Weaning questions...

[mumtosp]

Hi all,

My DS will be 6 mo is a few days and we have started weaning him a couple of days back as he seemed ready. I have been using the Rana Conway book as a reference and even though we have started with purees, we will be moving on to a combination of purees and BLW...
I do have a few questions...

1. Quantity - how much?? DS has been eating up whatever we offer... which has ranged from 30 to 70 ml of purees in varying consistencies. I know when it comes to weaning everyone talks in terms of cubes (2/3 cubes of carrot puree etc..) but I am still making all his food fresh and not freezinf anything... so the concept of cubes doesn't apply to me.
   Yesterday I boiled and pureed an entire apple and he ate it all up. Was that too much... should I and can I offer him more ??
   He also drank about 50 ml water with his meal... is that enough ??

2. Milk feeds: when should I offering him the breast... before or after his solids ? and how long before or after ? For the first 2 days I gave him the apple puree and then offered him a feed and he drank for about 5 mins. But yesterday, after eating the entire apple he didn't want a feed... is that OK ?

3. Milk supply: At the current rate in a few weeks time DS may start having 3 meals a day :) So if he skips 3 feeds, will that impact my milk supply ?? I was hoping to breastfeed for at least a year... how can I ensure my supply continues??

Thanks in advance for all your help !
:)

oops... a few typos in that one

Bumping as I'm interested in answers too :)

50mls is plenty of water, my 11 month old tends to just have a few sips here and there, he probably only has 100mls tops all day.
Don't worry about the quantities. Stop when your baby loses interest.

Milk- offer milk first. Milk is more important than solids when you first start weaning. I personally offered solids at ordinary meal times when I was eating and I breastfed on demand the rest of the day. If you are a more scheduled sort of person with regards to milk feeds, I would offer solids about an hour after a milk feed. his milk will have gone down a bit but he will not yet be ravenous and too grumpy to sit in a highchair.

Your milk supply will adapt to your baby's demand. The best way to ensure you continue is to, well, continue! breastfeed your baby when he wants it and you will produce enough to meet his needs. I am only doing 3 or 4 feeds in a 24 hour period now and I have no problem. It's normal for BF to reduce as the solids go up but take it at your baby's pace

Can't really help much with number 1 as I'm doing BLW so I just put a bit of food on my DDs highchair tray and watch her try to get it in her mouth. She only really started eating significant quantities of food a few weeks ago at 8 months.
It is advised to offer your baby a milk feed before their meal as milk should still form their main source of nutrition for the first year or so (with food very slowly taking over at your child's own pace). For me in practice this means breastfeeding DD about a hour before each meal, except for dinner when it's usually about two hours now purely because she likes a feed when she wakes up from her nap which is usually about 2 hours before dinner, when I very first started I offered her a feed just before dinner too.
If your offer you baby a feed before their meal it allows them to drop feeds at a rate that's right for them, your milk supply will be robust by this point and you should keep on making enough milk for your baby's needs. i have a couple of friends who's babies are a few months older than mine who have dropped (either naturally or with a bit of encouragement) to two feeds per day, morning and evening and their supplies are absolutely fine for those feeds, though I expect if their babies suddenly wanted to start feeding more in the day it'd take a couple of days for their supply to get back up to need the baby's increased milk demands.
Hope that makes sense!

Your body will produce the milk that it perceives baby is drinking - so when the volume he takes from you lessens, your milk supply will also lessen, but should still be enough to supply what he wants. If you are worried you could always use a breast pump to boost your supply a bit more, but I think you shouldn't have a problem with supply and using pumps is such a faff and takes precious time out of the day.

Thanks for the replies :)

I do have one more question... How do I give him water ?? I mean does it always have to be boiled or at some point he can start drinking the same water as us ?? We drink tap water which is filtered using one of those Brita filters. For now I am offering him boiled cooled water as I'm not sure...

My little man is 16 months but we started weaning at 6 months and he would eat HUGE amounts! the HV said we should just keep feeding him until he stopped eating. I promise he will finally stop!!

I don't think an apple is a wopping amount, it's probably not more than 2 or 3 ice cubes (and ice cubes vary from tray to tray). I would recommend you freeze food though as it means you can give him more variety.

Some babies take to food really well (as my boy did) and will just eat a lot. be prepared for when you feed him infront of your friends and they all comment on how much he eats though!

as for water. I think it's 6 months he can start drinking tap water (not sure about the filter), it doesn't have to be boiled and cooled.

yep, tap water is fine from 6 months, you don't need to boil it any more.

thanks all :)

Great advice I got at a blw talk - 90% of calories should come from milk until 9 months so don't sweat about food ... Let him eat or not, squeeze it, play with it