Should I wean at 5 months?

[EstherOwens85]

My son has just turned 5 months, he normally feeds (formula, 5Oz) every 3 hours. He's been on hungry baby milk since he was about 2 months old. Lately he can't seem to make it the full 3 hours before wanting feeding again. He's already 19lbs! as he's a tall baby they've said he's going to follow the 75th centile and is following it nicely. I'm just wondering if I should start weaning with some pureed veg?

Up to you but milk is enough for them. Usually at that stage mine would go through a patch of 8oz bottles for a while so 5oz seems a bit little amount for a growth spurt.

I don't believe in hungry milk.

No.

Up the milk. Both my dc were on 8oz bottles every 3 hours at that age.

www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/812.aspx?categoryid=62

I wouldn't unless the HV or GP advise to.

Any reason he's not having a full bottle / 9 oz at a time?

Is he showing any other signs of being ready for weaning? I would ask your health visitor for advice.
Veg puree is very low in calories and nutrition, compared to formula or breastmilk, so it won't do much to satiate his appetite.

5oz is a small feed! My large 4 month old was on 9oz at 16 weeks - poor to that was fully breastfed but returned to work.

He suffers from reflux a bit, so couldn't drink a big bottle.

Give him an extra bottle if he won't take a big one. He's obviously hungry but weaning won't help that because milk is more calorific than vegetables.

When would I fit an extra bottle in when he's feeding every 2 and a half hours?? I'll speak to my health visitor tomorrow and see what they say

Feed him every 2 hours? Try an extra ounce see if he keeps it down, then an extra 2 ounces.

A 19lb baby needs roughly 47-48oz of formula a day, so if he has 5oz bottles you probably need to fit in 9 or 10 feeds.

However, there's no evidence weaning will do a 5 month old any harm so its up to you.

You'd have to find time to fit in vegetable purée, so why not an extra few ounces of milk instead?

Mind you, I think weaning is awful and should be delayed as long as possible

I agree milk only for as long as possible then straight onto finger food for the least hassle!!

My 98th centile DC as well as more average ones all started weaning pot 6 months and slept through the night. As I have allergies was keen to delay as long as possible. 2 were milk addicts and 2 dropped their milk by 11/12 months old

We started at four months.

All babies are ready at different times - they need to have good head control, be able to sit and have lost the tongue thrust reflex. If he has, then there's no harm in giving him some tastes of stuff. Keep it mushy at that age.

You may not find it helps much unless you can give him really calorific stuff - things like puréed fruits have far fewer calories per volume than milk.

We did porridge with butter and he liked that.

Milk has way more calories than puréed veg anyway.

I will just add that he is not my first.... My othwr son is now 12 and was weaned at 4 months which was normal back then. He was also quite a hungry baby but didn't have reflux so kept all his milk down.
My Lo is sick about 4-5 times inbetween feeds so I know he couldn't handle the 8oz or so that people are suggesting. I've upped his ounces. But he never finishes it. I was just wondering if others have introduced little tastes as early as 5 months and reading a lot of posts it seems they have. Keeping him distracted for the extra half an hour by giving him a couple of spoonfuls of baby rice or porridge seems harmless to me. I will wait about 3 weeks before I start of pureed veg etc. After reading a lot of other stuff I decided just to follow my instinct...... Didn't have access to the Internet so readily with my first and I sure as hell done alright there. No allergies nothing with him.

Is your baby medicated for his reflux? Being sick four or five times in between two hourly feeds sounds really hard work. My second baby has reflux and I've been back and forth to the GP to get it under control.

What have they gave u to control it? Has it worked?

We tried Gaviscon and now on Ranitidine. You should get to the GP and ask for help, I don't know how you've coped for five months without any help! It's absolute misery, isn't it. My DS is breastfed so obviously I don't know how much he takes, but he definitely comfort feeds when his reflux is playing up (to soothe the acid burn). It could be that your baby is feeding for comfort rather than hunger (although obviously what he vomits up needs replacing).

There's good emerging evidence that weaning before 6 months is beneficial in terms of reducing allergies and intolerances. This, combined with reflux, was the main reason I chose to wean at 5 months.

Definitely ask for treatment for the reflux! It's miserable for them but they can take things like nexium.

There is Absolutely no problem at all giving them little tastes before six months if you feel they are ready. Obviously take it slow, and don't use anything they're more likely to have an allergic reaction to or choke on. We started with mashed boiled pears then went onto oatmeal, which he loved.

But definitely ask about reflux treatment - nexium is better than gaviscon, which can make them really constipated.

You may find once the reflux is treated he feeds less as he's not trying to wash the acid down. Poor lamb. The nexium takes a few days to kick in - good luck!

I weaned at 4.5 months on advice from children's clinic (not UK). Like yours, my DD was getting fat too hungry on just milk alone. We didn't reduce her milk, just added some veg puréed, rice and oats and have built it up now at 6.5 months to little meals- veggie curry, fish pie and cottage pie. She's still getting plenty of milk as well though. Interesting one, I had her in Aus where the advice is slightly different to the UK- just as all babies achieve their milestones at different times, surely all babies are ready for weaning at different times?

Turns out it wasn't reflux he's just a sicky baby. They advised me to start baby rice and porridge. Just small amounts. It's worked wonders, just a bit in the morning and again at tea time. So my instincts were right all along.