September 2014 - Into the new year!

[RedToothBrush]

Shiny New Thread for a Shiny New Year.

holls are you watching scandal's previous seasons? As sky have them available :)

Oooh we also have snow in Yorkshire today, got a bit of a shock taking the dog out this morning!

Can I ask what might be some stupid questions about weaning? I keep seeing contradictory advice about it, but am desperate to start as everyone says it will help dd's reflux. Nazly- is first tastes different to weaning? Is it ok to start that earlier? FATE - I think in one of your posts yesterday you said it can be really harmful to start early - what are the risks with that? Thanks in advance, I'm finding all the conflicting advice confusing!

I don't know what the risk are aside from what's on the NHS website (or that your HV could tell you) Apples.

In what way have you found conflicting advise? It was my understanding that all guidelines recommend 6 months for weaning off milk including NICE. I'm not sure if they list the risks of doing it early? I could guess it's to do with choking and immature digestive systems. That is a guess though.

I have anecdotal personal experience if that helps? Not that any danger came to my DD, but I tried weaning my first born (DD now 10) early, somewhere around 20 weeks I think. I justified it to myself in various ways like the fact that I was returning to work and wanted it sorted, that she was clearly hungry (she was ebf) so was ready. I went for the stuff to fill baby up at first - baby rice, baby porridge - sloppy just more substantial than milk. I hoped it would make her feed better, sleep better and generally be a happier more contented baby. It didn't. That's just my experience though.

Ella what's that cream? Off to google to search- despite having so many tests we were never offered the cream, even when he was a tiny new born and they could not find his vein...
What you described about your DD's reaction is exactly what I got when coming out of shower all wet and not looking like myself... I am glad it is not abnormal... :)

Ladies, any ideas, this is the third day we haven't had a poo... ds has cried for half an hour this morning, but nothing ... I gave him a little water which always helped, not this time. Any other thing I could do?
The familiarisation with taste project is now shelved until he is back to normal. (His normal is at least once a day)

Is it that cream they put on your hand if you are a wuss like me before you have a cannula?

It's a cream that you don't rub in but put a plaster over to keep it in place. It numbs the skin, takes about an hour. I insist it is used whenever I have a cannula put in because I'm phobic. Not sure what the cream is called though.

I am shocked if they took blood from a baby without using something to numb the skin. That is awful!

Apple. I have not seen any contradictory advice, they all say start from 6m. But they also explain there are three signs that shows they may be ready before 6m.
If your LO has reflux then you can ask your gp or. HV; I did and was advised against weaning early. But I know of people who were advised on weaning early because of reflux. I think it may depends on the level of reflux and who you ask.

As for risks. I have read there are two risks: one that their digestion system is not ready yet; two that they may develop food allergies if you start early.

About me, I feel ds is ready at 5 months but am reluctant to start, I decided to give maybe a tiny bit (say tea spoon) of different cooked vegetable to him -once a day, one taste a day; so he can start faster at 6 m, but even for that I am taking it extremely slow; just done it once and stopped for now... :)
I don't feed him; let him play with the tiny bit of food

For Apple: www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Baby_Friendly/Leaflets/introducing-solid-foods.pdf

This is a short but very useful document

I don't feed him; let him play with the tiny bit of food

I think that is a really good tip for those of us with younger babies Nazly.

I could imagine that the word 'weaning' has different meanings to different people.

• Some ladies wean from breast to formula for example. Some would call this weaning, others wouldn't.

• Some parents wean by putting some form of thickener (like baby rice or rusks) dissolved into their bottles and cut the teats to "feed" baby using a bottle. Some would call this weaning, others wouldn't.

• Some start giving tastes in tiny amounts whilst keeping milk as the main nutrition. Some would call this weaning, others wouldn't.

• Some give while foods for baby to grasp, hold, mouth and generally play with without any pressure to feed. Some would call this weaning, others wouldn't.

• Some babies go from all milk to all food at 6 months and milk becomes a drink rather than a food source.

• Some babies have milk as their main food source weeks and weeks past 6 months.

I'm not sure what the NHS and NICE have as their definition for what is weaning and what is not? To me, weaning is when food replaces milk as the main form of nutrition. But that is not at all what Nazly means (I don't think?).

Surely experiencing the feel of different things (isn't bread squidgy, apples hard and cold, biscuits crumbly, grated cheese feels funny...) isn't frowned upon by the NHS? That's just decent exploration. And if a baby buts something into their mouth (assuming we have made sure it is a choke proof size first) then that surely wouldn't be discouraged? That sort of thing is more about exploration than nutrition.

whole* foods

That's right Fate, I don't really believe I am weaning as yet; no single milk feed is being replaced anytime soon here... I also don't believe baby foods are necessary so none of that here for now.

However when you start weaning at 6m using puree+finger food or blw finger food only, then you have to start very slowly, one new taste each day is recommended by different sources and small portions, very small... It is only after a few weeks that you can start counting on solids to replace milk nutrition values.

