September 14 babies - bring on the weaning!

[KitKat1985]

New thread for the Sept 14 babies. :)

I have a poorly baby :( went from a snotty nose to full on phlegm attack in about two hours. He woke up because he couldn't breathe and loads of phlegm came pouring out of his nose and mouth. Got him back in with me now and vaguely settled in the bedside crib but he's not asleep and is exhausted. It's going to be a looooooong night.

Oh no Hon; hope he gets better soon.

6months today. I can't believe it's gone so quickly.

Acron we didn't have that sort of reaction here; I would also wait a bit longer then.

Roasted Mediterranean vegetable mix at six months= not such a good idea.

Top no rolling here either, but I am still not worried...

Holls, we're doing some hand and foot impressions for dh. You could also do prints and pop it in a little frame or keep it simple and pop them inside the valentines card Hard part is getting the baby to stay still while you make the prints!

Honeybear : ( I hope things are better in the morning

Ella, I have similar thoughts. DD has 6 7oz feeds per day - that's 42oz. She maybe leaves 2oz over the course of the day in waste. Usually she drains every bottle. So around 40oz too. (she is 20 weeks and 91st centile).

She feeds 3 hourly through the daytime and a dreamfeed: 8am-11am-2pm-5pm-8pm-11pm

She is just coming out of a growth spurt when she was waking in the night and was unsettled through the day. During that time I upped her bottles to 8oz and fed her more 2 to 2 1/2 hourly rather than 3 hourly. This meant she went up to 7 8oz feed = 56oz!

I expect that in time I should be able to drop the dreamfeed so that she goes down to just 5 feeds in 24 hours and a more reasonable 35oz.

The SMA tin says 5 6oz feeds at 4 months (30oz) and 4 8oz feeds at 6 months (32oz). This may be where you saw the 32oz? I have never heard it being official though. The bottle size recommendations on the tin are just suggestions for the 'average' baby.

If I do anything to change this, I will put a scoop less of formula powder into every feed, but make them up to the same volume.

Also consider that there is some confusion about what defines an oz of formula milk (which sounds odd, but bear with me). I have always considered the total volume of a feed as the size of the feed. Bear in mind that what one person may call a 6oz feed (6 scoops of powder added to 6oz of water) I would call a 7oz feed (because the total volume of made-up formula is 7oz).

Sorry, I just realised I didn't conclude there

In short, if your LO is happy, healthy and content, then feeding on demand is absolutely fine.

My little one can have anything between 30ozs and 40 ozs per day. I feed him on demand and still give him night feeds.

I had him weighed yesterday and he was 15lb 12 ozs, so just below average. His weight has been slowly slipping down (8lb 11 oz when born so started around 75th centile) , but the HV isn't concerned as he's only 25th centile for height.

Recently he has been doing explosive nappies, with poo going up his back and down his legs. Plus waking up to 7 times a night. The HV thinks these are signs that teeth are on their way.

He loves his playmat (at last) and has rolled (front to back) a few times. Mainly he enjoys shuffling about on his back.

As for his hemangioma (strawberry birthmark) - it hasn't grown for a month, and is still only millimetres wide and slightly raised. It can grow for up to a year but technically has done its period of rapid growth, so looks like it may stay small. I have made a conscious effort not to worry too much about it, as it started to make me really anxious and I found I wasn't enjoying him as much as I had been. Its not life threatening, it doesn't hurt him and it will eventually go on it's own - and to be honest it's still tiny and resembles a red spot - so in the scheme of things he's doing alright .

Not put any pictures on here for a while, so here are some.
He's looking so grown up in the face already; i can see what his "boy face" will look like.

Aw, what a little cutie jay and a very cheeky smile

Thanks for that link Ella, it looks very useful.

I talked to the HV a few weeks ago, as I was worried A wasn't eating enough. She said that each baby is very different, and to not worry too much about the guidelines on the tin of formula. As she said to me, if you asked 100 20 year olds what they ate it would vary greatly from person to person, and there is no reason to think it is not the same for babies. So as Fate says, as long as baby is happy try not to worry.

Jay - Your little one is gorgeous, looks like a really happy cheeky chap!

I agree with the feeding too. Molly does tend to stick to the formula tub guidelines - now on about 5 7oz feeds a day but she sometimes leaves up to 60ml in a feed and sometimes has an extra 4oz at bedtime so it does vary a bit. I think the formula guidelines don't compensate for growth spurts and as previously said, for individual differences between babies.

Feeling really tearful this week, it's a lot hormonal but also really missing my mum. Especially when DP or his family are annoying me, I feel like I don't have anyone on my side to talk to about anything anymore.I want so badly to be able to tell her what Molly is doing and ask her questions.

I'm also annoyed that DP is out for a drink after work today to see a friend for the last time before she has her baby with the rest of their group and her husband. However, London public transport at rush hour with a pram is basically impossible, let alone trying to get her inside anywhere that people are going to for after work drinks. So i'm here. I'm firstly bitter that she's out and about when she's due next week when I was practically house bound by that stage and even taking the dog for a walk round the block was painful. Secondly, he was out last Saturday for his mum's birthday as I said at the time and he was also out at football on Wednesday night. I've told him countless times how difficult doing the entire evening as well as the entire day on my own is and that it's basically a given that I won't be able to shower or eat dinner. He shouldn't be out that long tonight but still annoyed. Sorry for the whinge!

Oh what a cutie you have jay

Ds will sometimes take 7 oz but not often he mainly takes 6oz, he takes roughly 5 feeds a day and one in the night. He is now eating breakfast and lunch buy often misses dinner but is doing really well.

I am so glad I started with puree he willing open his mouth and happily eats, he likes the idea of holding food and throwing it off the high chair but is only just working out how to get it in his mouth he wouldn't be eating for months if we did blw. However we will keep offering finger food.

