Weaning after antibiotics - any tips??

[anniemay123]

Hi everyone,

We were about to start weaning my 6-month old daughter when she got ill (fever, suspected ear infection). We didn't want to wean her until she was better and the doctor has suggested waiting until we complete her course of antibiotics.

Does anyone have any tips on how to go about this? I'm afraid that her gut will have been cleared of all the good bacteria from birth and breastfeeding so I'm nervous about introducing solids before her gut has recolonised. Problem is that this process can take 4-6 weeks.

Have people in similar situations waited for a bit before weaning or have they just started weaning straight after the course was finished?

This has fallen at such a bad time :( a month earlier and there would be no question about it (just breastfeed) and a month later she would have been weaned already.

I just don't know what to do with regards to helping her gut bacteria reform - bf will give different bacteria from food......but in this case she'll be getting food having cleared some (but obviously not all) bf bacteria

Thanks!!

I don't have experience of this and I'm not a medic but I'd wait another couple of weeks and then start very very gradually and start off by mixing purees with a bit of breast milk.

Bear in mind that in the first few weeks of weaning, the expectation isn't that they will get meaningful calorific intake from the food but that they learn to sit and eat and explore.

Some foods like carrot are easy to digest in my experience so I can't see there'd be much to challenge her gut in giving her a cooked stick of carrot to have a go with.

Lamb is also supposed to be easy to digest so you could puree some roast lamb (its vile pureeing meat but might be worth it in this scenario!).

Thanks so much for your input :)