Should I start weaning?

[HaychEss]

Baby is 5 months soon and was doing 8-10 hour stretches of sleep at night but is now up every 3/4 hours for a feed. She shows interest in food and opens her mouth and follows the food when we are eating, as well as being able to sit up for a little while at a time. Do you think we should start introducing food at this stage? She also has reflux so don’t know how she will do with food.

We were advised to start weaning earlier at five months ish, due to reflux still
persisting and allergies in the family. The food apparently helps. We had all the signs of readiness, like you.

The amount of food she’d be able to consume would not have as many calories as having extra milk, so I’d try to offer more milk rather than early weaning

Mine both had reflux and were on medication but I was still told to wait. I didn’t with my first I started at around 5 1/2 months but started giving little tastes around 5 months. She ate very well and i think she needed more than milk by that point. Give it a go and see how u get on. They can only eat tiny amounts to begin with anyway and lots ends up on their clothes/ the floor etc.

You can start with porridge or weetabix with their milk in it. Helps make sure they are getting their milk intake.
My youngest was awful at feeding with her milk so I had hoped she would de better on solids. I waited until 6 months with her and actually had to stop and try again at 7 months. She was not interested and wouldn’t be spoon fed. I had to do blw.

The reflux didn’t improve either and they were both on medication until around 1yr old when their milk intake massively dropped to 1-2 feeds.

How did it go?

It was fine, we did baby led weaning and so things like scrambled eggs and soft avocado slices to start. It did actually help with the reflux for us, but I see for someone else it didn’t

I weaned my first at 4 months. It actually made their sleep far worse. As a PP said, there are few foods that are as calorific as the milk and if you want to get more calories in them you’d be better offering and extra feed during the day

Does your LO have the signs of readiness for weaning? Our DC2 showed signs of readiness at 23 weeks by grabbing and eating a sandwich