Sick of 'isn't she big' plus needing weaning help.

[OnNaturesCourse]

DD is 23 weeks old and roughly 19lb, very long. Everyone comments on her size, so much so I've started prempting the conversation so I can end it quicker. Poor girl going to end up with complex!

By all means she's not chubby, just very long.

How much formula roughly should a 19lb baby take, regardless of age? She takes roughly 30-35oz in 24hours plus a small bowl of rice made with 1oz milk.

Looking forward, how on earth do you wean? She's getting rusks occasionally as finger food and just sooks them to death. She's tried yoghurt, some sauces and broccoli (by stealing it from us...) Do I just offer stuff up to her? How pureed does it need to be? Can I basically blend whatever is for our dinner?

Thanks all.

If she is willingly grabbing food off your plate you could do baby led weaning and not bother puréeing anything if you don’t want to. You can just put a bit of whatever you’re having on her high chair tray. Milk is still the most important thing for now so it doesn’t matter if she takes a while to actually eat.

My DD started today and had broccoli carrot and roast chicken. The main things to avoid are honey, whole nuts and too much salt, so I’ll be more careful about stock etc. There’s a really good book about BLW by Gill Rapley.

Otherwise pureeing you can purée anything really, I fed my older two that way and started with different veg like sweet potato, then gradually made it more lumpy. I did offer finger foods as well as it’s great for coordination etc

Annoyingly people just comment on baby sizes. All the time. Same as the bump while pregnant. It’s just a Thing I think.

How old is your DD? Thank you x

Under 6 months she should be having roughly 2.5 floz of formula per pound in weight, so it doesn’t sound like she’s over feeding, if anything she’s underfeeding.

Once she’s 6 months the minimum is 20floz, but I wouldn’t drop any feed yet.

Agree that if she can pick up food and put it in her mouth, there isn’t really a need for purees, that’s something that was used when babies were weaned at 3 months. Nothing wrong if you do want to feed purees though.

To start off, get some long sleeved bibs and a cheap shower curtain for the floor. Offer her some steamed veg or some fresh fruit and let her get on with it. Start off offering food an hour after her bottle, just once a day at first, gradually working upto 3 times between 8 and 9 months.

If you want to offer purees, try mashed banana or avocado, you can even mix them together.

And yes, you absolutely can offer whatever you are having, whether you mash it with a fork or just put it on the high chair tray and let them get on with it.

I wouldn’t bother with the tusks or baby rice though, the risks are full of sugar and neither of them have much nutritional value.

Thank you for the tips.

She more interested in eating, and getting frustrated with the bottles being offered.

I think when people say that the baby's big they usually mean it as a compliment! There's nothing lovelier than a healthy, chubby baby

I hope so, as I hear every day. She'll always be my little baby x

I agree with Fartniss, I think it's meant as a compliment. I used to feel incredibly proud when people commented on how big my two were when they were babies!

I've actually had people not believe me when I say how old she is 😂 I guess I should be proud, she's growing well!

It usually is meant as a compliment. Fat, chubby babies are seen as the ideal. Both of mine were scrawny little things and dainty and my god you wouldn't hear the end of It. Apparently I should force feed them both until they had rolls...

Look at BLW. If she is already grabbing food and eating it then she should love being independently eating.

And I hate to be the one to say it, but rusks have so much sugar in them. You can get lively snacks from organix. Big carrot puffs that are a great size for them to gnaw on and smush up. My kids still love those at 4 and 1.

We have sugar free rusks 😌 but a little sugar won't hurt her, my whole family were given rusks lol

I know how you feel with the isn’t she big comments! our little one is 24 weeks is now 17lb her dad is tall and she is very long. I try not to take it to heart but sometimes it’s hard. X