December 2012: Sunshine, saliva & sleeping more...we hope!

[WeeJo08]

New thread ladies

Spotty Food is less calorific than milk, and the amounts he'll have when you start weaning will be pretty small, so I'm not sure that food will help with weight directly.

But what my (lovely) hv has said is that frequently once children with reflux wean they often get better (from a reflux point of view) because the solids help things settle. This would help with weight gain, but I don't know if it's the same with silent reflux, if that is the issue.

Could you get your usual hv to come & see you or give you an appointment, or get an appointment with the paeds gp you said is at your surgery? Talk it through further and find out exactly what the reasoning is and what they think it would achieve.

I think I will get him weighed again in two weeks see what his weighed is doing and speak to my HV then. The HV I saw today was really nice (told someone off for giving their seven month old cows milk as a drink ) but I've never met her before and she doesn't know us.

R has milk at 7, 10, 12, 1, 3, 5 and 6:30 approx during the day. His sleeping and self settling are much improved with the structure of meals. He also gets bm with his weetabix and rice - now he goes down at 7 ish for a good stretch i have time to pump after he's in bed. I block feed off the right (his favourite) and pump the left.

Try him with a few mouthfuls of something easy like sweet potato, parsnip or pear at a time of day he's usually happy - R's was lunchtime - and see what he does. After 3 days, introduce a different veg. Once you've got a few in there and it's going well, add 1tsp baby rice with 1tsp milk (whatever he normally has but not cows, i use cooled boiled if no milk) to see how he dies with carbs. We did gluten last week - porridge (not a hit), rusks and weetabix (new fave) - and will do dairy over the next few days, starting with fromage frais then cheese.

He eats cauliflower, sweet potato, butternut squash, parsnip, pear, apple, banana, avocado, rusk, rice and weetabix in various combinations.

Will do protein next week, hopefully getting him eating mushed up versions of our meals a week or two later and saving me the extra cooking I try giving him finger food every few days but he likes his spoon, greedy lad! Will post a pic of his Rusk Munching Strategy

Spotty, i think weaning is instinct based you know your DS best, plus you already have DD so you've done it before. I think HV just tell you what is recommended. For some babies 6 months is the right time some before some after. Only you and DP can decide when DS is ready, your already doing a fantastic job, and DS is putting weight on. Someone told me last week when i was stressing out about H's weight that babies don't know they are suppose to follow a line in a book or reach particular milestones at certain times. They do what they want when they are ready. That was the advice that stopped me worrying last week xxx

Whoops kisses again -sometimes think i'm texting- sorry.

And a strike out fail, think i must be tired.

Oh where can I get me one of those besties! She just gets more delightful.

spotty it is a tricky one. I agree with hales that instinct counts for a lot, and with others that bm is more calorific than fruit and veg, but I can see the logic of adding some solids to help settle reflux. Although I do think some people are quick to say wean as they don't have any other answers. Does he seem happy and satisfied by his feeds? I guess on balance I'd say try to keep all the bfeeds and add a spoon of something heavier like baby cereal or sweet potato or give a piece of banana or rusk for him to suck maybe when you do dds breakfast or lunch. He's going to wean at some point soon so as long as you take it slow I can't see how you can do any harm.

I can see weaning in our not too distant future. J is only 21weeks but he has upped his milk intake massively and took a whopping 12oz in one go before he'd go to bed today! I kept waiting for him to throw it back up but it never came. Fingers crossed it'll do him for a good long stint!

I think if he's happy and settled then his weight is irrelevant - same goes for you hales - as you say, babies don't read the book and there is such a wide variation in 'normal'.

12oz!!! I'd love to know how much bm T takes in a big feed or in total as sometimes I can hear her glugging and I think surely she can't fit any more in but she does!

Willyou, how much formula does J have on a average day? Do you find he takes it all in one go or has sips now and again till you have to throw the bottle away?

WL I too wonder how much bm DS takes, especially when he completely empties one and goes for the second, empties that then back to the first to suckle until he can get another let down, like bedtime today. 45 mins of continuous feeding!

Hales J has fussy days where he will only take 3-4oz at a time and I have to keep trying him, but generally he has 6/7 6oz bottles a day. He drinks very little in a morning and loads in the evening. Today he's had 38oz and has finished every bottle I've given him but not the one DP gave him at 7am. normally it's between 30 and 36oz. Yesterday i'd say he had ~50oz I've made 7oz bottles for tomorrow as he drained all of them today.

He isn't gaining weight very fast though as he has a couple of days each week where he will only have about 24oz.

Thank you Willyou, was just trying to figure out what was normalish for FF babies. H sounds exactly like J so its reassured me i'm not over feeding her she has days where she drinks loads but days where she'll only drink a little.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Sorry to hear about all the poorly and jet lagged babies over the weekend. And sucks about the dentist spotty. Hope you get somewhere with the HV.

Things are going well with the feeding here. Only had formula twice in the last week and one bottle of ebm, everything else has been boob. A giant poo this morning has stopped me worrying about whether or not he is getting enough. Sleep, both night time and day time, has suffered a bit. I think I have been doubting myself and thinking he's hungry when he's actually tired and missing his sleep windows so we need to start working on that.

We looked at a house today! Really getting sick of this tiny 1bedroom place. Finances, will be tight for a while but I think we're going to take it and just be very careful with our spending. I'm excited!

random comma...

First wake up since bedtime at 8.30. Not bad at all. I even got to sleep at 11 so I've had a decent chunk, still so very tired though.

We're up for the third time...

Oh spotty that doesn't sound good.

DS just woke for a second time! so he slept 8.30-3 and 3.15-6, he'll be back in his bed in a min too.

No that's a normal night for us, one of the better ones.

Another dreadful night here, lots of wake ups, hard to settle and a lovely spell of crying at about 1-2. She was really snotty and congested (not been in the day) so am hoping its just the tail end of a cold and will sort itself very very soon. Bless DH has taken all 3 on the school run today for the first time ever but I know he's knackered too.

Glad feeding is going so well ski

Bless him but I just came downstairs to find the front door open!

Spotty It tickles me when someone asks how A has slept and are full of pity when I say he woke every 2hrs. That's better than the hourly wake ups.

I must be tired though, I thought we woke up at 2.23, but the next waking was 1 something, so I guess the first time must have been 22.30! Up for the day at 5.30.

Or 12:23

WL that was nice of his good job you noticed the door!

So I've already had a few 'how much longer are you going to feed him for?' Questions I'm not sure if they're just wondering or starting to be judgy. Either way it's none of their business.

Oh spotty I've had a few of those, especially from mil. Like you I can never tell whether its interest or judgy - I know they think I'm a bit weird with my bfing for more than 3 months and cloth nappies.