Starting to wean 14 wk old baby as he has reflux is eating his fist almost sitting up and stares at us when eating food...

[Scruffyhound]

Just wondered if anyone else has started thier baby this early? I started my other son at 4 months plus a few weeks as recomended by the health visitor he was a great baby in respect to drinking milk and being settled. He was a normal baby. With my little baby now he has had refulx and has had problems with colic. We have gaviscon and colief. Hes been on them for 4 weeks hes a lot better. However he started to stare at us all eating our food a few weeks ago hes trying to sit up on his own and he eats his fist a lot and does so when we eat our food. I was told by the health visitor he was not putting on enough weight. Hes having 6 oz of milk 5 - 6 times a day (he would not drink anymore even without solids). Hes on number 2 cow and gate milk I also give him pureed porrage in the morning then some pureed desert at tea time (after he has drank his bottle) he also has started sleeping through the night. He seem very content and happy hes not underwieght and has baby chubb on his legs and arms. But he did shoot up in height. The health visitor here only does weight not height or head circ. Where I lived before you had a appointment and she weighed, did height and head circ also cheked fontanel and general apperiance. Here is turn up weight your turn get weighed and see what she says. Have not dared tell her I have started solids as think she will have a fit at me and she would prob say its because I am giving him solids but hes having the same amount of milk. So I dont know what to do really. He is demand fed as well. So if he needs more he can have it. Any help welcome...... also tried 1/4 of a rusk with milk he eats that no problem so he has 1/2 a rusk sometimes mixed with his milk instead of a dessert at tea time. Im not sure what else to do?

hi bertiebots and TittyBojangles thanks for your comments.

The cow and gate book doesn't really recommend weaning before 6 months and asks you to talk to hv or gp before weaning early.

Many mums wean early with reflux but not all as it depends on the child and the mum. I don't think amount of feeds and weight gain are the only reason to think of weaning early if you think the child is ready. My ds appears to do all 3 of the things on the website listed -although i haven't actually tried letting him put food in his mouth just yet as I don't want to risk him choking, but his hand-eye co-ordination is really good and he can use both hands to position and bring something so he can bring it to his mouth. We are going to try him and see what he thinks, if he doesn't want it we will wait.

The SALT we saw concerning his feeding sees nothing wrong with trying it, especially as he will eat from a spoon easier. I will be doing it slowly if he does take to it when I try it with him and he will continue to get his feed from bottles, but it might mean we can take the NG tube out as the few ozs he doesn't manage at each feed will be taken through baby rice, porridge and purées mixed with his formula but that's just my opinion

With a reflux baby the advice may be to wean slightly earlier than 26 weeks but personally I'd want to hear this from a paeditrician.

Good luck - DS1 had reflux and it was grim. The only thing that eventually worked was when he was sitting up all the time rather than laying down but thats probably a few more weeks off for you.

No one cansay for sure whether your baby will be fine after starting on solids this early. You will just have to hope they will but imo 14 weeks is too early.

my ds is 17 weeks which is the minimum start date according to the dietician, although she says the nearer you can get to 26 weeks the better as you will go more quickly through the stages. We're not going to try proper weaning till 20wks, which is what she recommended, just give him a taste of baby rice to see what he thinks

I should add that the tongue-thrust reflex that MN says is the sign of readiness to most look out for, is pretty much gone, from what I can tell.

We feed him his medicine by syringe and he just swallows it, even if only the tip is in his mouth as it was just now when giving him his last dose while he sleeps. None was thrust out at all (I understand this may not be exactly the same with food, but I take it as a good sign)

i'm another who weaned 15/16 weeks and tbh it was the best thing to do
she has got reflux and managed to stop all her meds by 20 weeks (they caused more problems then they solved). i only gave her a bit of rice or poridge even a rusk!

and to the poster who said about babies sleep in their front, my dd dis this. everytime the hv came round we would have to flip her over lol

I've tried my ds with baby rice twice and he had no problems whatsoever. Had about an oz of formula milk mixed with the baby rice and quickly got used to swallowing and everything :)

Hi everyone

Been reading this thread with interest as I am considering offering my DS some baby rice. He's 15 weeks. He was only 5lb 15oz at birth but caught up really quickly and has always eaten a lot. At the moment he takes 36oz formula a day ( 4 x 9oz bottles) and sleeps through the night. He hasn't started waking in the night but seems very hungry and unsettled during the day during the last week or so (also drooly and eating hands so could be teeth as well I guess?). Yesterday he still seemed hungry after his bottle and took another 5oz so 14oz altogether. I'm going to talk to the HV at the end of this week but thought I might offer him some baby rice mixed with formula mid afternoon as this is when he seems hungriest.

