Weaning going too well?

[thegingerone]

Title in jest but hope it's got someone's attention

dd1 is 6mth. despite my firm intentions to wait until dawn broke on the day she turned 26 weeks i started allowing her to chomp on a rice cake at 24 weeks. (Partially because she was ready and keen to start. Partially because i was having surgery and a chance of general anasthesia/so no breastfeeding for comfort and only so much ebm in my fridge and partially because i miscounted and thought she was a week older ) So we had two weeks of rice cakes, some carrot puree (she looked at me with a "what is this crap?" face), some gluten free cereal, mashed banana, some stewed apple and random bits of veg nicked of plates. Once she got to 26 weeks I've added gluten stuff, some cow's milk stuff and she's chomped on some chicken.

Thing is she's eating quite a bit.'(Volume and variety) We're doing a mixture of spoon feeding and blw(I know that means it's not REALLY blw....can i con the phrase Team Weaning or is that too cheesey ) I know milk is THE food and I'm still feeding her boobies as much as ever although the heat has meant more but shorter feeds.

My question is whether there are any concerns re kidney etc if she's eating too much suddenly. I made a butternut and lentil stew which she adored and wolfed down. i was expecting to have to eat it myself bin it after a bit of licking it from my dd. ds1 was a total animal when it came to food too. He was weaned 8 years ago at 5 mths so went through the new puree every three days route. I can't remember what he was like at this point though. Both were monitored closely because they are/grow small (but have huge appetites IMO.)

I think I'm jusy a bit taken aback that three weeks ago she hadn't been allowed to have anything other than bm and now i'm whizzing up chilli to pop in freezer when i did some for the rest of us.

Do i need to slow down and remind myself that she is so little or do we just go for it?

don't know, but will watch with interest, as we have exactly the same issue with dd2. Also started at 24 weeks, just seeing if she would go for it - and she did, picked up spoon and started eating with it! she is keen and is going through a portion of baby rice, plus one pouch-sized portion of gloop, plus bits and bobs of finger food (veg, fruit). Like you, she is spoon fed and a bit of finger food (although given that we load spoon but she eats it I'm not sure of definition!). She is teething like mad, so breastfeeding her is a bloody nightmare bit of a tussle, but I'm not sure that she is feeding as much as she did - we are down to one nightfeed - I'd say she is getting 4-5 good milk feeds a day, plus some grub 3x per day...my understanding was that food was supplementary at this stage - can't really tell if that's actually the case!

it took months for dd1 to get to this point and she is still not a big eater - which is fine. Both girls are towards the bottom end of centiles, but healthy and growing.

well night feed wise i'd say she's back to normal ie sleeping for a nice big chunk which is what she has done since almost birth (whispers last bit!) but as she's not settling as early due to heat i'm kinda thinking she's on the same amount approx. We had been through a five a night stage but she was still in a crib and kept shaking herself awake even when locked into non rocking mode. in her own cot in own room so i'm thanking that for my treat of 6 hours sleep most nights!.

It's all a bit confusing partially because some of my baby cook books are so out of date. ds1 was at this stage just when the guidelines changed. I mean there is the iron level thing. Trying to reconcile babies need food because iron levels run out with "til one it's just for fun!".

ps pls noone shoot me for owning "baby cook books". there are some quite nice family things in there and i did use the ak chart for weaning my pfb!(the only bloody thing i used the book for as i am able to work out how to puree an apple!!)

no i tell a lie i loved a muffin recipe involving carrots and crushed pineapple too!!!!

Marking my place.

I did BLW with DS too, he took to food like it was what he had been waiting for all his life

I think that as long as it is baby led - ie you aren't cajoling/persuading them to eat when they don't want it, just go with the flow. I also planned to wait to 6m but he was about 24 weeks, IMHO that is 'around' 6 months anyway.

Keep offering lots of new tastes, it's good fun. I recommend a dog for the floor though. No nuts, no honey, no added salt - other than that, just offer what you're having, unless thats Pizza Hut every night we had to improve our diets a little with the BLW

Sounds fab. No health concerns. Go with what the baby wants!

i think that is my concern. It's not strictly blw. if she was completely blw i'd think well if she takes it and chews a bit of chicken ,cool. only so much goes in, but if im whizzing up lentil stew i'm putting more in. she's not refusing in anyway however! So for example the chilli i mentioned has been mixed with rice before i whizzed it so it's not too heavy on the meat ( or spice)but if i fed it to her she'd consume more meat than if she sucked on some steak before clumsily dropping it for non existant dog.

My suggestion then would be to switch to a more BLW-type setup:

• you put the food in front of her (don't bother 'whizzing' it)

• she eats it if she wants to, not if she doesn't

rather than you spooning it in.

It can still be (for example) chilli/rice. Our baby eats the same stuff as our 3-year-old, only with more mess. We make sloppy things like cereal a bit stickier in consistency for her, so she can pick them up with fingers.

But I honestly wouldn't worry. She sounds fine - perfect in fact. She won't eat more than she wants to.

Thanks everyone! dd enjoyed sucking the life out of some roasted sweet potato this evening with THE biggest grin on her face. I think I'll carry on with her fav mashed banana porridge combo in the mornings (pre school run!) assisted by me and offer a few puree type things if I fancy soup that day(The butternut/ lentil thing was YUM!) perhaps in a loaded spoon way. Her purees are quite thick and chunky anyway. Def going more in the direction of self feeding but with the odd yoghurt assisted by me!

I was a bit worried about blw because our family menu is quite heavy on curries and things that include stock. I bought some baby stock cubes (Fool I heard half of you shout!) so my batches of back up meals (for when we're eating prawn curry) has that in it. I love weaning because we stop using salt and start to get our taste buds back again as a family!!!
I think as this is third time around and blw was a bit more of a fad than an option when I weaned ds2 I got myself all confused and a bit stressed that I'd be cooking totally seperate meals for dd which flies completely in the face of all that we believe in as a family.

sounds good to me!

roast veg have been a particular favourite with both our kids at this stage. when we have a roast dinner, we do extra roast veg and keep them in the fridge for the baby. she's very happy with them, warm or cold.

have fun!

We are having lots of fun. her cream cheese sandwich yesterday was carnage!

So one more question, does this mean the iron/vitamins issue is old advice? I don't want to give her drops. However if she's sucking on a piece of chicken she'll get less iron than if i "feed" her the same chicken.

excellent!

re iron/vitamins - given she's eating loads of different foods with gusto, I wouldn't see any need to worry.

the things you're already giving her - like the lentil soup and (brown?) rice - should do just fine.

you can always throw some dried fruit in her general direction.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vitamins-minerals/Pages/Iron.aspx

Thanks. i didn't suppliment the other two but wasn't sure what research had been done since the dark ages of 2003! she only sleeps in her buggy so i'm not too worried about vit d!