Formula or cows milk better after 6 months?

[smallbob]

Hello lovely mumsnetters - we are about to start offering solid food to our daughter who is 6 months tomorrow. She has been exclusively breastfed so far but today when I tried to express some milk to make up the baby rice I struggled to get even the minimum amount out.

I'm hoping to go onto more interesting things including finger foods quite quickly but there may be some things like porridge that require milk. I will carry on breastfeeding but if I can't express enough extra would you choose to use formula, cows' milk or water for 'cooking'?

(I would also wonder if this apparant dry spell during the day is what's causing a huge increase in night feeding at the moment, if I wasn't too knackered to think straight.)

thanks,
smallbob

After 6 months my dd always fed more at night as there were far more interesting things to do during the day. I believe this is fairly common.

I weaned at 27 weeks and didn't bother with baby rice, just went straight for finger foods. If I give her weetabix or porridge though I use cows milk which I think is fine as long as it's on cereals/cooking and not given as a drink. I make proper porridge though, not the baby version. Now at 10 months, dd eats what I eat within reason and breastfeeds morning, evening and a couple of times at night.

Well done on getting to 6 months.

cows milk fine for cooking

baby rice is ick!

look here for good advice about weaning with finger foods www.babyledweaning.com

you can use cow's milk in cooking after 6mo - I wouldn't bother with formula if you haven't so far

Thanks, thought so but after reading that it should be made with baby's 'normal' milk I just had one of those clueless moments.

We have had a good look at Aitch's blog and the Gill Rapley info and fully intend to give Pickle lots of stuff to handle herself.

In fact we had, over the past 2 weeks, been casually handing her the odd bit of cucumber, steamed carrot, rice cakes and the like. Most of it made it to the mouth and some of definitely went in. But her most 'successful' day of eating seemed to coincide with the beginning of a week of increased night wakings and some evil night-time nappies including a few with bloody mucus.

We backed off the solids for a few days just in case we'd given her something that disagreed with her digestion. I think actually the night wakings could be tooth related, or a virus or just one of those curve-balls you get when you think you know your baby's habits, but it's still made me want to restart the weaning process just a little bit more gently with the wallpaper paste for a few days first...

Smallbob

Hello - no hadn't used cows milk so far, though she did have a toast crust or two (really struggling now to figure out if bread contains milk!).

She has had blood in nappy on a couple of previous occasions - first time we went to A&E, 2nd time to Drs surgery, both times as she was sunny and cheerful and exhibited no discomfort they said it was just one of those things.

Still, the fact that she had a few more nappies like that during the 2 weeks we were trying her with new foods made me wonder if she was straining when pooing. So again with the decision for baby rice approach.

Sorry, sorry I know I've managed to turn a food thread into a poo thread...

mmmMomma - was that cutting out those things from your diet (as opposed to theirs)?

Was this your thread? I was reading it the other day:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1364&threadid=429007#8692618

Wow - well done for exBF twins!

sorry - new to this: www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1364&threadid=429007#8692618

Thanks for replying mmmMomma. Sorry I have a couple more questions - maybe I should start another thread?

How frequently did your DD have blood/mucus?

Did you end up just working through the eliminations yourself or did you find a supportive medical person in the end?

Are there any other online resources you found useful?

Pickle has always had green pesto poo but beyond the foremilk/hindmilk theory all the HVs I asked said if she was happy/gaining weight then it was fine for her. When the blood/mucus happened (pre-weaning) the Paediatrician talked about telescoped bowel but said it was unlikely as Pickle didn't seem uncomfortable.

I tried not to worry about it too much at the time but now I'm panicking slightly. As I mentioned - the only thing we gave her other than veg/fruit during the inital 2 weeks was a toast crust on a couple of different occasions, which to begin with she only sucked. I can't for the life of me remember if the bad nappies were on the same days.

I know that wheat/gluten was on the avoid list until after 6 months but as she was already 24 weeks I was maybe too cavalier.If she's had blood in nappy due to something in my diet though that would suggest she's really sensitive? I don't have the healthiest diet in the world.

Apologies - I don't want you to think I'm getting carried away just on the basis of your/your DD's experience, I'm kind of thinking aloud - through the medium of typing.

Back to baby clinic on monday I think.

smallbob

Thank you very, very much for your reply.

I'm sorry you had to go through all of that with your DD, but I think you said in your thread that she was happy too, so hopefully there wasn't any pain with it.

I'll read the links tonight. And might be in contact again,
Smallbob