Are you still considering baby rice after reading the thread? I would say that 4 bottles during the day doesn't sound a lot - even if they are 9oz at a time. Could you not give him smaller amounts but more frequently? I know I'd want a drink more often than say every 4 hours or whatever schedule you are on. It has been quite warm (well in some parts - unfortunately not mine!) so he could be thirsty rather than hungry if he's been unsettled during the day of late.

Yes mejon I'm still considering it because I don't generally close my mind to options just because it's not something that someone else would necessarily do - as other posters have said it depends on the baby and, as I said in my first post, I'll discuss it with the HV before I do anything. DS is 16 weeks tomorrow and I think giving baby rice at 17 weeks is quite common. But as I say - I'll discuss with the HV after having his weight etc checked.

I'm not on a schedule as such - DS has always been fed on demand - he has always wanted food every 3 - 4 hours so that's when I feed him and he's always taken a lot at each feed and never needed anything in between until, maybe, now. As I understand it 36oz a day (over a litre) is quite a lot for a baby of his age, in fact I was told on MN not that long ago that I was overfeeding him!

hi sloathy my ds is 17 1/2 weeks and he's on around 30ozs a week. We've had feeding problems due to a large birthmark on his lip and an ulceration on the birthmark and we've ended up in hospital. They used a sum to calculate how much he should be having as he wasn't eating enough which is 150ml x weight in kg. I used this to work out he needs 4 x 250ml bottles a day and I am slowly working my way up to this and he will also only eat around 3-4hourly so I wouldn't say there is anything wrong with your LO.

As I said we've tried DS on baby rice (now three times) and he's not had any problems. I would test his tongue-thrust reflex as I think this is the most obvious sign that they are ready. You could also test the reflux with a spoon and some baby milk?

Hi OP

Reflux is horrible, isn't it? I would second the suggestion to try SMA Staydown milk but you can't use it with gaviscon. We used it for a couple of months and it helped initially but when the reflux deteriorated, we went back to the GP and used gaviscon for while. When that stopped working we went back and pushed for a referral to the paediatrician and got prescription for domperidone and ranitidine. My GP also said DD would grow out of it but it would be months of stress until your LO grew out of it. It really might be worth pushing the issue with your GP.

If you think small feeds more often might be beneficial, you could try giving the gaviscon as directed for a breastfed baby rather than mixing with the milk.

Good luck.

Hi hellitops - sorry about the difficulties your DS has had. Thank you for the useful advice - makes me feel more reassured!

Hello Ladies, Heres what I have done. I have reverted to milk only and his birth weight was 8lb 8oz (born at 42 weeks) he was weighed last week he was 13lb 9oz which I think is really good. He has baby cubb and looks healthy. He is now going up to 7oz of number 2 cow and gate milk about 6 times a day. He still seems hungry. I had different advice when i had my first baby I started to wean him at 4 to 4 1/2 months on baby rice with pureed carrots or parsnips at the advice of the health visitor. I asked last week and the HV said we noe reccomned not to wean until 20 weeks min. So I was taken back. I explained the trouble with only having 6 doses of gaviscon she could not answer me and did not give a solution. I have made my mind up to start with baby rice in the morning in few week or so (which will make him 18/19 weeks) and see how he goes. Then introduce it at AM dinner and Tea time after a few weeks. See how that goes. Just want him to have a settled stomach. He needs stuff that stays down really. I hear what you say about other drugs but gaviscon works were just limited to 6 doses. I dont want to mess with him anymore as want to see how he goes now. I hope you all are ok and can make a decission! Its hard being a mum sometimes as you cant do right all the time even if you think you are. Or sometimes you are right its just knowing which is which! Im sticking to this as a plan and see how it goes. I will discuss with HV anyways nearer to the time. This is my second DS and the first was fine just goes to show you dont know everything even if your a mum of 4 each one will be different I guess?!

