I'd really like some non-contradictory advice...

[ClareBos]

...which probably doesn't exist

ds is 6 months and 1 week old, I started weaning him using the old fashioned AK method about 3 weeks ago. He's on 2 meals a day, pureed veg and fruit only.

I took him to the clinic to be weighed yesterday and he's lost weight in the last fortnight. The hv suggested feeding him "anything" and "whatever you're eating mashed up". This is not the advice in the books. And I'm particularly confused as ds is lactose intolerant and I thought allergy prone children were supposed to take it slow so we could tell what they're allergic to.

In a fit of doing what I'm told I gave him humous and pitta bread fingers last night at dinner, he choked on the pitta a few times, but kept sucking it, the humous he prefered to eat off a spoon.

This morning I'm wondering how I'll be able to tell whether he's allergic to any one thing if I just keep giving him everything at once. I'm also wondering whether the weaning books just have lazy publishers (I've known a few publishers) who've changed the starting age in the introduction, but not the rest of the book. So we're supposed to fit 2 months of purees into a week now?

What am I supposed to do? My instincts tell me to keep taking it slow...but if he's losing weight, maybe he disagrees with me.

This probably seems really basic to you guys, but I'm pretty low on confidence generally and food is a really poor area for me.

Follow your instincts - he will probably start to pick up weight once his gut gets used to real food.
Don't five hom what you're having mashed up yet - salt may be too high.
Pitta is a little hard to bite but son't give up on it - he's just getting used to the new textures.

What does the AK method say about milk? That's got a higher calorie content than anything you'll give him on the fruit/veg front, so as long as he's taking plenty of milk, I should imagine taking it slow will be just fine.

Hi Clare
I too am new to weaning. My DD is 6 months and 3 weeks old.
Everyone else on MN seems to swear by BLW, but I, like you, have been using traditional spoonfeeding as well as giving her finger foods to try for herself.
It seems a little strange that your DS should be losing weight due to weaning. At this early stage, the solid foods should only be an experiental addition to his usual milk and he should be getting just as much nutrition from his milk as he was two weeks ago.
Are you BF or is he on formula?
With regards to allergies and introducing new foods, I was told that it's best to introduce new foods one at a time and to do so in the morning rather than at night so that you'll be awake to see any drastic effects that they may have.
That's something that I haven't really stuck to myself to be honest. Although I do intro new foods one at a time.
Certainly, as there are more calories and nutrition in milk than in a couple of spoonfuls of normal foods, it would seem that bringing in more pureed stuff is less likely to help him increase in weight at this point than simply making sure that he's drinking enough. He can't really digest solids yet anyway.
I reckon that your instincts are correct and that you know your baby better than anyone else. If you think taking it slow is the best idea, I agree with you.

He loves his soya milk formula and drinks way over the average of that.

I didn't toast the pitta, so it was nice and soft.

Pitta still a new experience for him which is why he kind of choked. DS did the same at that age but we kept trying him with it till he got used to it. Your DS will be fine, honest. They soon get the hang of food. Pretty soon he'll be shouting "more, more" when he's enjoying his tea

Thanks Ruth

It's nice to know someone else is using the old fashioned method

BLW seems like a lovely idea, but with a lactose intolerant baby it's not as easy as it sounds, unless we all go vegan!

I worried about the salt in the humous too. This is what I mean about contradictory advice.

take it slowly, no need to rush, and remember milk is still the main food at this age, after 3 weeks of weaning, pureed veg or fruit can still be given after his bottle or breast if bf. early stage of weaning is more an introduction to new texture and taste, and it takes a while before it can replace an entire meal.
Observe your son, if he is hungry he will let you know!!

They will gag often when you start feeding them. It takes a while for a baby to learn how to move food to the back of their mouth. As long as you are supervising then this is fine. As far as allergies are concerned - milk wheat and gluten (and nuts of course!!!) should be restricted in the first year if being mindful of allergies.

Two things to bear in mind:

1. Milk should be the primary and most important nourishment in a baby's first year. So, if meals are replacing milk feeds you need to change this. Food should be in addition to milk.

2. At this age, your baby will start to become more active and the weight gain will be much slower as they start to burn more calories.

