weaning at 5mths

[anonymama]

HAVE BEEN BF-ING DS2 exclusively, but up every 2hrs last night. whilst this cld be a developmental stage and he is v dribbly & clearly teething too, wld there be any harm intro-ing some purees now? i had 26 wks on the boob as my aim but am struggling a bit on so little sleep, esp. as ds1 has dropped his naps so no respite at all!

what do you think?

Poor you!

You may want to check out this thread for a discussion about early weaning.

Has he always slept this badly? If so you may want to find ways to address that separately, if not then probably just a phase and shit though it it I would try and hold off with the purees. I do sympathise, waking up in the night so often is awful, but you may give him food and he may still wake up, you just don't know.

Its probably just related to his teething. Solids really are unlikely to help with sleep, and there are definate benefits to waiting another month.

Is there anyone who could take them out for an hour to let you get some sleep ?

agree with the others. Solids doesn not necessarily mean good sleep. DS3 is 15 and has only, in the last week, slept through the night (i.e. 12 hours) and he has obviously been on solids for about 8 months.

Teething and growth spurt will probably be the cause of your DS's waking - just keep feeding hi if you can and this phase will pass

had the very same with my little one when she was 5 1/2 months. tried eveything- teetha, calpol, upping her feeds and supplementing with formula. Introduced a little bit of baby rice with some veg puree in it (advised to follow BLISS prem guidelines as baby was 36+ weeks and they still advise 5-7 months for weaning) and she has settled back to her previous one feed overnight and 3 hourly during day. Obviously can't guarantee that this will be the same for you but it was the right thing for us. I checked out a lot of the evidence behind the weaning guidelines and remain unconvinced that there is any harm in introducing some solids at 5 months as long as you avoid potential allergens and gluten and avoid fruit that may upset the stomach -eg citrus. Good luck!

you're not alone. My DD is the same. Now at 22wks, she started ramping up feeds from 18wks, think she may have peaked last week with long feeds every ~2hr at night but now is (hopefully) back to every ~4hr. She's excl. bf. Seems that most babies in her peer group are the same. We're trying to hold off solids until at least 24wks, DD had bad colic a couple of months back & I don't want to aggravate that wee tummy at all. It's tough but we're taking it one day at a time.

blimey tommy a 15 year old ds who has only been on solids 8 months... very late weaning must be a record!

Thanks for all your points of view. Have decided to wait till the weekend and review then - if it's a growth spurt or teething, things might have eased off by then.

Cheers

Hi, I weaned my ds3 at 18wks he was 19lb 2oz at the time and was born 9lb 4oz, so no lite wait! Although guidelines now say 6mths follow your insinct to a certain degree. I agree with the other comments about if your ds2 is not a good sleeper food will not resolve the issue. I find a good bedtime routine of bath, feed and then story time with other two ds then bed works well and normally my ds3 sleeps 7.30pm-1pm feeds and sleeps until 5.30/6am. Have you tired a dummy or even given crushed frozen expressed bf milk to help with teeth. I understand your situation really well especially having nearly survived half term. Baby rice and food you cook yourself is the only route, if you decide to wean early - don't wean on jars at 5months. Hope ithis helps

Thanks TanE.

I appreciate that teeth, and developmental stages, are part of the equation, but if food is a variable, introducing solids might improve things. Have spoken to a BF counsellor who said that very gradually introducing solids from 22 week should be OK as long as I stick to root veggies/cooked apples/pears until 26 weeks. In fact, didn't introduce gluten or dairy to DS1 until 9mths, as followed advice in a book by a nutritionist who was more cautious than the NHS advice.

I am not keen on dummies (a speech therapist friend said they delay speech development, and my bro used one with his kid only to have to go in and put it back in his mouth a hundred times a night).

Haven't tried the crushed BM, might give it a go.

Would of course prepare own purées (enjoy food as a family and DS1 never ate jarred food, so am with you on that one).

Anyway, slightly better last night - only fed at 7, 10, 12, 4 and 6.30 !! Wearing big sun glasses even on cloudy days as eyes feel like screwed up raisins