Sorry if im X posting.

Has your LO def got reflux?

My baby was classed as a "sicky" baby, but i wasnt convinced that it was reflux. Came across a product called Carobel, which is a thickener that is made by cow and gate and is made of natural ingredients. You can get a prescription from your GP/HV or get your chemist to order it for you (cant seem to buy it off the shelf probably so people dont abuse it). This might go some way to helping you LO keep their formula down.
It made a huge diff to my son, who is now 16 weeks. He is sitting up (supported) and chewing his hands and watching us eat, but i def dont think he is ready for solids.
CANT BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE NOT TOLD ABOUT CAROBEL MORE OFTEN!!!

Good luck scruffy

could normal bog standard formula milk not agree with him - is it worth trying other baby milk alternatives?

or maybe smaller amounts of milk but more often? i would try to avoid early weaning due to link with allergies and gut problems

my DS is older than yours but we went through what you've described and he is still suffering problems now. I BF rather than bottles, but found that whilst we couldn't always stop him being sick, we could reduce the frequence by stopping each feed 3-4 times to wind, then continue the feed, then wind, then continue the feed etc etc. When he started eating solids, (which we did early at 16 weeks on the advice of HV's) he was still sick with the purees, and they came up with such force they would come through his nose, which really hurt him, he would scream so much and sob uncontrollably. We stopped and restarted at 23 weeks and i think we should have waited a few more weeks. So from my experience with a reflux baby, i would delay weaning as much as possible as it was distressing for DS and for me. When we moved onto the more textured foods about 7 1/2-8 months, things finally started to improve. He is keeping them down better but still sick 1-2 times a week. He has had trouble with eating, he gags easily and can empty his stomach very easily and so we had to take it very slowly. He was losing weight at one point due to his being sick. He is now 9 1/2 months old and we are finally getting somewhere. He can now eat a weetabix and 50g fruit puree at 6am, BF at 8am, textured dinner and petit filous at 12, BF by 2, textured tea and 50g puree at 4.30 and petit filous at 6 for supper, BF at 7 and sleeps from 7.30-6am. His meals are all cheese or protein based with potatoes or pasta in them. Our success was to feed little and often and not to rush things. He is only just starting to manage finger food snacks, can now eat a rice cake, managed a small amount of cheese spread on toast the other day, and can cope with organix puffs. He is still sick, but we are starting to win the battle, and he is starting to enjoy eating and becoming less scared of the high chair, but i still can't relax and give him lumpy food like other babies the same age as him can cope with. Despite being slow at progressing with eating, by doing it our way, he has now put on weight, and when weighed last week was up to 22lb 2oz! Please enjoy your time with him as a milk guzzling baby, don't rush into weaning until he is older.

I asked my GP for carobel he said he had never heard of it and on checking his computer said it didnt exist. HV told me i would have to print out a page showing the info for him. :O

You can google carobel or go to the cow and gate website. But if you type Cow and Gate carobel into google it will come up with loads of stockists and also a wee picture of the box.

I changed from aptimal to the regular cow and gate as i had heard that it was slightly thicker. Made absolutely no difference so decided to try something different, (had heard the SMA staydown was a right faff to make up and to clean) so tried the carobel instead. Although it is added to the milk it IS natural ingredients, and my DS has had no adverse effects and he has been on it for approx 9 weeks since he was about 10wo.

Hello All my little boy will be 20 weeks soon. Im still having trouble with feeds. He has gone back to having half his feed form 7oz to 4 oz ro maybe this week 5oz. I dont mind just want to make sure he is ok. Although this time is conicided with his 3 lot of jabs and some teething. We went th the emergancy docs and she said his glads were up a bit but he was fine and to concider he had had his jabs. He is taking 5 oz now most times and I have been giving him baby rice once at 10am and once at 6pm. I find that after he has had his bottle I use some of the milk (if he has not drank it all) and that way hes still getting his milk. It does seem to stay down and he loves the baby rice but seem greedy. I will see HV next week although they said leave it for 4 weeks but that was before this trouble started. So I want to get him checked. Hope everyone is ok this is a battle for food to stay down and for the little one to keep it down and enjoy it. We have weened him off the Colief as well now so that seems better just gaviscon now.....