I am trying to let ds understand there are other tastes than milk (and Sophie the giraffe, and his hands and his toys and his bibs and my hand and ... Crossed through) in the world , to speed things up at 6m. He is discovering the food himself; I am not helping with spoon or hand...

I am aiming to mix blw with a bit of mashed food when he is six months old..

Cross posting: Ella I hope your medicine works quickly for you ... It is upsetting when the result of a test is not quite what you were hoping for... Hope another episode does not happen

As for the cream I am feeling upset now too; they always have difficulty finding ds veins and I never knew they could use a cream; he had to have tiny cannula in at birth; they kept losing it and try another place to put another cannula; when they tried enough with his poor hands and feets and arms they were aiming for his head when I almost broke down. They didn't have to do that luckily; but it just make me sad thinking it is their jobs and they don't feel your pain as parent...

I remember different nurses trying and failing then calling the one person in the hospital (working in a&e at the time) who they thought could find his vein...
Heart breaking that's why whatever happens and whenever he is sensitive I think maybe it has to do with his time in nicu

It might help him with solids when he gets to 6 months, he might not need to take it slowly. Not all babies do.

My DS9 was a really good breastfeeder so I had grand plans to keep breastmilk as his main source of nourishment for as long as possible. Aged 6 months I gave him a whole strawberry, he devoured it like it was the best thing on earth! He ate four big strawberries all in one sitting. So decided to offer him dinner that afternoon. Again he polished a full baby portion off.

Very quickly, like within days, definitely less than a week, he was eating three full meals per day plus proper food am and pm snacks. It all happened so quickly, I wasn't planning to wean like that and I felt like I wasn't ready for him to wean. He was hardly breastfeeding at all, no matter how hard I forced him tried.

Babies are all their own people, especially as they get older. And damn, those children don't always do as we would like them to do!

Cross post.

I've not been there but do empathise and understand how you must feel about the pain he was in as a newborn Nazly. It must be heartbreaking.

Please take solice from the fact that babies don't remember things from their baby years when they get older.

Def ask for some numbing cream next time, and I hope his test results are good.

(just reading back up, sorry about the multiple posts!)

Ella - Those tablets are evidently doing you a lot of good, so no shame in staying on them. Better that than another 'episode' - must have been really scary for your DH.

Is everyone else's babies rolling over and grabbing for things?

DD spends most of her playtime reaching and pulling herself onto her side. Very odd occasions she can roll over but this is fluke and not deliberately, she definitely doesn't yet know how to roll over my choice.

When she's on the playgym I do notice she puts her arms and legs up and sometimes touches the toys. Again I don't think it is conscious movement but she is beginning to make the connections between moving her arm/leg and toy moving.

You'll all get that before me, because my DD is several weeks younger. Grrrr

Ladies, any ideas, this is the third day we haven't had a poo

You shouldn't need to worry if he's breastfed Nazly. Breastmilk is so perfectly suited to baby's needs that there is very little waste. Breastfed babies can sometimes go up to 2 weeks without pooing and it's nothing to worry about.

You just have near perfect breastmilk and aside from some water that comes out as urine, there could well be no other waste product from it.

Fate I am searching and reading exactly what you say but I am still worried... Wonder if I should try prune juice or apple juice? Have never gave him anything like that before

Does he normally have solid poos or runny poos?

Thanks FATE and Nazly that's really helpful. The conflicting advice I've had has been about what constitutes weaning and when to do it. Our HVs here don't seem to be that good. They've said they think weaning would help dd's reflux but that they think we should wait to wean. The GP has also said she thinks weaning early would help, and all this despite the official 6 month guidance. Dd is currently able to reach out, grab things and put them in her mouth but can't sit totally unaided so I don't want to start until she can do that.

Nazly your poor ds, it's so horrid seeing them in pain

Emily has only rolled over once Ella - off the sofa, ending in a trip to a&e!

She rolls on her side a lot not right over, but does grab stuff deliberately, the most annoying being her dummy which she then removes and cries cause she hasn't got it, this happens over and over until she falls asleep.

B has rolled twice. obviously didn't enjoy it as hasn't done it ok.
feel v bad, we have a shoebox of discovery stuff - light up stuff, touchy stuff, etc and I picked it up and I think I bumped b on the back of his head with it. he didn't react so maybe I didn't. feel crap.

holls he would let you know if you had! says she who has bumped DS head more than once and boy did he scream, I'm not a mean mummy honestly he's just very wriggly!

I still need to do a lot of research for weaning and haven't decided what to do yet. It's my understanding that 6 months is recommended but most people start before. Until 6 months it should be purée only, no solid foods until after 6 months and they are showing the 3 signs. I think the risks of allergies are if you give wheat or dairy but that could be wrong.

For reflux and allergies I was told to start at 20-22 weeks and introduce 1 food for 3 days in a row to see if any reaction.

It's a total minefield it seems!