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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

Does BLW help to prevent constipation?

24 replies

Dragonhart · 24/07/2007 11:09

I have been weaning my 6 1/2 month DD for a week now and I started using purees. She has been crying when pooing and when I took her to the doc he said that she was prob not getting enough liquids (she is only taking a small ammount of water with her meal and is starting to drop one of her feeds in the afternoon) and she now has a fissure, a small tear in her back passage which is bleeding.

Very worried about my decision to puree wean now and was wondering BLW would help to stop this happening again? Presume it is not too late to do BLW even though she has had a week on purees?

OP posts:
terramum · 24/07/2007 11:20

It's never to late to do blw imo....It doesn't guarrantee to prevent constipation though I don't think...DS got a bit bunged up when we first started him....but it was easy to see which foods affected him more & reduce those. Kellymom does say that some bf babies do need extra fluids when they start solids, even those that are fed on demand, & some don't. I guess it just depends on the individual baby & what solids they have?

witchandchips · 24/07/2007 11:27

i'd do both, one puree meal and then lots of finger food etc on her tray. purees might be a good way to get liquid into her. Stuff that she can feed herself will be drier.
do you give water at other times, she may not be thirsty at meal times. Fruit is a good way of loosening things, try some pealed peaches

Original poster
Dragonhart · 24/07/2007 11:36

I only offer her water at meal times as she is bf. Is that wrong? I thought it might make her not take as much milk but is that just when they are exclusivly bf before you start weaning?

I am doing it the same as I did it with ds1 but they are very different creatures (how dare they be different! ) and it does not seem to be working for her.

Have not given her any fruit so far only veg so might try that today.

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witchandchips · 24/07/2007 11:40

as far as i know you can give water at any time. If she just has a sip every now and again then i really wouldn't just limit it to meal times. If she starts taking loads and starting dropping more feeds you can think again but this is not the issue now

DobbyDoesDallas · 24/07/2007 11:42

I would wait a week or so and carry on with what you are doing

it sounds fine, lots of bbies get constipated for a couple of weeks

when she is better make a decision then

Original poster
Dragonhart · 24/07/2007 16:23

The thing that worries me about giving her water is that she has had weight gain problems and that if I offer her water she will not want a feed.

Suppose you are right though witchandchips if she is not taking much water it shouldnt affect it.

Thats what my mum said Dallas, I am just findin it hard as ds1 had none of these problems. She is so uncomfortable with it, I just feel bad. Like you say, I dont want to make a knee-jerk reaction to her prob iyswim.

OP posts:
terramum · 24/07/2007 16:47

Some mums find that when there are weight gain issues, reducing solids & offering more bm helps. It might help with the constipation as well as of course more milk = runnier poos

Tapster · 24/07/2007 22:07

Are you feeding banana - that really bunged up my DD at that age. Constipation went once we stopped it - quite common I believe.

Seona1973 · 25/07/2007 09:36

Well, I started with purees and ds never got bunged up - some lo's are probably more prone to it than others but dont see how the puree would be blamed - they are probably more watery than the food in its solid state i.e. you often water them down to make them more liquid. In fact, now I am weaning ds poos more often than he did on just milk

He is also formula fed and I only offered water at meal times too. His milk and solid feeds were seperate so he had milk feeds between his solid feeds so there werent many opportunities to offer water without affecting how much milk he took.

I agree that fruit would be good to help e.g. pears, apricots, prunes, etc

LilRedWG · 25/07/2007 09:38

I didn't know there was a difference with constipation levels between purees and finger foods. DD was BLW and has horrendous constiption.

Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 21:09

Thanks for all the advice. Sorry taken so long to reply but had ILs visiting for DS1's 2nd bday so not had the chance to sit at the computer!

She is still having problems as soon as she misses a feed, even though she is doing well with the water now and drinking quite a bit.

Trying to give her more fruit to see if that helps but is there anything other than bananas that might bung her up? My mum said that root veg might do that which is what I was starting her on.

BTW I am giving her purrees but also finger food at the same time. She loves to throw it on the floor

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Aitch · 31/07/2007 21:16

i don't know about any link between the food delivery method and constipation, tbh. i suppose the only reason there might be would be if you were using one of those peculiar mills that take out all the roughage, but no-one apart from Annabel Karmel uses them IRL i think.
prune juice works well apparently, or for dd i just used to give her a soft prune to suck on if she hadn's kept to her rigorous 'every morning bright and early' schedule.

wrt the throwing of food on floor, that's perfectly normal. i suppose if you weren't giving her purees then she'd have more milk which might be good for constipation and weight. although it might not be as much fun for you...

Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 21:21

Yes, think I am a little impatient to do proper BLW. Did try but I just cant bear waiting til she is one to give up bf. Really want to do it soon (ie next few months) as it has got a bit much for me. I have been preg or bf for the last 33 months!

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Aitch · 31/07/2007 21:29

but surely you can give her formula, though? i think they're still supposed to have a good amount of milk until they're two. why would you have to bf til one if you don't want to, i don't understand.

Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 21:43

Yes, I could give her formula. Dont really know what is stopping me as I gave ds1 follow on formula from 8 months. Guess I just want to do the same for dd. Just feel a little worn out by it all but at the same time reluctant to give it up. Probably sounds crazy!

I know I am rushing her but ds just took to it so really feel like I dont know what I am doing as dd is not that bothered. Only thing she goes mental for is yeo valley natural yoghurt! Cries if I even hesitate when giving it to her

OP posts:
Aitch · 31/07/2007 21:50

i couldn't be arsed with the yoghurt thing until dd could do it for herself. [lazy]

Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 22:00

Hve to say it was harder in that respect with ds as he was such a trougher! He wouldnt let me eat anything until he was full. BLW would def have worked for him!

dd is wuite happy to wait til I give her some. Think that she wouldnt worry if I just stopped giving her food altogether.

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Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 22:09

When did she start doing by herself?

OP posts:
Aitch · 31/07/2007 22:27

well, she could certainly eat it with a mess at 12 months and got steadily better until now at 19 months she's pretty neat. thick greek yoghurt was best in the early days.

Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 22:42

So how did you give her dairy stuff? Did she just have milk? I have always given ds yoghurt as he wouldnt have too much milk. That and cheese, but the salt in cheese worries me.

OP posts:
Aitch · 31/07/2007 22:45

milk and cheese for dairy and i suppose i do a bit of cooking with yoghurt, things like cucumber and yog stuff and yog chicken or curry, but there's lots of calcium in broccoli etc as well. tbh i do all the cooking here so i knew i wasn't adding salt to anything so i wasn't overly fussed about cheese etc.

NoBiggy · 31/07/2007 22:51

In answer to your question a bit further down the page, I found mango to be really binding.

I find with DD, if she isn't drinking much I just need to put her in the bath - she'll always chug bathwater. I'm sure it's fine

Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 22:52

Mmmm. Wee bath water!

OP posts:
Original poster
Dragonhart · 31/07/2007 22:55

Cheers nobiggy. Bought some plums to see if that helps. Might try to persuade her to feed her herself

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