3 MONTH OLD WEIGHS 15LBS, NEED TO START ON BABY RICE...HOW MUCH, WHEN, WHAT FEED?

[kylah]

Hi, my 3 month old son is guzzling bottles and want to start him on baby rice in the next week or two. What feed should I introduce this to, or is it every feed and can I expect him to go longer between feeds and drop the 10pm feed?

Why start him on rice at 3 months? Milk has more calories anyway if he's still hungry give him more milk.

Why do you want to start him on baby rice? It's very early. Four months is considered early, you know. I really wouldn't wean any earlier than that. He's not particularly huge anyway.

Its unlikely anyone will advise you on this except to say , hes not old enough!!

Increase his milk intake and put the baby rice off for a bit.

He's too young. Milk contains more calories than baby rice and you might do him harm if you give him it this young.

I really, really would wait.

have reservations about starting him so early but he will be 4 months in the next two weeks. he seems pretty contect and is feeding every 3-4 hours and sleeping through the night 10pm-7am without a feed so I think I'll just wait and see.

ideally wait till he is 6months. he will be fine on milk alone.

6 months

Agree - 6months - gut needs to mature.

Four months is considered early now - try waiting till six months.

i agree too! Nothing to be gained by early weaning, you will probably find that he will not eat much baby rice but will drink slightly less milk and therefore will get less calories and might wake in the night!

The way I see it, you won't do your baby any harm waiting till six months, but you might give them lifelong problems if you wean before then (IBS, allergies, etc) - I don't think there's really a dilemma.

well I'm one of those controversial 'early weaners' - but even I would say leave him for now - and don't even bother with baby rice when you do eventually wean - waste of money.

he's content, sleeping through, having 3 to 4 hours between feeds....what made you think you needed to start baby rice??

God, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! (Six months is a great time to start weaning - forget pureeing for a start! And no worries about what you can and can't give him - he can have everything bar honey (and peanut butter if there are allergies/eczema/asthma in the family)

kylah - not sure if I understood your post (apologies if I got it wrong).

If you were thinking of adding something to his milk - please, please don't do this. It will make no difference and could end up aggravating his good sleeping patterns (if his tummy gets upset then he'll start waking).

Babies should not have solids before 25 weeks. There is much debate on what to wean them on, personally I think baby rice isn't a good way to start. Have a taste and you'll know why I think this .

Only reason I am telling you this is because I had a disaster with my DS2 who was a big baby. We were advised to wean him early (by a paediatrician and community health nurse) - he ended up with really bad tummy problems (which I totally attribute to early weaning). My instinct was to stick to milk - I will always regret not sticking to that.

Kylah,

Everyone else is right - he's still too young and even in the next couple of weeks it's the VERY MINIMUM age to start weaning, and as he's content with feeds every 3-4 hours and he's sleeping through, he much better left as long as possible. Most experts say to start weaning at 4 months only in extreme cases where babies are desperately in need of more food, or other things are going such as reflux, where early weaning, which can stay down easier than milk, may be lesser an evil than the medications they take to stop the vomiting.

You will notice if you start to try him that he is likely to push the food out of his mouth with his tongue. This is called the tongue thrust reflex and only goes when baby is really ready for solids. Trying to battle against this leads to gagging and choking which is distressing and is of course potentially very dangerous (although all babies gag and choke at some point as they get used to solids).

Why were you thinking of starting him early?

I'm assuming from the thread title that you want to wean him because of his size - a baby's weight has no bearing on the maturity of his digestive system so even though he's big (is 15lb big for 3 months? I can't remember ) he's not ready for anything other than milk.

As others have said, the closer you can get to 6 months, the better.

if you really want to wean early then thats your choice. with ds i gave him a tiny bit with his morning and evening feed. c&g is the best imho coz they also do a flavoured range. but try with more milk 1st, how many bottles is he having?

he is having a growth spurt possibly too

try hungry baby milk ,see if that makes a difference, but milk , milk and more milk is all he needs for another 3 months or so!

how many ounces is he taking?

just seen your other post...!

leave well alone if he is sleeping through and settled !

Thanks for the advice and concern, to be honest the seed of thought was planted by the MIL and she frankly wont bloody well backdown off the subject.
He's having 8 oinces 6 times a day but I'm just concerned when he has another growth spurt and 8/9 isnt enough, worried if I'll be able to keep up with the feeding demands as he's been in a really good routine for weeks now.
Personally I dont think 15lbs at his age is too much as he was 8lbs 13oz at birth and he's grown steadily along his axis and the doctor/HV are pleased with his progress. So yeah he is a big boy but he's not fat he's just really long and broad.
Think I just need to stick to my guns and make the right decisions for him and no-one else. My mum lives hundreds of miles away so I sometimes feel like I'm only left under the intense scrutiny of my overbearing but well meaning MIL.
Think I've just answered my own question on that-the feeding issue hasnt stemmed from me I can see that now, I just have to stop letting other people pushing their opinions on me just because they have had kids.

Good for you

Don't wish to tell you what to do, but i don't think you should be weaning at such a young age, as the baby is not ready for food. Its recommended now that you don't wean untill at least six months. I have a 1yr old and 2yr old, both weaned at six months. He sounds like a big baby and it must be very hard, but i would try and stick with it abit longer.

It's interesting to read about your family pressure with regards weaning. I took my DS into the hospital where I work today and was amazed how many people (ie health professionals) told me I should start giving him solids (he's 20 weeks and 18lb). Stick to your guns with your last sentence - you know your child best! Try the WHO website for more ammunition with MIL argument / help you make your mind up when to wean.

(www.who.int/nutrition/topics/optimal_duration_of_exc_bfeeding_review_eng.pdf}