questions re. milk intake/blw

[sleepbabysleep]

My ds is 22 weeks and I´m really looking forward to BLW in a few weeks´ time. Up til now he´s been mainly breastfed with the odd formula feed when I´ve had to leave him and not had milk expressed. Next week I start work 3 days a week so my mum will be looking after him and therefore giving him at least 2 bottles a day (either formula or expressed depending on how the expressing goes). My question is.. when I start BLW how do I adjust the milk feeds (I take it the kind of milk i.e. formula or breast doesn´t matter?)? Do I carry on feeding on demand and kind of ignore the meals (such as they are when it seems most of it ends up anywhere but in their stomach)?

I want to slowly introduce the idea to my mum as I can give him breakfast but she will be doing lunch and will no doubt be very confused as to whether she is giving bottle first or food first and should she give water with the meal if she´s given him a bottle?

Aaaargh! Also today I was eating a small chunk of melon and offered it to ds who grabbed my hand and went crazy sucking on it.. should I avoid him doing this until he reaches the magic 6 month mark? (he can´t sit up unaided yet).

Weaning is really exciting and confusing at the same time. There is really differing advice out there.

The advice is now to try to avoid solids until 6 mths to help with allergies etc. However, some are advised to wean earlier - for instacne we were as DD2 was losing weight and really unhappy all day (ie relaly hungry).

From experice I would say: don't worry about the odd nibble berore 6 mths, but make sure milk is the main feed and protien is avoided.

Once you start weaning go for one meal a day (usally lunch), then introduce breakfast once luynch is going well and then tea. This can take around 4/6 weeks. We were given a really good weaning book from our Health Visitor which helped with times and milk feeds etc.

Once solids are introdcued baby wil often drop some milk feeds.

Good luck.

can he sit in a highchair without sliding to one side? the sitting unaided thing is so that they don't suddenly fall over with food in their mouth then choke on it. usually this happens around 6 months, this tells you they're ready for solids. also, by around 6 months they will move on from sucking things to starting to chew and eventually swallow, again, it all happens around 6 months...telling you they're ready for food. that's the good thing with blw, you don't have to make guesses, your baby shows you when he is ready for food.

i would try not to think about 'meals' as such. just pass over bits here and there. so if you have toast at breakfast time, pass him some to play with. then with your mums if she has maybe a cheese sandwich, she can pass him a bit of cheese and a bit of bread. then at tea time you're maybe having pasta or something, just pass over some of it. he will make a huge mess at first because he won't have the ability to eat a lot...because he doesn't need to eat a lot yet. then as he gets better and better..as his body needs more food...he will take less milk and slowly but surely you'll see 'a bit of toast' turn into breakfast.

blw can be tricky when you're faced with weaning books tell you to give milk at this time, then 3 ice cubes at this time etc etc. blw isn't like this. you kind of have to wing it a bit! and trust your baby.

That´s really helpful, thanks!