A weaning and sitting up question

[purplemurple1]

Does the baby need to be sitting confidently enough that you can plank them down on the bare floor and walk away, or can/should they be supported? And why does it matter?

Its a bit early for weaning my DS yet but he can get food and spoons to his mouth if placed in his hands and has lost the tounge thrust reflex, so I'm wondering what else I'm looking out for.

He regularly takes 450ml in the evenings and then wakes 3-4 hrs later for his next feed and I'm not sure this quantity of food is doing him any favors, but if I try to give less or a dummy he won't settle to sleep. tia

plank = plonk

How old is your baby? TBH I'd be guided by age more than anything else - try some solids at 6 mo and if he shows no interest then try again a week or two later. I think the "signs" are hard to be sure about and some of them have now been discredited anyway.

Sitting supported is fine. They just have to be able to not flop when eating!

It's less important about whether they're putting things in their mouths and more about gut maturity which comes with age. Babies put all sorts in their mouths, it's not necessarily linked to weaning.

They do need to have lost tongue thrust .

Don't think solids will fill him up better anytime soon, they won't. Much less calories in carrot puree than formula! They'll fill his tum but not provide the calories.

Wait til 6m if you can.

I waited till 6 months but he wasn't at the stage where you could plonk him on the floor; he was still wobbly & would flop over after about 10 seconds! It's only now at 8 months that we're at the 'plonk' down stage.

Waiting till he was 6 months really made the whole weaning thing so much easier, I'm really glad I ignored my mother I waited.

Sitting upright in a highchair or on your lap is fine - it's important that they don't need to be reclined (like in a bouncy chair or car seat) as it's a choking risk.

I thourght hand eye coordination was important i.e. grabbing an object and putting in their mouth - is this not one of the signs of being ready then?
He already shows interest as we have to give him medicine on a spoon before feeds so he knows it's associated with eating. So I hadn't taken that as true sign.

Its more filling with less calories that he needs as I've been told he is putting on too much weight, I've been advised to give him water either in each bottle or instead of one bottle which I don't want to do (so I'm not). He is jumping up the growth lines but his length isn't keeping up with his head and weight. He can sit up on my lap, and leans forward out of the bouncy chair to sit up, but I'll hold off for a while until he is a bit more stable.

thanks

Sitting upright, the co-ordination to grab something and get it into their mouths, losing the tongue thrust and being able to chew and swallow are the signs of readiness.

A good test is to sit him on your lap and put a piece of banana of stick of soft fruit on the table - if he picks it up and eats it then you can probably assume he's ready! If you're just spooning liquid baby rice into his mouth for him to "drink" then you can't really tell if he's physically mature enough. Just make sure you wait until at least 17 weeks.

Thanks Lilly I'll try that test from time to time and see how he gets on. As I said the aim is to limit weight gain so I'm not under the impression that shovelling rice into him is going to help with that.