THREAD FOR ANYONE WHO DID WEAN/IS WEANING EARLY BECAUSE OF A MEDICAL CONDITION.

[VictorianSqualor]

I'm not advocating weaning before 26 weeks unless on the advice of a qualified nutritionist/paedatrician but have started this thread for those who have gone down this road with PROPER PROFESSIONAL advice and guidance.

I would strongly suggest anyone told by their HV or GP that their baby needs weaning before 26 weeks asks for a referral to a dietician/nutritionist/paedatrician

Please could other posters respect this is something these posters have been told to do by qualified professionals and not a decision they have taken lightly as I ask that this thread does not become another war of disagreements.

As many of you may know I write a blog on weaning. Am up to my eyes in trying to right out a proper backed up post on why not to wean, but am interested in the times when there really is no other way. not because baby was wanting a lot of milk or HV said so, but medical conditions which warranted weaning to begin before 26 weeks, such as reflux or FTT.

Thanks ladies.

Hi, yup, tried dairy free and wheat free. Also tried cranial osteopathy and reflexology and poor LO even had to be checked for a stenosis of his tummy muscle. Am really lucky that my big brother is actually a paediatric consultant and has been really helpful. He thinks that weaning is less likely to cause harm than additional meds.

My plan is to try him on a v small amount of baby rice and breast milk for one week and see if it makes any improvement at all. If it doesn't then I am going to stop and have to see what else I can find.

Funny really because my brother does not think the evidence re early weaning causing probs is very compelling, he suggests that the damage caused by ongoing reflux could be much more significant and that, in his opinion, formula is probably more likely to cause probs than early weaning!! Controversial.

SAEJ - we seem to be living parallel lives.

My husband has v good private medical cover so we are able to take DS to see the very best drs around. His dr, who is a paedeatric consultant specialising in gastroenterology with a whole host of researh publications to her name, said exactly the same thing as your brother. She told us that she is confident that giving him baby rice with breast milk at 17 weeks will not have done our DS any harm whatsoever.

Good luck with the baby rice and I really hope it helps you LO.

I reluctantly started introducing solids just after 17 weeks on the advice of my paed and a paed dietitian. At 9 weeks, my sweetling began a prolonged nursing strike which continues even now at 24 weeks. He doesn't like to feed because it's either painful or he associates it with pain because of his reflux. He also seems to have a cow's milk protein allergy and struggles to digest complex proteins. I'm completely dairy and soya free (after being dairy, soya, wheat, nut and egg free) but this hasn't solved the problem. We tried Neocate, but he seemed to have a bad reaction to that - I was secretly relieved. I've managed to continue breastfeeding despite having to resort to ridiculous measures where I try to trick him into feeding. When he stopped gaining weight, we decided that it was best to introduce solids. He hated the baby rice but loves purees. I still only feed him 2-3 ice cubed size portions (squirted with breast milk) a day because I feel that the solids should supplement rather than replace the milk feeds (which are still such a battle). I'm curious about how others are managing to balance milk and solids. I'd also like to hear about introducing proteins, particularly in a hypoallergenic diet.

Readytopop - weird how similar!!! I don't know about you but I have found the reflux so tough. I am so jealous when I see other women feed their babies and they finish their feeds looking all sleepy and content while I know poor Charlie will be coughing and puking for the next hour.

I have found it quite hard to manage particularly because wherever I take him he seems to manage to be sick on someone!! I had to do some shopping the other week and Charlie was sick all over himself - some stranger decided to tell me that I should not be so rough with him or he would not have been sick - I was gobsmacked!! I think she assumed I had jiggled him about till he was sick - as if!!!

Charlie is 16 weeks now and we are going to stick with baby rice as long as possible. What are your plans for introducing other foods? I did get recommended Plum gluten free baby porridge too?

Sweetbasil - nursing strike sounds very tough, no idea how I could cope with that. Are you planning on making all your own baby food? I am not sure which protein based food would be the best to add - particularly around allergies - would some of the gluten free grains like quinoa (sp) work? I think they have a low allergen risk and a high protein coount and they are included in all the Plum baby foods.

Dd had silent reflux - not on meds as not formally diagnosed (although pretty clear in retrospect what it was). Screaming through every feed, hated being horizontal, poor weight gain etc.

We started weaning on HV advice at 17 weeks and there was an improvement in feeding within a week or two (and I continued to bf until she was 1). She also started to follow a centile line rather than dropping through them. I kept to very low risk things - baby rice mixed with expressed milk and root veg pureed with expressed milk until 6 mths. No problems with tongue thrust for us.

I have heard that not all cases of reflux are helped by weaning though I was glad I tried it as it was so upsetting to see dd so distressed. She is a happy little soul now though

has anyone's nutritionist not advised weaning due to reflux? ours said not to because it could make it worse. he said he would only agree to early weaning if ds started to lose weight and was FTT.

SAEJ, know what you mean - well sort of - about being jealous of other mom's who peacefully feed their babies. What I'd do to be able to just pop him on the boob and have him drink contentedly! I really miss that from the early days when he did manage to feed okay. Yes, I make my own purees, I find it no hassle and I like to know exactly what goes into sweetling's tummy .

I know what you mean.

I used to find the worst thing was if I ever needed to breast feed him in public. He would stop and start and scream and thrash about as the reflux kicked in and people just used to stare at me like I was some sort of pervert attacking him with my boob .

