weaning at 17 weeks

[DoubleCarrick]

Just seen the pediatrician regarding 15 week old ds. She's told us that we need to start weaning at 17 weeks.

Any hints and tips? I'm completely in the dark as I was all for blw at 6 months.

I have two weeks to get my info together!

What's their reasoning for starting early (bearing in mind food doesn't replace milk to start with and is for new tastes and textures rather than to fill them up)

I weaned all my kids at 4 months. You could give him mashed banana to start with. You can buy the baby cook book Annabelle Karmel she gives lots of recipes and advice for weaning. Good luck 😉

We have a few medical issues including reflux. I'm going to go back to the gp to discuss things but just interested in early.weaning advice for the minute.

I'll order the Annabel karmel book, thanks

I think I'd make a complaint about being told to start weaning at 17 weeks without also being given any clear guidance on what that should entail.

I think at that age all you can give is fruit or veg purees and baby rice.

There's a book called 'Weaning Made Easy' which is fantastic!
Talks about how and when to do first meal, has meal planners for starting weaning at 4, 5 or 6 months, is a mix of baby led and more traditional meaning.
I found it so helpful!

I weaned one at 17 weeks. My main tips are, give it plenty of time, they can take ages to eat even a tiny amount. Make your own purees, bought ones are full of water. Add their milk to the purée for extra calories. Make sure you know what to do if they choke.

Lots of fruit and veg are coming into season so at least you'll be able to offer a wide variety of flavours. Have a look at cereals like Ready Brek and Oatibix. These are generally much, much cheaper than "baby cereals".

You can offer finger foods too after a while. I'd try something like lightly steamed carrot.

If you are offering bought food, just watch the salt content.

Agree with masked banana, try mashed avocado too and you can mix both together.

Think there are some purée recipes in MN recipe section too OP.

Good luck

Here's a couple of websites which were helpful to us,

Www.thehappyweaner.com
And friendly first foods

Both have great Facebook pages where you can ask questions and interact. The happy weaner has confidence levels depending on how old the baby is. Good luck!

That should be mashed banana. Masked banana sounds a bit dodgy

Masked banana sounds like it should be deep fried!

Thankyou all for your advice just a disclaimer, I will be thoroughly reading up on things before I decide to wean. I'm not going to blindly follow advice

I'm constantly baffled that people see a clinician, receive specialist advice, completely fail to clarify their understanding of that advice and subsequently ask the internet what they should do instead.

Ready brek is lovely and smooth and can be made to be just the consistency you want. When we started with weaning I either very lightly rasted or boiled carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and after a week added things like broccoli or spinach.
Good luck! I found weaning lots of fun. We did purees and finger foods which I found a great balance as my son got frustrated whe nhe didn't get the food in his own mouth quick enough. I always gave him a baby spoon while I fed with another and he quickly grasped the spoon-dish-mouth routine and can pretty much spoon feed himself at 13months.

'm constantly baffled that people see a clinician, receive specialist advice, completely fail to clarify their understanding of that advice and subsequently ask the internet what they should do instead..

You're probably baffled because that wasn't what the OP was doing. From her post I understood that she wanted advice on how to wean early, not whether to wean early.

Luckily for my DS argy, I'm not a complete pleb. I shall see my health visitor, my GP, do some reading and research before deciding whether it's something I want to do. Anecdotal 'evidence' is just that, anecdotal. Yes it has its limitations but with that consideration it's a valuable source of information.

Anyway, weaning wasn't what the appointment was about so it wasn't her remit to expand on that. We had other medical issues to discuss. And there was a seriously sick kid in hdu so she had to answer her pager.

"She's told us that we need to start weaning at 17 weeks."

This seems very specific and direct yet rather than ask why and how, you are happy to ask Mumsnet or just do your own thing.

I know why she's suggested it. And she said start with puree veg at lunch time and don't give his meds after the feed. Offer solids then milk. She said sweet potato was good. Then said "go for your xray then you can go home. We'll contact about ultrasound and dermatologist appointments"

Does that answer your question?

I'm not trying to be confrontational. I have medical support but am looking for peer support too

I know why she's suggested it. And she said start with puree veg at lunch time and don't give his meds after the feed. Offer solids then milk. She said sweet potato was good. Then said "go for your xray then you can go home. We'll contact about ultrasound and dermatologist appointments"

Does that answer your question?

I'm not trying to be confrontational. I have medical support but am looking for peer support too

Argy so first you're having a go at the OP for clarifying whether to wean and now you're having a go for not questioning it? I think the OP has been very clear and can't really see how you are helping.