting her to take more in the day(DS1 only fed in the day after 4 months in a quiet and darkened room - DS2 and DS3 don't have this luxury!)

I did BLW with all of my DS and I started offering them steamed finger foods of veg at around 5 / 5 1/2 months. When they started picking it up and eating it I knew they were ready.

HV make me laugh when I had sleep problems with DS1 one HV said leave him to cry another said have you tried co-sleeping!!!

Thanks for that. My instinct is to leave it a while longer yet. I have tried feeding her more in the day, but she isnt interested, she is a stubborn miss and wont even have a minute if she doesnt want it. I havent heard of blw before. DS1 was bottle fed and started solids at 4 mths due to severe reflux and DS was bottle fed expressed milk and he started solids at 6 mths but took ages to get going on it, he just wasnt interested, so this is new territory for me.

Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is fantastic - best thing I ever did. There is loads on mumsnet about it - definately worth a look

When DS1 did not want BF at 4 months I found interesting info on the site below

www.kellymom.com/

Trust your instinct!

Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is fantastic - best thing I ever did. There is loads on mumsnet about it - definately worth a look

When DS1 did not want BF at 4 months I found interesting info on the site below

www.kellymom.com/

Trust your instinct!

Check out the weaning board on here for info on BLW. There is a website babyledweaning.co.uk its run by Aitch from here - she's a bit of an expert! :) There is also a book by Gill Rapley.

But the basic premise is that as the guidelines are to wean at 6 months rather than the 3 or 4 in the past, that babies are totally capable of coping with proper food at this age so no need for purees and mash etc. Just give them what you are having and let them get stuck in themselves, don't feed them. They will be getting all their nutrition from your milk anyway, so the quantity of food isn't really important, it's more about them learning what to do, about tastes, appetite control etc etc.

You can't start til baby can sit upright and obviously hold things and put them to their mouth. So about 6 months.

I can't wait to do this (DS is 16 weeks) it looks LOADS of fun... check out youtube for vids too :)

Have you tried feeding in night conditions in the day - ie darkish, quiet, nothing going on, to try and get more in the day? At this age they start to get distracted a lot so it's really common for them to start having more in the night. They also start waking more in the night anyway because of developmental stuff going on, so it can get a bit of a rut of more night feeds and less day feeds - well it did for us anyway.

Thanks everyone will check it out.

Cosmosis - did you get things turned round with your lo? I was up 4 times last night feeding and today she has only fed twice since 7 am each time for 3 mins - I am sick of it. I am really starting to resent her and wish I had never bf in the 1st place. No one warns you that it might be like this. You think you are doing your best for them and in return you get tortured. Sorry for the rant but I am so tired and have had enough.

I;m still working on it, but it's getting much better. Basically just decided to be a bit tough and stop feeding so much at night, because I know he doesn't need it. I try to get him back to sleep in other ways first - you can tell when he actually still is hungry, as he doesn't go back to sleep!

My DS1 was a terrible day time feeder and terrible sleeper. It is so tough but you will get through it. I had a brilliant book called 'teach your child to sleep' by the Millpond Clinic and that taught me how to stretch DS1's feeds during the night and teach him how to go to sleep by himself both day and night. It took a while but we got there in the end. Keep your chin up.

Minnie24, I am in a similar situation to you, DS2 is 17 weeks and he is feeding between every 2 and 4 hours in the night, and becoming increasingly distracted in the day. Partly maybe due to that it has been half term this week, so his elder brother is off from preschool, so even less quiet time at home. He is exactly 4 months old today and if we weren't going abroad next week for 2 weeks then I would start weaning today! So it's going to have to wait until 5 months. Not because I want to start piling the food into him, but I want to wean very gradually and would just like to start the process and feel like I was working towards fewer night feeds!

In the meantime I am making a real effort to feed lying down upstairs, which is a pain when you have another child, but it does seem to work in terms of more feeding during the day (but have not seen any knock on effects at night).

Hi - according to the Department of Health/WHO etc the signs that a baby is ready for solids are:

• Sitting up by himself without support
• Physically able to pick up food and put it in his own mouth
• When he puts food in his mouth, it doesn't get pushed back out with his tongue (this means he has lost his 'tongue-thrust' reflex, which protects young babies from swallowing stuff by accident)

Not sleeping through the night is, unfortunately, just something which babies around 4 months seem to do - it's now recognised that this is not a sign that they need solids. If they are hungry, more milk is best at this stage, as it's much more calorific than solid food anyway.

My DS did this for a few months - I think it really is just a developmental phase but it won't stop well-meaning HVs/grandparents/others telling you that it is because the baby is hungry.

I kept BFing and things settled down about 23 weeks, then we started BLW at 6 months. It has been a lot of fun and much less work so I'm really glad we stuck it out.