About to start weaning, some q's....

[Cosmosis]

DS is 5.5 months so I'm thinking about starting weaning in the next month. I have a couple of qs please

1. is it best to change to unsalted butter or is the salt in butter negligible? (I hate unsalted butter so am reluctant to change!)

2. I get the occassional mild allergic reaction (a topical swelling around the lips) to peppers, how would it be best to introduce peppers to ds, or am I being overcautious and pfb

3. would it be a good idea to give him some food to play with now so he starts getting used to the idea of it and hopefully starts eating soonish? I am keen to go down the blw route as I really like the ethos - I was an incredibly fussy eater as a child (not now!) and remember huge battles with my parents as they were very much you must clear your plates types and I would like to do as much as I can to attempt to avoid this - however I am starting back at work when he is 7 months and would rather not give formula (I have eczema asthma etc) and I'm not entirely sure how much I will be able to express, so the more food he can have in the day the better really. Or am I again overthinking this (I know it's a habit of mine )

1. Yes I would change - your palate will change and you'll get used to it

2. If you or any family member have an allergy, it's not too PFB to worry about how to introduce it. I don't have any good advice on how/when to do this though! Some people have been known to give their DC possible allergic food in the car in a hospital carpark!

3. Yes do start to put foods in front of him (no wheat just yet though), just to gauge his interest, but I would be surprised if he dropped any milk feeds by 7 months just by eating enough at mealtimes. The extra pressure doesn't really work with BLW - if they can manage to eat a few mouthfuls at a mealtime I would think that was great at 7 months but DS2 wasn't really eating good amounts until about 10 months! I would think about how you're expressing and when, if you really don't want to give formula. Could you get an electric pump, or express in the night?

Thanks :) I am looking for a double pump to see if that helps.

He stuck his hand in my pasta yesterday but he's not been v well so didn't let him have any.

I always use unsalted butter for the LO and we sometimes have slightly salted for the grown ups. The fact that you can taste the difference so significantly tells you that it's not negligible!

Re allergies, I think they advise to try it on a weekday morning when the hospitals are open and less busy, just in cases.... or maybe check with your GP? They won't think you're being PFB at all, food reactions can be serious (not trying to scare you!).

Also don't forget your DS may not react immediately, and the reaction may be worse the second or third time he has the food.

Good luck, enjoy weaning!

RE: expressing enough - My NHS pct loans out electric breast pumps for free. I'd suggest that if yours does the same, you borrow one before you go back to work - about a month or two before, if possible. Start expressing during each feed and freezing the milk in storage bags for later use - it will keep three months in the freezer. That way you can still wind down the number of times you express before you go back to work to help avoid engorgement but you also won't need to worry about expressing enough each night/day for at least a few weeks. This may also avoid you having to get up specifically to express at night, at least to start with - it will be probably be tiring enough just starting work again! I found it's better to express from the other boob during a feed anyway - that way you're not using valuable sleep/time expressing and you may find it easier to get more milk out too, as your baby suckling will make the let down better than without baby there.

good point about the amount of salt in if I can tast it that hadn't occurred to me at all

thanks for the tips re expressing as well :)

I buy the normal Flora light that me and DH eat and bought an unsalted butter for DS. It's lasted ages and wasn't expensive.

1. Yes I would buy unsalted butter for your DS. You could always have what you normally have for yourselved still. We have Lurpak spreadable unsalted for DS and Lurpak spreadable lighter for me!

1. Honestly if you are allergic to peppers and ultimately DS will be eating the same meals as you as he gets older, you're not likely to cook anything with peppers if you can't eat them. So I wouldn't feel compelled to feed them to your DS if you are unable to eat them yourself.

1. You may find that once you start expressing, you dry up pretty quickly, so I would get some formula in for back up. I know you'd rather not, but my milk dried up within a month despite expressing about 6 times a day. After a few days of expressing I couldn't even produce enough for one day's worth of milk. Bear in mind that they will need about 650 ml each day until 12 months even when you start weaning, particularly at the start because they don't eat much to begin with. There's certainly nothing wrong with putting some foods in front of him now - he'll probably try to eat it!

zebedee, that's the thing, I eat them loads (we eat a lot of mediterranean type food) and mostly am fine but occassionally my face swells up! I don't know if it's a particular type of pepper or if I touch my face or what but it's weird.

He was attempting to launch himself at dh's egg sarnie this lunchtime