Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

How long before weaning takes effect on hungry baby?

46 replies

CharBell · 06/12/2005 13:19

On the advice of my HV, I started weaning George at the weekend. He is nearly 5 months and weighs over 20lb. For the last two weeks, despite frequently pumping, I am failing to keep up with milk demand via breastfeeding. Am probably going to give up earlier than planned. Last feed, he had: 2 boobs, 11 oz SMA, big splodge of baby rice. This is day four of weaning. When will he start to get get the benefit?? I don't want to start him on veg yet as there are not many calories in it so may make him less hungry.

OP posts:

littledonkeyrach · 06/12/2005 14:11

Well I didn't breastfeed either of mine.
Just offering advice.

Original poster

CharBell · 06/12/2005 14:11

No, I'm not ok. I'm under a lot of stress and a lot of the comments made me feel even more alone and miserable because it feels like noone understands and just resorts to the usual advice which is to stick your boob in his gob.

OP posts:

misdee · 06/12/2005 14:13

well that is what babies need charbell, milk milk and milk. isnt it upto a year old babies main source of food is milk? someone kick me if i'm wrong

NotQuiteCockney · 06/12/2005 14:14

Raising kids is stressful and isolating. No matter what you feed them.

shepherdswatchedtheirflockets · 06/12/2005 14:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

misdee · 06/12/2005 14:19

why did i say my baby was 8months? she is 9months lol. and still loves boob lol.

Bugsy2 · 06/12/2005 14:28

Hey, come on everyone. We all know that breastfeeding, bottle feeding, weaning etc can be a very emotive subject. Also weaning at 5 months isn't early. As far as I know the recommendations are that you may leave weaning up until 6 months but they don't say you have to. Charbell's response wasn't polite or in the spirit of Mumsnet, but it does sound as though all is not well.

misdee · 06/12/2005 14:30

charbell anything else happening to make you this down? are you sleeping ok? anything?

Simone3 · 06/12/2005 14:53

Hi CharBell, can you feed SMA white rather than gold along with the solid feeds?

Personally, I think it is amazing you have kept up with the breast for so long with a hungry baby. At ds's last growth spurt I said "That's it! I'm not doing the cow thing any longer!" and put him onto formula. He and I are both much happier as a result. (Please, nobody reply to this with the benefits of bfeeding! Please! Let people do what is right for their circumstances!)

LIZS · 06/12/2005 14:57

agree Bugsy - that was why I was concerned that the HV may have slightly mislead CB as to the "benefits" of weaning her ds and that she was " failing to keep up with milk demand via breastfeeding".

AwayInAMunker · 06/12/2005 15:02

Charbell, it is hard when you have a hungry baby and nobody was trying to get at you, I'm sure. I remember sitting with tears dripping off my chin when DS started eating solids because nothing seemed to be going right. It is hard, but you will get there.

sazhig · 06/12/2005 16:03

My DS started solids at just under 7 months, but did not really show any sign that they were filling him up until about 10+ months when his appetite went thru the roof for a couple of weeks (growth spurt I think). As a result he started taking a lot more solids and a little less milk (he is bf). He is now almost 17 months and I would say that about a third to a half of his intake is still bm so I'm afraid in our case solids did not make a big differece for some time. From your posts you do sound stressed - If you are worried about your breastfeeding I would certainly call one of the helplines - even if it is to just chat & feel a little better about what you are doing. This link might be useful to you re the crying your LO is doing on the breast atm: kellymom - fussy/crying baby while nursing

HTH

Twiglett · 06/12/2005 18:28

Bugsy .. actually the guidelines are that you do NOT start weaning UNTIL 26 weeks nowadays .. any HV who recommends differently is going against NHS and WHO guidelines

Twiglett · 06/12/2005 18:29

they are saying stick your boob in his gob because that is what is best .. not the only thing of course .. but it is irrefutably the best thing .. sorry it upsets you

your child will not fill up on 'food' until later on in the 2nd half of his 1st year .. and there is nothing anyone can do about that either

sorry you're stressed .. you'll get through it .. it will get easier

WellieMum · 07/12/2005 06:06

Hi CharBell

Sorry you're having a rough time with feeding at the moment.

