No idea how to wean?

[Fuzzyduck21]

So my ds is 6 months and I have been giving him a few tastes of food here and there (purees and mashed foods) but no idea how much I should be giving him, whether I should be reducing milk, when I should be giving it to him (time of day and before or after bottle). My HV was less than helpful and directed me to netmums where apparently I could find out everything I needed to know. I didnt... So I'm still in the dark! Help?

[CurlsLDN]

Hello! I really recommend this book
www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-led-Weaning-Helping-Your-Baby/dp/0091923808?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21
I found it really gave me confidence, in terms of how much, how often, what type of food, dealing with gagging/choking, milk etc. I bought it on my phone so I could read a few pages here and there whenever I had a moment, I can't find time to hold a book and a baby!

In brief though, 'food is fun until they're one', so enjoy giving lots of different types of food and seeing the reaction. Over time your child will start to take less milk, but for now just keep offering as much as always, and a couple of times a day give them the opportunity to try some foods. Please don't worry that they should be on three solid meals a day anytime soon!

[muddymary]

I'm probably not the best person to give advice because I just winged it but it seemed to work for us.
I continued giving him his bottles and he automatically dropped one. Then I used to just blend up a bit of what we were eating (or a vegetable if our tea wasn't suitable) for his tea then give him some finger food to keep him busy while I ate my meal.
I don't know anyone in RL who follows one method exclusively. Everyone that I know just muddles along and finds a way that fits in with their meal times.

[Jessiejane123]

When I started to wean my daughter I kept her bottles exactly the same for a while, which were 4 8 oz bottles a day, every 4 hours and maybe one in the night if she woke.

I started off by giving her small bits at lunch at around 12. Her mid morning bottle was at 11 so she was nicely full on milk. She only had a few spoonfuls to start with of purees, then 2 weeks passed by and she was eating about 15-20 spoonfuls. As she was eating more food, I decided to reduce all 4 of her bottles by 1 oz, to 7 oz and I carried on with lunches for another week and the 4 x 7 oz bottles. I introduced her to a sippy cup at lunch with water in it to get her used to drinking from the cup.

After 3 weeks I introduced breakfast. This was half an hour or so after her 7 oz bottle in the morning,so around 7:30-8:00. Again it was only little bits of porridge or banana. I kept all the bottles the same still and continued to give her breakfast and lunch for another 3weeks. She started to eat quite big bowls of breakfast and lunch at this point.

So after 6 weeks I introduced dinner. Everyone I spoke to, including HV said 'shell naturally drop her bottle'. How can she do that her self? So I dropped the bottle. I increased her morning bottle to 8 oz, then gave her breakfast as normal about 30 mins later. I scrapped her mid morning bottle that I usually gave her at 11 and replaced that with water from a sippy cup. Then at 12-12:30 she had lunch, again with water or juice. Then at 2:30-3:00 I gave her 5 oz of milk. Then at 4:30-5:00 she had dinner, with a bit of water juice. At 7:30 she had her 8oz bedtime bottle.

dd is 7 months and she still has 8 oz in the morning, 5 oz in the afternoon and 8 oz at night, on top of her 3 meals. She is bang on with her weight. Milk is really important as it contains all of the nutrients they need. If they won't take the milk then put some vitamin drops in their milk.

Everyone does something different though and it really is true when people say do what is right for you. I read this and that, had people at baby group telling me that they feed their babies 3 meals a day and still give them 3 8 oz bottles, some only did 2 bottles. I just did what I felt best while still ensuring she has the 500 mil of milk that they are supposed to have under 12 months.

[Jemappelle]

My nearly 6 months DS now has a day that looks like this (I'm returning to work in a couple weeks and the BFs are to continue)- he's been on occasional solids since 23 weeks and quickly went to this

6 am: Big BF both boobs

730:8 am: breakfast - usually avocado or banana mashed up with some fruit purée

10 am: 5 oz FF

12 noon: Lunch usually some mashed salmon or chicken

1:30 pm; 5 oz FF

5 pm: 5 oz FF

6:30 pm: Big bedtime BF both boobs or three sides

8 pm: 5 oz FF dream feed (this sometimes doesn't happen)

11 pm: Big BF deamfeed both boobs

[sophiaslullaby]

I spoke to the HV about weaning and she said as CurlsLDN says - 'food is fun until one year'. The child will naturally reduce their milk intake (whether boob or bottle) as their solids increase but for the time being just introduce solids alongside the childs normal milk feeds.
I've just started weaning my DS and was worried about portions sizes until I realised I'm giving his first tastes - these aren't meant to be main meals yet anyway. As he progresses I'll increase the portion sizes and go by what my DS wants - so if he finishes the bowl and is still hungry then I give him finger foods.
I don't have a strict plan, I just read mumsnet and find out whats working for others then go with that! (That and making beautiful homemade purees for my DS to lovingly spit out - brocolli!!)

[rishwana]

I found <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-led-Weaning-Helping-Your-Baby/dp/0091923808?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-led-Weaning-Helping-Your-Baby/dp/0091923808?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 this book is really helpful.Reading books and websites always gives you alot of new ideas and it sort out 90% of problems
I started weaning by introducing puress from here //www.babyandnames.com/SteamApple.html.This recipes helped me alot to move to solids .I tried fruits and then vegetables and cerals.
For any query feel free to contact me
Happy weaning
Take care

[rishwana]

I found <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-led-Weaning-Helping-Your-Baby/dp/0091923808?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-led-Weaning-Helping-Your-Baby/dp/0091923808?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 this book is really helpful.Reading books and websites always gives you alot of new ideas and it sort out 90% of problems
I started weaning by introducing puress from here //www.babyandnames.com/SteamApple.html.
This recipes helped me alot to move to solids .I tried fruits and then vegetables and cerals.
For any query feel free to contact me
Happy weaning
Take care