Some stupid weaning questions -bear with me...

[pudding25]

DD is 21 wks. I intend holding off until 6mths but I am trying to get my head around it all -If I leave it all to the last minute and am not organised, will have a fit.

Anyway, here are 2 questions to start with:

1. Should I start giving her a beaker with water when she is 6mths? If so, is the water cooled boiled water? Can I get her to try this before 6mths? (I bought her a cup and she has been playing with it).

DD is mixed fed (2bottles/day). When she is 6 mths, should she be taking her formula from a cup or bottle?

2. On the baby rice packet, (will prob do some blw but want to have a few days with baby rice/purees first to see what happens)it says to mix the rice with baby's usual milk. I can't express, so would I just make up a bottle of formula which she would drink first but mix a bit of it with the rice????

Sorry for the daft qs but I have no clue what I am doing! (i made my DH practise with the pram every day for 3 wks before he went back to work after dd was born to ensure I knew what I was doing!)

Firstly, stay calm about it - she won't die of starvation if you don't start her on solids until she's 27 weeks!

1. I did - cool boiled water with every meal. He loves it now . I think they recommend trying to get them to take drinks from cups ASAP as it's better for their teeth - no specific advice as mine wouldn't ever take anything from a bottle so went right to cups.

2)I guess so, I don't think it makes a difference whether you use BF or formula.

My best weaning advice was to be totally chilled out about it, there's very little to be gained, nutritionally, from solids until they are over 1 year old. So the next six months are just about having fun and learning about tastes and textures. No stress, just mess

I just gave DD tap water from a cup . And bits of ripe pear (now in season) as very soft and sweet so no pureeing. I also always used real oats and did them with just water (she was BF and I couldn't face all that expressing for a bit of porridge).

Go with the flow and your own feelings.. they have so little at the beginning its almost easier to give them things like roast sweet potatoes/avocado/mashed banana etc, most of which requires no effort and gives them lots of interesting tastes rather than a thickened version of formula.

I gave ds water with meals, he liked to rinse his mouth out a bit sometimes but didn't drink it as such for ages. Gave it in a doidy at first, got a free flowing spouted thing later on. He drinks from anything now.

Ds never took bottles of anything but I wouldn't worry at all about getting her off bottles just yet. Ds had dropped most of his feeds well before a year (cue panic about getting calcium into the child) at which point I introduced cows milk at bedtime in a cup. Was a good while before he drank any of it but now he drains it happily. Just relax and let her work out all this new food, water in a cup thing in her own time. You don't say when she has the bottles but as she eats more you may find that they are the ones that get dropped anyway (but then I had an odd child...I mean how many children drop bedtime feed but keep mid afternoon?!)

No idea about baby rice, never used the stuff. Don't see the point personally, we did BLW (progressed to DsLW) but even if doing purees you are probably better off just doing puree rather than rice.

Definitely stay calm! Think of it as fun rather than a big deal. It's great to see their reactions to new foods, just enjoy it!

Don't worry too much about getting rid of the bottle just yet, but yes you need to introduce a cup for mealtimes and yes cooled boiled water is best I think but I'm not sure that I ever bothered!! Ds had a bottle at bedtime from being 13 months when I gave up bf, to about 18 months, and I don't think it's done him any harm!

Definitely try to introduce some finger foods from the start but don't get bogged down with strict BLW which would have you refuse them pretty much anything they can't put in their own mouths! A mixture of mashed foods, and soft stuff like yogurt and custard, plus a few finger foods, eg toast, steamed carrot, ripe pears, peaches etc. is easiest and most fun for you both. Enjoy!