Weaning schedule!

[Katekate77]

Hi

I have 6 month old twins and started weaning them a couple of weeks ago (as told by HV and consultant). Their feeds have been all over the place and I was wondering if this schedule was ok?

They wake at 7-8am and have a huge milk feed and then porridge/weetabix and puréed fruit pretty much straight after.

At 11-11.30 they have about 5oz milk then puréed fruit/veg/rusk or something straight after.

At 2pm they have about 4oz milk.

At 4pm they have had more fruit and another bottle!! (About 5oz)

Then at 6.30 ish they have a petit filous each (this is by far their favourite time of day) followed by a bedtime bottle at 7pm...anywhere between 2-5oz.

They sleep for 12-13 hours.

Is this too much? Too little? Is there a better pattern I can get them into? I didn't get much advice from the HV but have read to always offer milk feed first until they are one.

They have had a lot if cereals, fruits and veggies now. Shall I introduce some of our meals (blended) now. Chicken, fish, eggs etc?

Thanks in advance

P.s. They were 8 weeks premature so are not quite able to feed themselves yet, hence the purées. It won't be long though, they keep grabbing the spoon and putting their hands in their mouths.

Sorry this is so long!

My twins are 8 months and I've only had them on 3 meals for about 2 weeks. If they are enjoying it, then keep going but don't worry if they reject a meal. Absolutely no need to stress about volume for a long time yet. You want them to get used to textures and flavours (and obviously eat too!) Just clean up and try again later if you have a bad session.

Mine were pretty much term (37+6) so don't have your worries about prematurity but I am doing BLW and it is really great for twins. So let them have a spoon, give them some soft carrots batons or a bit of banana to chew on etc. it is such an energy saver. I can now prep dinner/ do the washing up/ fold some laundry while they eat and they have each other to interact with, which is lovely. I do use spoons but load them up and hand them over. I am now having to use 4 spoons at a time! One for them and another one being loaded in order to keep up.

Thank you. That's a great idea loading the spoons up, although mine aren't quite there yet. I do want to do baby led. Just giving them a small portion of whatever we have to smother around their faces the bigger twin has a few chunks (that I haven't quite blended properly) but the little one who also has Down's syndrome still splutters and spits them back at me. Obv she may need more time but always watches everything her sister does which is good.

We are having salmon tonight so I might save them a few chunks to have with sweet potato tomorrow.

The nappies are something else aren't they!!!!

The only thing I would say is they are having lots of fruit which is great for vitamins but not so great for their teeth (when they come). The same with the petit filous, good for calcium but very sugary!

Could you try giving veg/fish/ chicken instead of fruit at 4pm then instead of petit filous use normal natural yoghurt wih a bit of stewed/puréed fruit stirred in to give some sweetness (cheaper too!)

Don't see anything wrong with the schedule if it works for you and them!

as time goes on you might want to start giving food say 30 min after milk, then 1 hr after, just to ease the transition from milk to food as main source of calories - but as I say that's over time. amazing sleeping, wish my 11 month old slept that well

DD was also premature (6 weeks) and although she was grabbing for the spoon from the start, she then stopped grabbing and tbh it has taken until now before she can actually really get a loaded spoon in her mouth at the right end! so don't be surprised if it takes a while. finger food however she's been good with for several months (breadsticks were a really good introduction as were easy to hold, try to find ones with not much salt eg waitrose love life).

i would recommend the Ella's or Plum fromage frais in place of petits filous, the Ella's and Plum ones only have fruit to sweeten (they still taste pretty sweet though) whereas petits filous are full of sugar. watch the rusks too, they can be very sugary, better to stick with porridge I reckon (by the way ready brek is fine, no need to buy the special baby porridge)

I held off giving meat until she was nearly 6 months corrected but tbh I think I was a bit over cautious on that. DD loves meat fish and eggs, much more than fruit and veg carnivore baby

I don't bother with baby yoghurt. I just buy tubs of full fat Greek yoghurt And add chopped fruit to it. The Greek stuff is lovely and thick with lots of calories and no worries about sugar as there's only as much sugar as there is in the fruit

Te BLW website has some stories of people weaning babies with Down's syndrome which might be encouraging/useful.

Thanks everyone. I didn't even think about petit filous being too sugary! The HV mentioned them and a couple of my friends gave them too! I have got loads of purées in the freezer (home made) in cube form in little bags. So easy! They are having as much veg as fruit, tbh I have just been including it a bit more lately because they've been struggling to poop! You know they're a bit constipated when the poo FALLS OFF the nappy .

I will get some natural yoghurt tomorrow as I can just pop my own fruit in!

Do I purée the meat and fish? Maybe with a little of their milk and serve it with a veg portion? Until they are ready to pick up and gnaw of course

yup I wd purée meat and fish for now, mix with veg. then later on fish can just be mashed or flaked, meat can be given as finger food if it's not too chewy

dd was constipated at the start of weaning but it quickly stopped. banana made her worse, pear and dried apricot were good for loosening up!

Thanks for all your replies! I bought some natural yoghurt and they love it on its own (after a little confused wince at the first mouthful). I've also mixed some blended peach with it and they had a huge bowl each! They don't seem to like spinach...just spit it out but I will persist and disguise it with some butternut squash.

I'm a lot happier as they put on nearly a pound in the last 2 weeks (since weaning started).
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