How to keep 5 month old on milk-only

[Purplelooby]

Sorry if this should have been on the weening board - I couldn't decided!

DS (EFF, fed on demand, 21 weeks) is a greedy little monkey. He is now downing 8 oz bottled and wanting more - he is also getting hungry every 2 hours. He isn't acting how he normally does during a growth spurt and he only finished a quite big one recently. He is also getting also fussy during and after feeds and at the moment, feeding seems to be an easy way to ruin his good mood! Also, his reflux is getting worse again and if I up his feed, he gets really vomity and fussy.

He is showing a lot of 'ready for weening' signs - grabbing, putting objects in mouth, sits unaided (but only in 'tripod') and can sit in highchair, feeds himself water from sippy cup. He also now cries when he watches us eat (or drink). The thing is, I respect the research and want to push him as close to 6 months as I can.

Any ideas what I can do? Current suggestions from others are:

• Hungry baby milk
• Baby rice in bottle
• Deal with it (although this seems very unfair on DS)

What would you do?

www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/introducing-solid-foods-to-a-baby-with-reflux.html

This gives a list of a few things to avoid

It's more texture & volume that can be a problem with reflux when weaning eg too lumpy, large volumes. Start with a spoonful or two. Baby rice/porridge (obviously wheat-free), mashed banana/avocado are good starters.

It varies - mine had silent reflux so acidic foods (citrus, onions) were a no. Also they got windy very easily - green veg was a no. And no dairy or soya.

Basically I would wean on the basis of introducing new foods every three days and keeping a food diary.

The thing is, there's no magic that happens when a baby goes from 5 months 30 days to six months old that means one day / week they aren't ready for food and the next they are. So a five month old baby may well be ready to wean.

In your position, OP, I would be introducing food on top of milk and go from there. I found DS used food as a supplement, rather than a replacement, for milk for quite a long time, so overall I guess his calories were increased.

families I totally agree - at the moment I am giving DS his normal feeds (which are a nightmare at the moment - I'm currently feeding him every 1.5 hrs on partial volumes) and then after one feed I'm letting him play with some solids. So far it's been carrots - iggly I'm going to do as you said and introduce new food every 3 days. He doesn't seem to have had any reflux from the carrots at all (although since he is insisting on using the spoon himself, he put more on his forehead and the floor than his mouth - thank goodness for EVA mats!

Thanks for the link caffeine