Weaning a sicky baby with Eczema!

[cyberdolly]

First post folks so bare with me! BF DD will be 5 months next week. 8.5lb at birth and now 12lb. (DH and I both small so not too concerned about slow weight gain...usually 3oz a week). She's always been quite sicky but GP not worried as she's very alert and developing well, strong neck, rolling etc... Also has eczema, but not severe. I cut dairy products from my diet just over a week ago to see if this helped the eczema, but instead her sickness has improved tonnes.Bonus! I know it can take up to 3 weeks for dairy to get out of my milk so am interested to find out if this eventually helps her skin too. Anyway the point...I'd been hoping to get her as close as I could to six months before going onto solids but she appears to be really showing the signs. I thought it might just be a growth spurt but its now day 5 and she's feeding much more frequently and keeps smacking her lips at me when I'm eating!!! I'm just nervous that by making the wrong choice now that I could effect her skin in the long term? Would I be better to top up with formula to satisfy her, rather than solids? (Have tried to increase my supply with extra feeds and expressing after feeds but doesn't seem to help and nipples getting sore). I've just thought about it too much now to see the obvious!!! (Unfortunately, have little respect for health visitors whose advice has been all over the shop!). Thanks in advance for any tips ....XX

It might be worth looking at all the BLW stuff. Has some good points about weaning and there are links to an advisory sheet showing when to introduce foods to babies with allegies. Just a thought if dairy increases your DD's sickness then formula would not be a good plan is this is based on cows milk.

From what I read if your baby is at the stage when they can sit unaided and can pick up the food and put it in their mouth and swallow it then they are ready for weaning. We tried my lo (who also had ezcema) with steamed 'chip size' pieces of root vegetables at about 5 1/2 months and he picked them up and ate them like a pro! Not saying it is the right thing but it worked for us.

Cool. No improvement on the eczema front yet, but early days on my dairy free diet and I'm happy that the reduction in her puking is more than coincidence.

Just for reference, is there such a thing as dairy free formula or did I dream it? Should add that I'm not very confident about my supply , but when I'm in doubt I just aim to get to the next day and we've managed to keep going.

Have also followed a few other threads and see that the 'signs' may not always be a full indication to wean...would much rather keep going with the bf on it's own for a bit longer. Other than these moments of uncertainty we're both quite happy about stuff!