First time mum needing a little advice on weaning

[Chocoholism]

Hey everyone, DD is 2 weeks away from 6 months so I will be weaning soon. I have been to a weaning advice session and it covered pretty much what I read but thinking about things I have a few things unclear still so maybe you lovely mumsnetters can help me out as always.....
Ok, so I know I keep up with her ff as normal and go with her needs but she has milk every 3 hrs so when would be good time to get solids In, is there a guideline?
I've tried getting her to drink from a TT first cup but she doesn't seem to like it, tried 5 or 6 times, do I just keep trying? A friend gives her 9 month old juice or water in his bottle as she says he won't drink from a cup
Lastly, if you introduce 1 meal a day then 2 then 3, what sort of timeframe do you wait before going from 1 to 2 to 3? And what meal do you start with, I,e. Breakfast, lunch or dinner?
Thanks for all help!

Solids an hour or so after milk is suggested and worked well for us.

It's pretty normal for them to take a while to drink much water - DS was nearly a year before he managed more than an occasional sip. They're still having plenty of milk so the introduction of a little food isn't suddenly going to make them want or need loads of water; it's a gradual thing. Just make the water available regularly. Just my personal opinion but I think people conclude their baby doesn't like water (and therefore need juice) far too quickly because their expectations of how much they should drink is far too high.

The NHS recommends babies move to three meals around 8-9 months so there's no rush. I would give food at breakfast or lunch to start with as solids can cause wind etc so not ideal just before bed! But otherwise it really doesn't matter so just go with whatever suits you best.

agree: offer solids an hour after a bottle to start with. So if your baby wakes up at 6.30am and has a bottle at 7am, maybe then try with some breakfast at 8am for a start.

Then when you're ready to add lunch, if your baby has a mid morning bottle at 1030-1100 ish, then do lunch around 12. You need to be a bit flexible at the start, as when they're so little it can feel like there's not enough time in the day for all the meals, bottles and naps!

I did a week of just breakfast, then added lunch for a week, then added dinner in week three. So he was up to 3 meals after around 3 weeks. This is quicker than a lot of the current advice but it seemed to suit my DS - he loved his food from the start! Follow your baby's cues and you won;t go wrong.

Dont worry about the water or trying to 'get her off the bottle'....keep offering milk feeds in the bottle as usual, and just offer a tippy cup of cooled boiled water to start with, with every meal. The aim here is to get your baby used to (a) a cup and (b) the idea of drinking water with a meal. She won't really need it as she will be guzzling so much milk. What happened with my DS was that in the months following weaning he dropped his milk feeds of his own accord and slowly began to take more interest in the water cup. But even now as a toddler (18mo) he probably doesn't drink more than 6-7oz of water IN TOTAL in a day, and he doesn;t have any milk. I offer his water cup at all meals and several times per day, but he just doesnt seem to drink much. He wets lots of nappies and is growing and developing fine so I figure its fine!

Thanks guys that's really helpful. So I do start with breakfast first then, really not sure what's gonna happen as she takes bottles every 3 hrs and has 6 bottles a day including dream feed (think I may have to drop the dream feed if weaning goes well I think)

I started with lunch rather than breakfast and then did dinner before adding in breakfast.

I started with lunch too. Also included a sippy cup of water which if they tried great, if they didnt, fine too. I also did the one hour after milk thing. Bottle at 7, 10, 1, 4 & 7 so I did a few finger foods at eleven. Just a bit of steamed brocoli and a strip of chicken and a yorkshire pud. Eventually added in toast fingers at eight, then finger foods at five.

They dont take much in to start so probably take a month or two before they drop a whole bottle (good idea to aim for it being the dream feed).

thinkivebeenhacked if you read back here would you mind sharing when your baby slept on that feeding schedule and did it change when on solids? I ask as our feeding is identical except we do 10.30pm dream feed too

Hi sorry ive been out.

She always went down at 7pm, and would wake in time for her seven am feed. She would then sleep 8.30-10 and 1.30-3. She would on the odd occasion have a half hour 4.30-5 but not every day. Bath at six, little massage and roll around in jim jams and bottle at just before seven.

We stopped her dream feed at about six months, and the first two nights she woke at one - we gave her a three oz bottle on these wakings rather than a full one, and she slept through after that.

Mind, she became a night waker at about 13mo when she started learning to walk, and that took a good month to settle down.

her day sleeps didnt change much until about nine months when she would just do 45 mins in the morning at nine, and still do the hour and a half sleep at lunch. No teatime snooze.

Now, at 2.5, she has a cup of milk on waking and at bedtime, and sleeps seven til seven. Five days a week she has a nap (12-2), the other two she seems to not need them and handles it ok.

That sounds like a good sleeper really, my DD sleeps ok at night now although we have the few days a week early wake up but she doesn't sleep for long during naps so tends to have more naps per day. Just wondering how to fit In bottles, play, sleep and now solids!
Might just have to extend day to 26 hours long, hope no one minds! ;)