Jay can't see the pic on stupid mobile app :( will check later
Cookie agree about weaning; if no rush for them to actually eat anything then blw is the way... Otherwise mix with puree works best

Lilone that is really, really difficult :( I really feel for you, can't even imagine how it would feel not having your dear mum at this stage... I am also annoyed on your behalf about your partner not getting it; but you know, from talking to some rw friends of mine I feel that most men just don't get that their life has now changed with a baby; and think they can just continue as usual , go to work, work late, travel as often, meet friends as often, basically have their life exactly as it was before baby days... But for us mums, everything, everything has changed within a split second of having a baby... I don't have any answer or recommendations just that I understand totally... Sometimes talking more will help, sometimes just leaving your baby with dad for a few hours will help...

I would try to get out to distract yourself; why not going out with your friends if you can?

I've just back counted and R is definitely only 4 and a half months, how are there 6 month old babies already!? I'm trying to work out the maths but I can't make it work.

R's third(!!) tooth is coming through now, I think it's causing him quite a lot of pain. Last night we managed for the first time ever to get him to go to sleep in his cot - first time he's ever not been in the bed with me and DP and oh my gosh the space

lilone Oh how horrible. [hugs]. My DP does the same thing for what it's worth, I don't think he realises that whilst he's at work, I'm still alone with R, and so when he leaves and does something afterwards, I'm still the one that has then spent the whole day not having a real conversation with anyone!

Sleepless ds was 3.5 weeks old and was due early sept, that's how.

One very good and one bad idea for weaning:

Bad idea for any one with refluxy baby: strawberry yogurt could be terrible, had an immediate episode of reflux, plus he did not even like it.

Good one, another made up recipe: cooked lentil ( for quite a while until very soft, say 40min) added Kallo beef stock cube, added carrots towards the end to cook , once done added some baby rice; (baby rice because I forgot to add proper brown rice in the beginning) oh and added a tiny bit of garlic too. Went down really well, ds loved it. I liked it too. Could be a winter tick soup for grown ups ...

Sleepless - My DD is only 4 1/2 months too (born end of September). There are a few August babies on the thread, who were due in September but arrived early. That's why we have some 6 month olds on here.

It is reassuring to hear that others don't pay much attention to the formula tin recommendations. I just go with however hungry DD is in a very baby lead way. I find it much easier to just never listen to any crying, so always resolve it straight away (still usually sleep or hunger as the cause of all cries).

How much formula she has can vary from day to day, week to week and all predictions go out the window when in a growth spurt or poorly.

Some of you may remember I was having a bad time and nightmares about thinking of leaving ds with anybody a couple of months ago. It is so interesting that despite what I thought my feelings have changed with time. And I think this is a result of him growing up.

So the news is I have registered him for nursery; only two half days to start with; he will be with mil three half days and I'll start working part time soon. (Some working from home some going to office) I am still anxious about this a bit, but i am way better than before ... And taking it gradually seems a good thing to me. I really wanted to start before his corrected age is 6 months to get him used to the idea before the separation anxiety kicks in; otherwise mil was happy to look after him... I hope I made the right decision and he does not end up sick all the time or he does not suffer in any way...

Sleepless my previous post was supposed to say ds was 3.5 weeks late, not old. Where is my brain?
I still blame mn for not having an edit function

Jay he is GORGEOUS! Did you say his hemagioma is on his face? I don't know if it's the pic but I can't see a mark. Dd has been referred to the paediatrician for her hemangiomas as they're getting big, so I'll let you know if they say anything interesting.

Those of you who ff - how do you work making up bottles when out and about? Is it ok to make up a few oz of feed with hot water before you go out, and then top up with hot water from a flask to warm a couple of hours later? Dd has been ebf until this week so I've got a lot to learn!

Apples I take a bottle out with me if we're due a feed in the next 2 hours. Don't need to worry about heating it as DS is not at all fussy about temperature but most places will give you a jug of hot water if you ask & some parent rooms have bottle warmers in them. If we're out for more than one feed I use a carton of ready made. That way I don't have to worry about cooling it down if freshly made. It's not very often we're out for more than one feed. If we're visiting friends etc I make it up as if at home.

Went to a baby led weaning workshop today, I was the only one there. Found it very useful & I'm now not as worried about it. We're not starting for another 6 weeks as DS is only 20 weeks but good to go through some of my concerns. We've also bought DS's first toothbrush on the advice of the nursery nurse. She said that even though he doesn't have teeth it's good to give him the brush to play with & get used to. Best time to give it to him is bath time so he associates it with the bathroom.

Apples - I pre make about 4 bottles at a time, so I just them out with me. Like Topsy, A is not too fussy about the temp, but if it is fairly soon after we have come out and the bottle is still a bit too cold I would just ask for a jug of hot water.

Lil - I feel you pain slightly on the long evenings alone with lo. My DH is on lates this week, and I can't wait until tomorrow to have an evening just relaxing while he does the putting to bed routine! Do you ever leave your LO with OH? I do and find it helps him realise how much hard work it can be.

Apples - Is your DD over 6 months yet? After 6 months you don't need to give any thought to preparing and storing bottles when out, since sterilising stops being required so you can just treat formula milk as you would any other drink, rather than needing to adhere to any guidelines.

Not sure how far off 6 months you are? If I'm out and about I just take a pre-made up bottle in my bag and warm it up as required. This isn't recommendation though.

You can get insulated bags to keep bottles fridge temperature. Or use the flask method - taking a flask of just boiled water and a bottle part made up and top up with water from flask.

Just a thought about toothbrushes, R has three now; am I meant to be brushing them? With adult tooth paste or is there a baby equivalent? Do you get baby tooth brushes?