Speaking personally, my dd was about 8 months old before food would satisfy her hunger. We started weaning at 6 months so it was 2 months of just tasting food for fun really - and I gather that's not at all unusual. So you might find that weaning isn't going to give you the quick fix you hoped for, which must be frustrating to hear because you sound pretty stressed.

This is going to sound negative and unhelpful and it isn't meant to be, but sometimes with these difficult phases, there isn't anything much you can really do except grit your teeth and carry on.

However, these bad patches don't last forever and eventually all this will just be a memory.

I say this from personal experience. I had some appalling times with early feeding (latching on problem) and despite lots of advice and trying everything, nothing much helped and it was really awful - but in the end of course, dd simply grew out of it and we moved on.

At that point I realised that there aren't easy solutions for every problem, so with a similar bad phase in future (I'm sure there will be many!) I aim to just try to hang on to my sense of perspective and remember that these things do sort themselves out.

I'm sure it'll be the same for you, however hard that is to see right now.

aviatrix · 07/12/2005 08:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Bugsy2 · 07/12/2005 10:42

Twiglett, the guidelines say that "exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 6 months, 26 weeks" and they also say that "each infant should be managed individually so that insufficient growth or other adverse outcomes are not ignored".
So, it is possible that the health visitor is not going against the Guidelines and does have CharBell and her baby's best interests in mind.
Sometimes, it is easy to advise from a distance that more breastfeeding is the answer. However, Charbell did ask about weaning and clearly feels that for whatever reason she is not providing enough milk. Judging from her later post, she is clearly very stressed and upset about her situation.
When I felt very stressed and at a loss with my first, it was a bit of sympathy and understanding I was looking for and when people told me "you'll get over it", I used to feel even more lonely and sad because at the time all the problems felt so insurmountable.
I think it is fairly well proven now that breastmilk is the best stuff for your baby, but life isn't always that easy.

AlleLuah · 07/12/2005 11:23

CharBell,
As I am sure you know every baby is individual.
So, regarding your question of when will the solids make a difference in his hunger... I don't know.
I can share my experience though. DS is a little over 6 months. I have been going against recommended advice and introduced him to solids by 5 months. He did seem very interested in food. Well, 5 weeks later we has some "fun" trying stuff, but he rarely eats more than 2 cubes of food. Continues to breastfeed as before, and still wakes up 2-3 times a night!
It is bloody stresful! But I also think that when he actually gives up the boob I'll be very sad, because I relish out time together.
If you want to pop in the June post-natal club you'll see though that other people have very different experiences.
Hope things get better to you!

tiktok · 07/12/2005 16:23

Dipping my toe in here very tentatively.....CharBell, it's horrible when you can't see a way out of a situation and whatever you do your baby seems cross/unhappy.

Some big babies can take ginormous amounts of milk in a bottle.

It doesn't mean they actually need this volume of milk as a breastfeed.

You're assessing your milk supply's adequacy on two very misleading things: the amount of formula your baby will take at a sitting, and the amount you can express.

The first solids a baby has aren't intended to make up any calorie deficit. After about six months, babies start to need a bit of iron, and it is also a good time for a baby to get used to different tastes and textures. But they need (most of) their hunger satisfied with milk - and it's ok to feed him even 10 minutes after a previous feed. It might help to think of that as part of the same feed.

I hesitate to say anything else, except all that above is factual.

Hope things get better for you.

Twiglett · 07/12/2005 18:49

Bugsy .. I didn't say 'you'll get over it' .. I said you'll get through it .. which to me is meant, and sounds, supportive .. please don't change my words so I sound mean

when I felt stressed and lost with my first I wanted someone to take me by the hand and say do this, this is the right thing to do and this phase will pass .. I didn't want outpourings of sympathy .. I personally find that quite irritating .. so I think I'm trying to say each to their own .. we all help as we see fit

WellieMum · 07/12/2005 21:23

I'm similar to Twiglett. When I was going through difficult times, I didn't want loads of sympathy. I needed to know that I was doing the right things but especially, I needed to be reminded that it wouldn't be forever.

Whatever works for you...

Flip

1 2