Big 19 wo, how to delay weaning? Or do it?

[somersetsoul]

She's 98th centile and is draining 7oz bottles 8 times a day and one 9oz bottle before bed.

Hungrier milk did not agree with her.

Do I just keep going and up the oz's?? The hv has recommended going back in a month to make sure she's not over 100%. At this rate she will be!

I was told to wean dd2 early due to her size but she didn't want it! When she hit 6 months she was ready!

Dd3 watches us eat, sits up in a bumbo and I genuinely believe she's ready.

Just looking for some advice from others with larger babies who have been through this. Is it better to wean or stick with milk??

How much does she weigh somerset and how much milk does she have in a day?

Unless advised by a HCP for a medical reason I’d stick with milk til 6months. My DD was 90-95th centile, bf, and I weaned at 6months. I’ve worked in gastro and immunology so perhaps a bit more cautious about waiting til 6months to wean to ensure their guts are ready.

The current advice is to not wean with cereals, rather things like smushed carrot. Which is most filling? Whole milk or carrot?

I had an enormous DD. I waited. She was BF though so less worry about gaining weight.

By the time we started weaning just before 6 months, my big boy was on 7 X 9 Oz bottles a day but we stuck to the advice so just upped his milk intake and tried to stretch out the time between bottles to 3 hours rather than his preferred two! He was greedy too so would do a fake cough to get me to make him a bottle.

This was yesterday and she's just having her third bottle today...

She was 18lb 8 2 weeks ago.

I wouldn't say that's a huge amount. She's having perhaps about 5 floz more than the recommended amount daily,which is 2.5 floz per pound in weight. Was she long when she was born? Often tall babies need a little more.

I definitely wouldn't start weaning just yet. Swapping milk for veg at this age would be effectively sticking her on a diet and might make her wake more for feeds in the night.

Thank you. Not massively long, 51cm. I think I'll get her weighed again this week and see what the hv says.

What's her sleep.like?

She sleeps really well! She'll have two big naps a day, one cat nap and sleeps 9 to 7 at night but wakes during that for bottles.

I had a big baby too but waited until 6 months to wean. Your little one shouldn’t be draining bottles, if she is then you need to make and offer her more milk. She should always finish the milk when she has had enough so there should be some left over. My DD was having regularly 11oz at time over night at one point.

There is no compelling medical reason to delay weaning beyond 17 weeks. The downsides are: (1) a risk of minor diarrhoea (which in developed countries can be reduced to almost zero), (2) an increased risk of choking (which can be managed if you use basic precautions) and (3) hassle associated with weaning (which can actually be fun - depending on how you look at it). A very significant potential upside, which might not be entirely conclusive but comes up consistently in recent research, is the evidence that weaning between 4 and 6 months reduces risk of allergies later in life.

scienceofmom.com/2015/05/14/starting-solids-4-months-6-months-or-somewhere-in-between/
scienceofmom.com/2016/07/18/the-eat-study-more-food-for-thought-on-earlier-introduction-of-solids-to-prevent-food-allergy/

I personally thought that the potential big positive outweighs all minor negatives and weaned DD (who was on the 95th percentile) at 17 weeks. She was very interested in food and took to solids amazingly well. She is now 2 and remains a brilliant eater.

There is quite a bit of solid food that has got higher calorific intake than milk (e.g. potato, sweet potato, banana, avocado). I would not never push solids if the baby is not interested but if, like my DD, she starts smiling, giggling and widely opening her mouth, I personally would go for it.

What Wintertravel says, basically. As the above links describe, very early weaning (before 17 weeks) and very late weaning (7mo or later) seem to be linked with poorer outcomes. Between that, it's anyone's guess.

Maybe for the moment, start involving her in mealtimes by sitting her at the table and giving her a baby spoon to play with. If she seems to be developing good trunk control and is OK with putting the spoon in her mouth without pushing it out, she might be OK starting in a week or two (which will put her at about 5 calendar months anyway).

There is nothing wrong with cereals, by the way! They are perfectly fine foods.

If its any help I weaned ds when he started stealing my food at about 19 weeks. I absolutely planned to wait until 6mo but when your baby is grabbing your banana and putting it in his own mouth...

I weaned both my DDs early as recommended by a paediatrician due to their reflux. But I think if your baby is happy and sleeping really well, what's the need?

Weaning is a lot of hassle and can lead to disrupted sleep. Enjoy the time you have before you have to start carting meals around with you everywhere you go.

Babies tend to have a bit of a surge around 3-4 months and weight evens out when they become mobile. I would just carry on feeding him on demand for now if he’s happy to have more milk. You’ll spend years planning healthy kids meals, so I wouldn’t rush into it.

Have you upped his milk intake slightly yet OP?