Okaaaay....can you talk me through the options here...

[Miaou]

Story so far...

Ds is 24 weeks, been weaning him slowly over the past four weeks. He loves his food, would eat masses if I let him. In fact I did, to start with, but he kept dropping milk feeds, then feeding up to 4 times at night to compensate! So I dropped the food back to breakfast and tea, and fed him lots of milk during the day, which helped a lot.

However, since having his jags and getting a cold, he has upped his feeds at night again - back to four (argh). I don't mind feeding twice in the night but this is excessive and not good for my health (or sanity)!

Currently the day goes something like this:

9.00am breastfeed

9.30 - 10.00 1-2 cubes of apple or pear or half a banana

11am breastfeed

1pm breastfeed

3pm breastfeed

6pm breastfeed

6.30pm 1 cube of parsnip/broccoli/sweet potato/ whatever

8.30pm breastfeed

10pm breastfeed

12am breastfeed

Then 2am, 4am, 6am breastfeed as well...grrr (up until last week he dropped the 2am and 6am ones but has added them back in)

Sooooo - do I give him more food at his mealtimes? He might take a bit more at breakfast or tea, though not much.

Or do I add in a lunchtime food thingy again?

How do you up the food without them dropping out the milk?

Although I've written what looks like a routine, he's not really in one - this is just a vague "what sometimes happens" one. Would it help do you think if I tried to impose some kind of routine?

Feel free not to answer me - it is helping just to "think aloud" on this subject!

Anyone got any words of wisdom for me?

This may sound rather too straight forward but weaning here was;

2 weeks of one meal,2 weeks of two meals and 2weeks of three meals!!
Then done!
I think you should be giving more food.

With 3 meals a day my ds was having around 4 boobs in day(2 morning,2 afternoon)
Feeding Frenzy during the evening.
Night time would be 11pm ish 3am ish 6am ish(SO i was only getting up once in night.

ds is still up in night at 16 months old

Hope some of this is help

At breakfast the Organic Range from Boots was great mixed with Breast Milk.

Do not worry if some of those feeds are dropped,ypu seem to be constantly feeding.

Your ds will get milk in breakfast,and then in yoghurt.

This six week weaning advice came from my HEALTH VISITOR!!! she was an unusual hippy but really fantastic support,who would not dream of feeding any baby from bottle! or jar!

It worked for dd and ds,they still eat well and are not fussy.

Hope all goes well

IMO he should be having a meal at lunchtime.

That's what I'm thinking (re meal at lunchtime) - just scared myself off a bit because he was dropping about three b/fs during the day when he was on three meals - he would only feed at breakfast, lunch and teatime (ie before his food), then not until about 8 in the evening, then would just feed all night to compensate for the lack of daytime milk!

Will give it a go from tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice - any more is welcome!

Perhaps you could add food at luch time, but mix some milk in with things? I also try to express a couple of ounces inot a bottle/cup and give dd drinks of milk between bites. That way you still get milk into him at the sametime as food. To be honest though I feel quite lost with all this weaning stuff so not sure any advice from me will be any good! Although I can offer sympathy with the night feeds as I still do 2 of them!

Thanks bobblehead. Everything I read says, "First start off giving one teaspoonful of whatever. Within six weeks they will be having three meals a day." But it doesn't tell you how to get there!!

Thing with the milk is, I don't express (have no expressing thingy, can't hand express more than a drop or two). So I'm a bit limited in terms of getting breastmilk into him any other way.

Perhaps I ought to ask if anyone has a pump going begging... not sure how I would get on with it though.

Watching with interest Miaou. Advice to give feeds at lunchtime seems so logical and simple but what happens if, like mine, they are still not really interested in eating it.

My dd is 7.5 months now and I'm still struggling to get stuff in her at times! She does seem to like baby rice better than anything else strangely enough. I fine the best way to hand express is just after dd has either had a very small feed or just fed one side- things seem to be flowing easier that way. I do have a hand pump but to be honest its not a whole lot better than manual expression. Sometimes I can only get a few drops too, it seems to depend on the time of day I do it, etc but it had definately go easier the more I do it. Sometimes I express when I feel "full" to put an ounce or 2 in the fridge for later (2 oz being the most I've ever managed!)