Weaning - How much and when?

[melon1]

As a new mum, I could do with some advice on when to start weaning dd. She is 16 weeks next week so is ready to start. She slept through for 6 weeks, but for the last week has started waking in the night for a feed. She takes 9oz and that seems to be enough for her, but during the day she will sometimes only take 5oz, and then wait up to 5 hours for her next feed! Should I start with the baby rice?

I'd say not. Why not wait until she's nearer six months? She doesn't seem terribly hungry if she is having small feeds with five hours between them. If she's waking at night for a feed I'd say it was more likely than it's either a phase or that she's shifted some of her eating into her night rather than her day. Maybe try to get more milk in her during the day might be a better option than early weaning.

I would also wait till 26 weeks .. that's the current recommendations from World Health Organisation for ALL babies .. the baby's gut is just not sufficiently developed and it can help protect them against developing allergies, excema & asthma in later life

THe waking up at night is fairly normal .. the sleeping at 6 weeks isn't .. count yourself lucky .. I think waking just once is pretty good

Totally agree with Twiglett re the waking. If my son had just woken the once at 16 weeks I would have thrown a party.

Why not try to feed her more frequently during the day. If she is going so long between feeds in the day, it is not suprising she is waking at night. Try cutting the night feed down by an ounce or so at a time and she will be hungrier during the day.

Even when the recommendations were for weaning at 4 months, it was 4 calandar months, not 16 weeks. Now the recommendation is for weaning at 6 months. My bf baby started weaning a couple of weeks ago and he was 27 weeks old.

I agree with the others, it does sound like a combination of a growth spurt and a shift to more night time and less day time feeding.

Although some babies do need weaning earlier than 26 weeks it is more liekly to be around the 20-22 week mark than 16 weeks and some don't even need weaning til around 7-8 months.

Giving baby rice or vegetables which are low in calories could possibly cause even more night waking than giving extra milk in the day.