19 week old is non stop feeding LITERALLY! I know this has been asked a million times, but... is it time to wean?

[LDNmummy]

My DD is non stop feeding and waking up twice at night to feed. I am happy to wait till she is 6 months before weaning her and although I almost went for it last week, held off because she doesn't seem interested in my food yet.

She is exclusively breastfed and rejects formula as a top up but doesn't mind licking a bit of orange which i gave her so she could try the flavour on a couple of occasions. She shows interest in flavours when offered (only for tasting though) but no drive to pick food from my plate.

I know babies have a four month spurt, but I am literally attached to her as she is feeding all day unless we leave the house and she is distracted.

HELP!

Bit different as my ds was bottle fed. I was determined to wait til 6 months. But, when we realised he'd gone from 4/5 feeds a day to 8/9 (full 9oz bottles!!) we went for it. He was on 3 meals a day in less than a fortnight.

He was big though, 9lb6oz at birth, and nearly 2 weeks late. Stayed on 91st till 19 weeks (when the feeding frenzy started) then went off the chart til fully weaned.

I wanted to follow the guidelines when I really should have followed my gut.

He's 2.3 now and over 3 foot tall. Still eats like a horse. One of his first words was "more".

Only you know your child though.

Thank you doughnutty. It's difficult because she is so hungry all the time.

Weight wise she is in the 50th percentile but height wise she is just touching the 98th percentile mark.

Even as I type (one handed) she is clasped to me.

I might start tonight I think and see what happens.

Only waking up twice a night is good. Weaning does not mean they feed less or sleep more - it made my DS wake more at night and he continued feeding the same amount until we had been weaning him about 3 months. You will just be making more work for yourself, making purees etc and more washing up and washing, with probably no result. On the other hand I know it has helped other babies.

Totally agree with vj. We weaned DS at 16 weeks and it actually made him worse. There is very little that you can feed them that has the same calories as bm, so she could end up feeding more and waking more. Also, her gut isn't mature enough yet so she could wake more from indigestion.

Have a read of this and this on Kellymom and this on Mumsnet.

Know that you are fed up with the daytime feeding, have you thought about posting in the breast/bottle feeding section and asking if anyone has any advice on how to space out the daytime feeds, they might suggest things like and you might want to speak to a BFC too, have you got the helpline numbers?

blimey wakes up twice in the night to feed = must be hungry my DD still feeds every two hours at night! (she's 23 weeks). I would hold off feeding for six months, (as reccommended by the world health organisation). Waiting till 6 months helps prevent allergies. And breastmilk is a lot more calorific and nutrious than pureed vegetble, fruit etc, so it's the best thing for a hungry baby.

Have to agree that weaning is a faff. It is harder work for a while til they decide to drop a feed or 2.

From what you've said about her weight/height it may be a growth spurt. But you'll never know for definite.

Guidelines are great. They give you guidance. They are not rules which must be followed. Every child is different.
Also, remember, just because you give it a go doesn't mean you have to keep going. If she doesn't seem keen just leave it for a while and try again.

I started weaning early (the odd spoon of rice at 4.5 months then in earnest at 5mo) but nothing to do with milk intake - we had just reached the stage where I was unable to eat my own lunch because of screaming baby trying to grab everything off my plate.

I'm not saying don't start but if she's not obviously interested in food i'd hold off. As others have said it is a fair bit of work, eapecially to get stuff ready if you're going out. Still is 6 months later ;-)

Incidentally, given how interested DD was in food I thought it would be really easy, but it hasn't been, I've actually found it pretty stressful for the most part!

Persumably though at 19 weeks a baby will be interested in most things its mother does like putting on makeup?

Hi jilted not sure if that was aimed at me or OP! If me, I wouldn't know, don't wear makeup ;-) But seriously, I think the time was ok for DD, don't regret it at all, just agreeing with other posters that if you feel you can hold off, bf is way easier in terms of hassle generally. I did the odd spoon of rice only until I was sure she'd lost the Tongue thrust reflex - no point doing anything before then anyway, and she certainly still had it the firs few times I tried.

jilted I agree, babys re just interested in what you do whatever it is. My DD is 23 weeks and when she started screaming her head off at lunchtime
i thought I would have to wean early even though she is nowhere near sitting, but I have since found that giving her a plastic spoon to chew (while closely watching to make sure she doesn't put the wrong end in her mouth or poke in eye etc.) stops the screaming, so does eating the table! So I realised she is not 'interested in food'[, just interested in imitating me.

Ah yes, the spoon and an empty mug worked for us for a while too - I think it's actually pretty obvious when they really want your food. Pity all this imitating stuff doesn't extend to brushing teeth or putting on a coat...

Personally if you are going to wean early I would go with the BLW route, just because at least then you know they're developmentally ready. They need to be able to sit up with support but without falling over or slumping down or being reclined, then you put food in front of them, if they can pick it up and get it to their mouth themself, that is fine. In my experience though once they are truly ready for food they will crawl up and take it off your plate (!)

However, doing it this way is unlikely to cut down on the amount of milk he's taking or the night wakings - but TBH I wouldn't want to wean for this reason. I know it's hard, but you have to consider why babies start sleeping more/feeding less when they are weaned early, it's because their tummies are full of food which is harder for them to digest, we don't know what long term health impacts this has.

My comment wasn't a dig at anyone at all. Merely trying to point out that watching what you eat intently shouldn't be taken as a sign of being ready for solids by itself. If I'd let DD do everything she watched intently at 4 months, she'd have been washing up, walking the school run, putting on make up and loading the dishwasher.