Yeah, my DD actually enjoys being spoonfed.
I start her 'meals' with some bits and pieces that she can feed herself (pieces of bread, boiled chicken, cooked veg like carrot, brocolli, courgette etc) and once she's had a good chew, suck and thrown them on the floor, I move onto some pureed veg, fruit, rice etc.
It doesn't actually seem to matter whether she's hungry or not because eating is more of a game and a chance to copy mummy and daddy. When she's too hungry she's less likely to eat calmly and more likely to cry for a BF.
I agree with you that you should probably lay off the humus for a while. I too have heard that salty, oily and strongly flavoured foods are best avoided for the first few months. If your DS is lactose intolerant, his insides may be delicate in other ways too and there's no point in pushing him too much too soon.

Hi VVVQV
That's a really good point about becoming more active.
I've noticed a huge change in my DD's feeding and sleeping patterns in the last month as she's now crawling and moving round much more.

If he likes the hommous make your own and leave out the salt. You can freeze it as most recipes make tons.

My ds is being weaned early under supervision of a pediatric gastroenterologist. He says to introduce new foods once every 3 days to check for allergic reactions (ds has allergies too). Start with fruit and veg, always mixing veg with potato. Then white meats (all pureed).

I haven't cut his milk feeds down at all and he does drink a lot - 45 floz/1000ml per day.

And apart from his weighing loss, he seems to be in good spirits (he has a book on his head and is shouting dadadada as I type this)

The 3 day rule is good to know, I think I'll apply it and I've been meaning to make my own hummous for a while as we seem to consume it by the bucketload in this house.

If you want to keep his weight gain up, I would suggest increasing his milk intake (most calorific thing you could give him right now). He is quite possibly having a growth spurt and is burning more cals in order to grow.

Sometimes he doesn't want all his milk, he's just left 60ml of his 4pm feed. I always thought that meant he wasn't hungry. He doesn't always drink to the bottom of the bottle.

I have just remembered something - 2 weeks ago when I last had him weighed the nurse couldn't get ds to sit still, so she "guessed" his weight from the moving digital display. Considering he only lost 2 oz is this possibly why?

And another thing - ds was having terrible nap problems during the day, but today he seems to have cracked it. He's had 3 easy settle naps each of them an hour or so.

Does hummous make you sleepy?

hummous laced with Medised does, if you ever get desperate.
when you get to the finger food stage, there are quite a few dairy-free recipes on the babyledweaning blog. if you do a search for a woman called Moomin, they're mostly hers as her wee girl had quite a few allergies, things like chickpea burgers, and i know that gram flour is quite a good substitute for flour if you're also concerned about gluten, so you could search for clues in indian recipes. good luck with everything.

It sounds like everything's fine and you can relax a bit.
If he's happy, active, developing well, sleeping ok and the weight loss was from an estimation.
Both you and he seem to be doing great!!

People guessing at weights??? This is utterly ridiculous, sorry...there is no point in weighing babies and recording the weights if they are being guessed at. It leads to unnecessary anxiety and bewilderment.

She shd just have put in 'weight unable to be recorded' instead of guessing.

Can I just make a wee point - lactose intolerance is a completely different kettle of fish from being allergic. Lactose intolerance is where the body literally doesn't produce sufficient lactase to digest lactose which causes digestive problems. An allergy is where the immune system is reacting to something and trying to rid it from the body.

And yes, if the weigh-in from 2 weeks ago was a guess then it was probably wrong. 2-weekly weigh-ins sound a bit OTT for a healthy baby too.

I'd add some fish to his diet - not much nutrition in fruits and veggies. Once he's ok with that, you can add chicken and meat. Protein will help with weight gain. Can he have eggs? My ds had them from 6 mths (no family history of egg allergy)

I would avoid humous if he is allergy prone as it contains seseme seeds which are often allergenic. Both DS and DH are allergic to seseme seeds.

How bad is the lactose intolerance???
Both of mine are/have been lastose intollerant but I have not had to cut it out completely. DD can now drink milk after nearly 3 years and ds can eat things containing milk but cannot manage drinking milk or yogurts etc.
I think if her has only appeared to lose 2oz then he probably hasn't lost anything and to then base more feeding of solids on a guessed weight is rediculous and potentially dangerous.
I mean if you have digital scales in the hous yourself get on them and jiggle about a bit I can actually make myself look like I weigh 2 stone less if I jiggle enough so a baby who weight mere lbs and oz it must be so easy to meke them look like they have lost loads when they are moving.