is 15 weeks too young to introduce solids to bf baby?

[booyhoo]

ds is exclusively bf. however in the past 2/3 weeks he has become very hard to settle to sleep at night and after sleping right through from about 6 weeks has started waking 2-3 times during the night to feed. he is teething at the moment and i know he will be having growth spurts aswell and that the only way to encourage my supply is to feed him but i am totally exhausted by this at the minute and i hae no energy to do even the simplest of things with my older ds (4). i dont want to have to supplement with formula unnecessarily, but i dont want to start him on solids too young either. does anyone have any advice or should i just keep doing as i am?

Yes.

If you don't want to give him breast milk so much, next best thing is formula, not baby food. You could seriously upset his tummy. Why don't you give him some calpol instead? Teething hurts!

Keep as you are.

15 weeks is far too young to be introducing solids, he just needs milk, milk and more milk!

This is a really hard stage, they just grow and grow. Hang in there

Far far too early. Current guidance is to wait till 6 months, but definitely no earler than 17 weeks.

I know it's exhausting, but this does sound like a growth spurt and things will settle down

ok thank you for quick responses, i think i knew the answer before posting but i needed someone to tell me to hang in there. does anyone know roughly what stages the growth spurts occur at?

colditz i do give him calpol but the poor mite just seems in so much pain and the only thing that will soothe and settle him is to feed.

how often should he be feeding at this age?

Every 3 hours or so?

My DS started feeding a lot again at this age having had an easier 5/6 weeks. He started waking more in the night and would feed every couple of hours some days. I remember one day I fed him 14 times between 8am and 9pm!

It doesn't go on like that though, your supply will boost and the growth spurt will come to an end.

There are certainly growth spurts at around 12 and 16 weeks so you are right in the thick of it, especially with the teething as well. Have you tried teething granules? They really helped DS.

I'm afriad its quite normal for a 15 week old baby to want fed 2-3 times during the night. I'm sorry, i know its tiring....

please go on giving breast milk if you can and calpol if he's unwell. check the bottle for the right dosage for such a small baby

yep he's doing 3 hourly. thanks colditz.

havent tried teething granules before ali, thanks.

kristina the dosage says 2.5- 5ml. i give him 2.5 ml and if he really needs it will give him another 2.5 ml.

I'm sorry, i dont know and wouldn't like to advise you as he's so small. i think you should check with your Gp or health visitor. i know others will say i am being too cautious....

how do you know if he " really needs it"? i mean, can you tell if he is crying because he is hungry/lonely/wants cuddled or is teething? if a feed settles him them surely its the first and not the second? i assume he's not running a temperature? if he is then you need to get it down with meds and sponging

sorry if i am not understanding you properly

Keep going - and maybe join the May 2009 postnatal thread as you'll find others going through the same thing and you can moan about how hard it is, I always find that a help.

DS1 was formula fed, ds2 is still breastfed at 7 months, and I started some solids at 6. In my experience, if they wake up at night it's because they need cuddles and feeding and there's no other quick fix for the broken nights, sorry.

when his gums are sore he bites very hard on his fingers and his crying isnt the normal hungry/wanting comfort cry, you can tell he is in pain. when i say if he really needs it, i mean in that after an hour or so since taking calpola and being fed he is either stil biting his fingers and crying or else wakes up and starts doing it again.

perhaps he has just learnt that he gets fed if he does this, i dont know. he just seems in pain when he is behaving like this. just to clarify, i dont give him calpol everytime he wakes, its only on those occasions where he is very bad. he hasnt had any in the past 4/5 days.

You don't want to introduce solids now! All that mess and bringing food everywhere. All the good things about breastfeeding are about to really kick in and solids just complicate matters.

I would give him calpol when you think he is in pain and it is not too soon since the last time. Why make him suffer pain if you can relieve it?

wow

drugs better than food

wow, that's a new one on me

also drugs better than mess

goodness me

have you tried a dummy?

booyoo I shouldn't be glib, this isn't a debate, sorry

it sounds like your baby finds the sucking comforting, that's why I suggest a dummy

everyone is right about the feeding more to boost supply

but it really sounds like the sucking is helpful to him

also it's so exhausting that if he did take a dummy it would give you a breathing space

I remember that feeling when you are so knackered you could lie down on the floor of sainsbury's and sleep for a week, and you can't think straight

IF he likes one a dummy could help you get a couple of good nights sleep so you could work out a new approach, or sense what he's really needing, and also the sleep will help to boost your milk supply

if you've already got one for him, ignore, but if he hasn't, well there is an alternative to calpol and formula

yes, I tend to find that when I have a headache paracetamol is usually more effective at getting rid of it than food.

I would never make a baby suffer unnecessary pain from teething by withholding a painkiller that I knew could help. Pretty barbaric, all things considered.

Also I'm pretty sure medical advice would back me up that it is OK to give paracetamol from 8 weeks but that solid foods at 15 weeks are damaging.

calpol is not going to solve the problem of a hungry baby

And a dummy is?

a dummy might help with teething and suckiness, it's an alternative to calpol, a good one

anyway you could just read my last post

there are obviously two things going on, the teething and the hunger, and I just think booyoo is struggling with both and not quite separating them, and needs to be able to sense herself the main issue with her baby, which is exceptionally hard when you are so very drained

there's just more to it than no don't give food dose him up

so my suggestion of a dummy is a very serious one

I was not saying to dose him up rather than feed him. I was saying not to deliberately withhold painkillers if the child was in agony.

The use of separate paragraphs is a traditional way of separating points in written communication.

alright, why are you being sarcastic? quite a lot of the posts were along those lines

thanks for futher responses, he has a dummy but it seems he'd rather feed, last night i took him into bed with me when he woke so he was able to feed whenever he woke without waking me so i feel as though i had something resembling a nights sleep.

good luck