Please help I am at the end of my tether ...... I feel like the HV has ruined ds2 )-:

[mosschops30]

ds2 has been such a lovely baby, happy, smiling, sleeps like an angel.

I started weaning about 2 weeks ago (he is 6 months next week), just with a bit of porridge in the morning and maybe something savoury or a fruit pot in the afternoon. He had this along side 5 bottles a day of 6oz. We were both enjoying it.

Now the HV came round on Monday ans said he should be on 3 meals a day now and down to 2 bottles (one morning, one night) of 6oz each.
So I tried this, and I just find he doesnt want to eat that much all the time, so I get really stressed feeding him, thinking he's got to eat, im literally shovelling/forcing it into him. He wont drink much water maybe an ounce a day.
Since wednesday he has pretty much cried all day every day and Im exhausted , I just sat on the floor and cried next to him, its so hard listening to someone cry for 3 days, he woke up this morning at 5am crying, and is pretty much still going.
Yesterday I gave him an extra bottle but it doesnt seem to have helped.

Please help I dont know what to do

every child is different, my second is 18 months old, still on 2 bottles a day (morning and night) and grazes during meal times..

whereas my first continued 2 bottles a day of milk until almost 3 and ate heartily 3 meals a day and lots of snacks!

don't worry do what you were doing, the hv of my friends (3rd dc) told her to start her on solids (banana etc) at 5 months, baby has been really ill....

I think we must have had the same HV mosschops. I took dd at 6 months, 2 weeks into weaning and got the same speech; far less milk, 3 solid meals plus pudding. DD was doing just fine as she was. I ignored her.

I echo what everyone else says. You sound like you had it under control so go back to that.

They should be on 3 meals by the time they are 12 months, not 6 months. Some babies won't even start weaning til 6 months so certainly won't be on 3 full meals a day at that age. Until they are 1 food is for fun. Milk is much more important and more calorific for them.

Can't believe how out of date this HV is. She needs reporting imvho.

you were not crap at weaning your first child. fwiw, my dd1 was still exclusively on milk till she was 13 months old. She was at nursery full time too being offered a range of meals and snacks I couldn't ever provide at home so there is no way I screwed up and kept her on milk because I was some kind of failure.

dd2 I did baby led weaning starting at 6 months. Well, 5.5 months when she starting to rob my plate. She ate very little, as and when I ate and her snacks were breastfeeds because I am a lazy cow. around 8 or 8.5 months her eating starting to take off with no prodding from me.

I am sure it was nothing special I did as I am too lazy for that.

The whole cack about forgetting to chew or talk or swallow or whatever she said needs reporting. It can't bear to think of how many other new mums she must be making paranoid and miserable.

latest weaning leaflet

ignore your HV and don't see her again if you can avoid it.

My DD1 didn't even start weaning until 9 months (she just wasn't interested until then, although WE started trying from 6 months!), DS was about the same, DD2 is having 2 or 3 meals depending on her mood - some days she eats a fair bit, others she just chews a crust...she is almost 10 months. All babies are different aren't they?

yeah and listen to treedelivery. don't follow that blimmin clock.

i just scanned that nhs booklet and see loads I didn't follow in there so use it as a reference at how daft that hv is. I found it too didactic as how weaning is supposed to work. Babies are different. Look at the baby or toddler. If they are happy about what they are eating and drinking don't sweat it. They will eat what and when they want. Just offer what foods you have in the house so from the start they are eating what the family eats.

Ignore HV am at idea of only 2 bottles at 6 months. Go back to what you were doing before.

2 bottles a day a target by probably 11-12 months...

baby mosschops would like to say a big thank you to everyone on this thread for making his life wonderful once again

this thread has been my lifesaver thank you so much, I went back to 4 bottles and 3 meals on friday, it took a while to fill him up again, he must have been starving poor thing, but by saturday evening he was back to normal and we are now on 3 bottles and 3 meals (or whatever he manages to eat).

I am happier and far less stressed because I know that if he doesnt eat he can have a bottle of milk, and therefore he's less stressed and seems to be enjoying his food more, and still loving the 3 bottles.

I dread to think how bad it could have got, he was so constipated at the weekend obviously from lack of fluid from missing bottles and also not taking much from cup, I have given him water in a bottle today and he's drunk it all.

We had a lovely weekend away with him sleeping and feeding well, thanks to you all so much

My DS2 didn't have anything but milk until he was 8 months, not for want of (my) trying.

that's great mosschops and baby mosschops

good decision, mossy.