Weaning a baby?

[grcxo]

my baby is 5 months old and definitely ready to wean. at the moment we’ve just started offering him a couple of spoonfuls of baby rice prior to a bottle. Occasionally it’ll be mid bottle if he’s really hungry.

But i’m curious as to how to replace a bottle feed with food and at which point do i do so because i know milk is still crucial for them at this stage?

Milk has more calories and nutrients than food at an early weaning stage. Baby will start to show when they are ready to drop a bottle and increase food but it might not be for months yet. If he's really hungry you should be giving more milk not less.

You don’t. Milk is the primary source of nutrition until they are 1 years old.

I would offer milk before food and I would offer something other than baby rice. At the very early stage of weaning it’s about exploring food. Don’t forget to finger foods from 6 months. You are suppose to offer water with food but not before 6 months - I’m not sure how that works for when you wean early.

As others have said, you don’t you offer solids alongside and then you drop milk feeds as and when it looks like they don’t want them. For example, you could start to do milk on waking, hour later a small bit of porridge for breakfast, then continue on the day with however many milk feeds they want.

I’m sure someone else will be along to say it soon any way but I would also ditch the baby rice, nutritionally it’s got nothing going for it.

Why baby rice op? It's just calorie empty filler. If you're going to give anything how about very runny baby porridge, at least it has milk and oata

At six months, the bottle feeds tended to be in between meal times,
For example - bottle 7am, breakfast 8ish, bottle 11am, lunch 12.30ish, bottle 2.30pm, tea 5ish, bottle at bedtime and maybe a dream feed later on.
So as they started to eat more at meals, they naturally started to drink less milk. The 11am bottle was dropped first and replaced with a snack of fruit or breadsticks, then the 2pm feed dropped around 10/11 months.
I agree about the baby rice, no need for it, give them something that you would also enjoy eating. Weaning is is about much more than just filling their tummies.

For example - bottle 7am, breakfast 8ish, bottle 11am, lunch 12.30ish, bottle 2.30pm, tea 5ish, bottle at bedtime and maybe a dream feed later on.

I thought babies aged six months are only meant to have one meal a day?

I've always been taught to offer a bottle 30-60 mins before food. Food is to try and shouldn't replace bottles, especially so young. DD wasn't on 3 meals a day until 8/9 months and then she dropped a bottle through the day but she still has 22oz in a day and 3oz in her porridge in a morning.

Just to add, she's nearly 11 months now

I thought babies aged six months are only meant to have one meal a day?

They wouldn't necessarily be eating much at all at six months, but would be sat at the table with the family in their highchair or on my lap and given a bit of veg to munch on, just so they were part of family mealtimes. Over the next six months, the amount they eat increases, until they are eating a "meal".

@WhenTwoBecomeThree

Just to add, she's nearly 11 months now

She's the same age as my twins and I've been paranoid about their milk intake as they'll have bottles a day sometimes 6 but they're not consistent with 3 meals yet and with BLW they throw lots on the floor yet.

Def milk first then food at the start of weaning op

Thank you everyone - i’m completely new to this and have next to no support due to covid so I appreciate all your inputs!

I had placed him on baby rice as I followed the NHS site and it says to only offer a couple of spoonfuls before a bottle. The jars of food was just working a little too expensive as financially we have no money due to covid outbreak and were not being able to receive government support - so we’re in the slumps for it. The baby rice just seemed better to start with seeing as i’m only giving him very little at this moment in time and can be made with just mixing with his normal milk.

It’s just driving me insane, one person tells you one thing and someone else tells you something else.

Thank u x

Some veggie purées are cheap to make. Our 6 month old likes pumpkin, potato, carrot and cauliflower in various combinations. I just cooked them all together them blitzed them separately. Left some pieces whole for him to try.

So for example last night he had some pumpkin and cauliflower mixed purée. Then some pumpkin in a chunk to try whole ( it is very soft cooked)

I think all the veg together only cost maybe £2 worth and he has plenty of stuff in the freezer now. ( maybe 16 -20 meals). So that’s about 3 weeks of 1 main meal.
Il add some extra bits as we have over time ie lentils to some carrot purée or a bit of grated cheese to cauliflower.

Mashed banana is very easy and cheap also as you can just eat 2/3 of the Banana yourself, then mash a tiny bit for them, so not huge extra coat right now

@sleepingstandingup yeah we do BLW too but thankfully she's recently started eating most of it, she did go through a phase where she just wiped her hands across the tray and knocked everything on the floor😩

OP,when they're ready, get some frozen veg in! You can buy big bags for next to nothing and then it's up to you if you puree it or do BLW. You can also buy bags of frozen fruit etc that last for ages with the quantity. We just put them on a baking tray and leave in the fridge to defrost bit by bit! Jars can work out quite pricey so you just need to find alternatives. We do BLW so she eats whatever we eat and we're not having to buy anything extra x