Weaning before 6 months???

[littlemonkeyjj]

My 5 month old had been taking 7 to 8oz of formula 5 times a day for the past few weeks (since I stopped breastfeeding) but for the past 5 nights has started waking at night again and taking another 7 to 8oz - this is a lot more than the guideline amount stated on the formula (not sure how important those guidelines are?). He shows an interest when we're eating (but then shows an interest in a lot of things!) and I know the guidelines are to wean at 6 months but just don't know if I should just keep giving more milk (can I overfeed him with formula?) or consider weaning early if the signs are there?

If he is showing the signs. We started at 22 weeks as ds was ready at that point. Waiting until they are ready means you don't have to puree.

www.nhs.uk/start4life/pages/no-rush-to-mush.aspx

Thanks - thats a useful link, he can't sit unaided yet although his head is very steady so will maybe hold off a while.

I started giving my ds a really small amount of baby rice last thing at night when he was 5 months. It was just like thick-ish milk but made a huge difference to his sleeping. You are not that far away from the 'magic' six month mark do I wouldn't worry about it too much. I was bf and physically couldn't produce enough and he refused to take a bottle and although it's a slightly different situation from yours I would be inclined to do the same thing again ultimately you know your own baby better than anyone else. Good luck x

MN has some good info on weaning here and you may want to read this on baby rice to help you decide if you want to offer it to your LO.

We have weaned both of ours early. 4 months was the guidelines when we had DS and we weaned at 16 weeks. I can say that it was incredibly hard work, had to make lots of purees which he would take ages to eat. He then had indigestion as his bowels weren't mature enough and I naively thought that food would make him less hungry, wrong! There is very little food that you can give that will be as calorific as the milk, therefore you may just make him wake more, not less.

DD was weaned at 23 weeks when she picked up a sandwich and ate it. Kind of figured if you can do that you are ready .

Whatever you do decide though the milk should be the main part of his diet, so if you do offer solids, do it an hour after the milk.