Freddie is now 8 months so we have cracked on with the weaning. We stuck to baby rice until he was about 21 weeks and then introduced pear (which he liked much better) and stuck with that for a couple more weeks before adding in other vegetable and fruit purees. Now he eats the usual variety of things and, touch wood, has been much better.

We do have the odd disaster still - yesterday he gagged on some carrot on its way back up and threw up everywhere - and the sick is much smellier now and stains too. BUT this is much rarer than it used to be and I'd say that he is only sick every five days or so which is amazing as it used to be after every feed.

Lol at 'attacking baby with boob'!!

I think that we will stick with baby rice and breast milk until 6 months, I still dnn't consider that I am really weaning ds, just trying to prevent the reflux and I know he is getting everything he needs from the breast milk - if he can keep it down. I want to make my own foods for him from 26 weeks and am planning on trying to stick to organic products as far as possible.

Can't imagine why anyone would wean early by choice - it is so much more of a faff than milk and messy (although not as messy as puke...!)

Nappy addict - GP and Paed both suggested a variety of other things before ever considered weaning and they have said it can make things worse in some cases. That said, mine both agree that it is likely to be less harmful than starting stronger meds which is our only other alternative and will effect how much stomach acid he produces.

So far DS seems much less sick, keeping my fingers crossed. . . . .

SAEJ. Which meds do they have your DS on?

MY DS is now on losec and it has been miraculous. We were a bit wary of it to start with as it totally stops him from producing any stomach acid but it has been miraculous.

gp suggests baby rice until 6 months I will see what happens an dwhat my gut feeling is about it all

Readytopop - I have been resisting trying losec but am pleased to hear it has been so good - any side effects?

So far DS has had Infant gaviscon and another similar barrier type med and also one beginning with d which I now cannot remeber the full name of which suppressed his acid production - we only used it for a week because it seemed to give him terrible colic.

How old is your LO ?

Ah, was the one with a d called domperidone? We tried that and had the same problem.

No noticeable side effects with the losec really. The only thing is that my DS seems to get a bit constipated quite often now that he is eating 3 proper meals a day(sorry if TMI) but that is easily solved with a bit of prune juice.

I really can't recommend losec highly enough. It took a month or so to kick in but since then he has been a different child - so much happier and more settled.

Yup, domperidone it was!! Gave him terrible pain. Am impressed it has been so good, think that if the rice does not start to show some improvement then I am going to quit soon. Charlie is still retching but he is sick less - going to give it a few more days and then see how he is doing.

Never dreamt I would have such a sicky baby - makes me laugh now because we had the whole downstairs of our house carpeted in lovely chocolate brown wool just before DS was born because I kept telling DH it would not show up the dirt. . . .ha ha - how we laugh now!! It has so many patches on it that it looks like cow print!!!

Iona was 5 weeks early is lactose intolerant (as are all of DHs family) and had severe silent reflux - the hospital inital wanted us to wean at 14weeks, but I didnt feel she was at all ready and the meds were still sort of working! Managed to hold out until 20weeks as she had got much worse and we were told it was try and see if weaning helps or more meds, which they were trying to avoid. She wasn't at all interested to start with and it was just a matter of trying a little bit everyday - she would not take baby rice at all and still wont! She is now 25 weeks and can eat reasonably well now but sometimes just refuses it! I still feel guilty for not waiting as really wanted to do BLW, but know it was for the best! Am planning to try and move onto more finger foods in the next few weeks when her hand eye co-ordinaiton is a bit better!

Hi VS, my DD was weaned at 20 weeks (or 29 corrected) on medical advice. She was born 9 weeks prem and has a heart condition and severe breathing problems, which meant she had no energy and basically couldn't suck long enough to get any nutrition. She could not breast feed as she could not latch on and stay there long enough (although I did epxress and she had this when being tube feed). She also had severe reflux which meant milk was getting into her lungs and causing more problems with her breathing. She was being fed every 2hours but a feed would take over an hour by which time she was completely exhausted to the point of stopping breathing and her heart stopping as well. All very scary for us and clearly this could not go on. She had some time being tube feed but on medical advice we began weaning as it was a quicker way to get nutrition into her and required less energy from her. Am not sure if it was a good or bad thing to be honest. I know it had to be done to help her but I wonder if we have done any long term damage. Having said that she has such a complicated medical history I doubt that we would notice one more thing! Sometimes the medical profession don't have any other alternative than to go against all other opinions and try this kind of thing. I will say the Doctors were very helpful but health visitor and dietician were a complete waste of time. Given an A4 sheet on food to give her and told by HV not to puree MacDonalds and that was it. No support or other advice and I know we did some things "wrong" like not giving her meat. Thankfully now at 4 she eats really well and a good varied diet.

DOH!!! Sorry VS got dates wrong! DD was 24 weeks which is 15 week corrected (9weeks prem)

So, I am not convinced. DS has been on small amounts of baby rice for the past week and it seems to have made very little difference to his reflux - in fact it just seems to have changed his reflux - still retching but now just more 'foam' and less sick. I don't think that I am going to continue with giving him solids. Dr thinks I should consider adding other foods but I am not persuaded that this is going to make any difference. Looks like I am going to have to reconsider different medication and hopefully I can put of weaning my LO untill 6 months.