Clueless first time mum - please help, where do I start on this weaning thing?

[sedgiebaby]

My dd is 21 wks and mixed fed.

We have had our share of feeding and weight issues all now resolved with the exception of a possible diary intolerance so dd is on a special formula.

I'm so confused with what I hear about weaning. I feel like I dont know where to start to educate myself on the latest recommendations - I'm run ragged with the little on and don't have masses of time to research and read but want to do the right thing.

If anyone can point me in the direction of some good resources I would appreciate it.

annabel Karmel is helpful. she has a website you can use. So also is the Gina Ford weaning book. Both will give you a structure to get started which you can either stick with or change to suit yourself once you have a bit of confidence.

in terms of when to wean, this is the British Peadiatric Dietietic Associations position on Weaning. It talks about when to wean and the issue of allegen foods.

www.bda.uk.com/publications/statements/PositionStatementWeaning.pdf

HTH.

You don't need to do loads of research unless you want to. Unlike establishing breast or bottlefeeding with a newborn when it is really important to make sure your baby has enough food weaning is an add-on. Milk will still be your child's main source of calories and nutrients until she is one.

So you can afford to be quite relaxed in your approach. Some babies love their solids right from the start, others show no interest for quite a while and the majority probably go backwards and forwards. But there is no fixed timetable and the amount your child will eat will vary from meal to meal, day to day, week to week for quite a long time.

The current advice is to wait until around 6m (I'd assume that means a window of 24-28 weeks depending on readiness). Waiting that long means that the only foods your baby should not be offered at all are whole nuts (until about the age of 5 because of the choking risk - ground nuts and nut butters are fine) and honey (because of the risk of botulism which is rare but dangerous, and the toxin will still be present even if the honey is heated up so don't cook with it either). Babies should not eat more than 1g of salt a day and you probably want to keep refined sugar to a minimum because it is fairly nutritionally empty.

Other than that you can just go for it. Some parents feel happier giving mashed or pureed foods to begin with, others prefer to give finger foods, and probably the majority give a mixture. Don't get too side-tracked by which approach is best, the best approach is what works for you and your DD. My DD really really does not like spoons so we have let her feed herself with her hands from the get-go. It is hideously messy but also very funny. The boy who lives three doors down from us hoovers up pureed or mashed food and gets frustrated and upset very quickly with finger food.

I enjoy my food and love cooking and I think weaning has been my favourite thing about raising DD so far. I've found it lots of fun to watch DD experiment with food and learn what tastes and feels good.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it. I will think about what you have posted here for me and look at the website - thanks so much.

People make it all far too complex sometimes. Mush up some fruit or veg as finely as you can. Banana is a good one to start with, as is cooked apple or carrot.

Spoon it in and/or let your baby play with the food.

Avoid nuts.

That's all you need to do at the start. Later add new things one at a time noting reactions very carefully. You might try baby rice, pulses and tofu, for example.

You can take a couple of different approaches I suppose - traditional pureeing, mashing normal food or self feeding.

1 - If you want to start from 4 months you'll need to do the puree route - a book like Annabel Karmel or Gina Ford will give you step by step instructions of what to give each day (good if you like clear instructions whatever age you start!).

2 - If you wait til around 6 months you can give your baby pretty much anything you eat (except salt/nuts/honey) - just mash and spoonfeed

3- You can wait til your baby is sitting reasonably well, can pick up food and put it in their own mouth - then you can do self-feeding/Baby Led Weaning. Basically putting food in front of the baby and letting them tackle it themselves.

I started off doing 3. My baby was only 5 months when I started weaning so I didn't want to feed him before he was ready. Putting food in front of him and letting him take the lead felt like I could be sure he wouldn't eat unless he was ready. Subsequently we've done a mix of spoonfed mash and self-feeding though.

Thank you for all the excellent advice, I have two other questions,

Can I get things wrong with the timing - DD is mixed fed and 22 wks this week?

Is it the case that introducing solids has baby up at night with belly ache as they get used to it? This is what I have read a few times.

Thank you

It can do - it takes a while for their digestive systems to adjust to solid food. My ds didn't wake more at night, but he was sick quite a lot at first and he was a bit constipated and had nappy rash.

With timings, do you mean what age to start weaning? The recommendation is around 6 months. I started at 5 months though as ds was sitting well with support, had lost the tongue thrust thing and could pick up food and get it in his mouth himself.

Can I ask on a separate issue Sedgiebaby, you said your dd has an intolerance to cow's milk and is on special formula. What is that? I've tried soya based for my 18 wk dd but have since heard bad things about it. I too am a confused first time mum. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Hello dolby I have had nutramegen on prescription for about 4 months now. But this week we are adding a little regular formula to see how she reacts. She finally caught up with her weight and we have the confidence to to this. I'm hoping we were wrong all along to the cows milk protein or she has grown out of it. The nutramegen smells and tastes pretty awful though. I wanted to try something else as she went through a phase of refusing it and screaming at my breasts when I ran out :( anyway I looked at the soya one, but I'm not sure either about soya based, my mum is negative about it but I'm not entirely sure why. Not sure if this helps you. You could try to ask your HV of the other options out their, she should be aware, there are quite a lot of formulas for our situation.

ritamorgan thank you, yes I was confused about age because you hear different thigns about allergies (more likely/less likely before 6 months) we are 22 wk's already so once I rule out the diary thing (hopefully this week) I'll be probably trying some baby rice later in the month. She sits up really quite well with minimal support and she's practically grabbing at our food so I'm feeling its time!