BF and weaning

[sunshine75]

DD is 23 weeks so thinking about weaning soon, but have some questions.

1. Do you give milk or solids first? DD is small and not a greedy baby so if I give milk first she might refuse solids and vice versa.

2.When she has cereal what milk do I put on it? I can't be doing with expressing all the time.

1. When she gets established on three meals a day - how do the timings work out? When do I give her food and when do I give her milk?

Hope someone can help - please

cant help im afraid but have all the same questions so watching with interest

DD isn't quite 7 months and we've only been doing food for 3 weeks. SHe is also a small and not v greedy baby, but doing BLW, I am sure, helps - sometimes she eats loads, sometimes not that interested, but i am quite relaxed about the whole thing at the mo, so long as she still has milk.

I use whole fat milk on cereal, i cannot be arsed to express just for cereal and sadly all my freezer stock is 100ml+ People kept saying store in small quantities but foolishly I never did.

I try and make sure that DD isnt starving before i offer solids, so she usually has had milk. Food should be fun and not stressful and i dont think that it will be any fun for either of us if she was really hungry... eating is still a new skill to her.

Here are our timings:

7am - milk
8am - breakfast
10.30 - milk (she's not that interested in this feed)
11.45ish - lunch
2.30 - milk
5 - tea
6 - milk
10pm - milk

The best way is to carry on bf on demand and sit DD in a highchair with you at your meal times with some soft finger foods to play with. (see here too)

Don't worry about how much she actually eats, milk will be her main source of nutrition for at least another 6 months yet anyway, until she's 12-18 months solids are secondary and supplementary. There is no rush to get her on three meals a day!

Thankyou for your replies but one more question:

Soooo, she usually feeds at around, 7,10,1,4,7 and then sometime in the middle of the night (although this can vary and it is more if a growth spurt). Do I continue with these feeds and just fit in food around them.

agree with greenmonkeys. Look also here - set up by Aitch.

With my DS3, I just carried on breastfeeding him as usual and sat him up at the table at all mealtimes - sometimes he ate, sometimes he didn't. I gave him bits of carrot, bread, banana - whatever we were having. It just sort of evolved and was a hundred times easier than the traditional way I did with DS1 and 2

basically the milk feed times that i listed above were her usual milk feed times (plus the middle of the night 3/4am one that she is refusing to let go of). so in my personal experience (and its only been a few weeks), yes continue with the same milk feeds and times and do the food thing around it and when it suits you.

good luck and have fun.

Thankyou for the advice. I'm quite excited for starting it all in a couple of weeks. Hope Dd feels the same!!

I was really excited as well. And it is fun and a massive new phase. I've not done and puree or spoon feeding, only finger foods/blw and it's really good to be sitting there with DD eating the same stuff... it's mainly leftovers, but it's still fun

i would say keep up with b/feeds as normal, and let babe eat with you.as long as you don't add salt to your cooking and eat fairly simply babe will probably enjoy participating in mealtimes, and will enjoy "chewing" bits and peices from your plate- not really neccessary to go puree crazy, some babies don't even like pureed food, and prefer to put food to their own mouths, and rub it in! some like to have foodpushed at them- depends on your babes personality. but let them be interested in your dinners- a toast crust can make for hours of "chewing" fun for a weaning babe!
maybee a b/f to take the edge off appetite at the beginning and join in dinner, then b/f for pud, and as coninue, can reduce b/f, untill after meals. depends what works for you and your babe! enjoy, hope you have a wipe clean floor surface! nothing dries quite as hard as wheatabix.!

"she usually feeds at around, 7,10,1,4,7 and then sometime in the middle of the night (although this can vary and it is more if a growth spurt). Do I continue with these feeds and just fit in food around them. "

Yup, just carry on with those milk feeds as and when she wants them, and add in finger foods at meal times.

It's just so much easier (and more natural) than purees and little spoons etc!

agree with advice you've had here.

carry on bfing as normal, offer unsalted food for your dd to get the hang of it - she may take to one or two meals a day but don't expect a big switch until she's 1. (in fact at 12m, ds decided to eat his 3 meals a day - but didn't drop any feeds!)

oh, and be prepared for the messsssss.....

Just to add: re timings of feeds, by the time she's on three proper meals a day she will probably be bf-ing less often anyway. Start off by just giving a tiny bit for breakfast and take it slowly. It will evolve - as she eats more solids she won't want so much bf.