any advice re pureeing would be much appreciated

[flourybaps]

Hi all, Im weaning my 23 week old dd but not going down the blw route.

Im so bloody confused about how to go about it I would appreciate swapping notes with anyone else to compare what we all are doing (im hoping im not the only one not doing blw)

My dd has 5 bottles a day and for the last 7 days in the middle of her 10am feed I have been giving her a few tastes of sweet pot, carrot, or pear and apple. (she just refused baby rice so have abandoned that).

She dosent take much at all and Im not sure if just to persist at this one mealtime until she takes a bit more or add in more tates at a different time of the day.

What does anyone else do, any info much appreciated

when I weaned my DS,
I made purees up with formula or breast milk, so that they taste familiar.,
after a while i cut down on the milk

I would also make up purees with a few spoonfulls of baby rice, so that it more filling than just the puree.

The first meal I gave was lunch, at 1pm ish,
I did this for a week (or so) and then added in breakfast at 8am, and then after another week or two I added in an evening meal at 5.30pm
Personally I think I was important to eat at normal meal times from day one as I try and make sure that he eats with us.

At first I used to give him a small amount of solids followed by a milk feed but this didn't last long as he loved solid food so much that he was too full for the milk, but then because I added it to the purees anyway I wasn't too worried about this.

However My DS immediately dropped a milk feed (mid afternoon) when I started weaning,
Then he dropped the mid morning feed, and when he went to three meals he only had a milk feed at night and in the morning,
eventually he dropped the milk in the evening, but still really loves his milk first thing in the morning.

maybe she is not ready for food?

at this stage, it is jsut about tastes, not meal.

no point trying to rush her onto three meals or more things if she is not taking much

weaning is a fairly long process, you don;t need to worry about anything at the mo, she is still getting the vast majority of her nutrition from milk

Thanks for replies, that makes sense to me ten10, adding tastes at mealtimes. I suppose my thought is that she is getting a bottle every 3 hours so there is just not enough hours in the day for food as well! Just when i think I understand what she needs weaning throws a whole load of new challenges at us!

I appreciate your point lulumama, my dd is 24 weeks on thurs and i do think this is the right time and she is ready im just not sure about the logistics of it all yet. She is
getting all her nutrition from milk she had 46oz yesterday!!!

are you giving solid food before her milk feed, so that she is hungry and more likely to eat it,

sounds obvious but we all need a hunger before we want to eat,

no, I have been giving it to her in the middle of a feed but i'll try that tomorrow. See if that helps thanks.

Annother question, with regard to water intake should i only worry about that once she is taking a decent amount of solids? At the moment i would be offering her solids then her milk so not sure when to offer water.

God, where has my common sense gone? I used too have a brain honestly, how on earth am i going to go back to work when feeding my baby water and a bit of apple puree can send my brain into a fog of indecision like this!

I started to offer water from a beaker from about 6 months, just so that he would get used to drinking from them, at first he didn't really take anything, probably because it was rather alien to him, but after a while he got better.

Then I would only offer a beaker after a solid meal, but with milk in it.
when I wanted to start to cut out the milk feeds after the solids I began by watering down the milk so that he got used to the water very gradually, until there was only water and no formula.

I started my DS on pureed banana and apple and he didn't take very much at all. Moved on to having baby porridge in the mornings with fruit puree and rice milk - probably only about 4tbsp in total for a long time. In fact, he still has only about 6-8tbsp porridge now, at 11mo. He doesn't seem to have a huge appetite for solid food, so he has a lot of milk still - but if I try and cut down on the milk, he just frets and still doesn't eat more solids.

advice is to offer milk then food

food at this age, which is a little shy of the recommended weaning age anyway, is about tastes, not about satisfying hunger

milk is the main source of nutrition. a hungry baby who cannot and does not want to take puree is going to get distressed if food is offered before milk

just keep doing what you are doing

sounds just fine for the age she is

also, you will find that babies tend to drop milk feeds as and when they are ready

I couldn't get my dd to have milk and solids at the same time (mush or the blw route). So I do
7-milk
8.30-9 - breakfast
10.30-11 - milk
12-30-1 - lunch
3ish-milk
5ish - tea
7 milk

I'm not too bothered if she doesn't eat much - it's just about getting her used to eating. She is almost 7 months now and I started at 24 weeks. It took her a good 3 weeks to open her mouth and start to enjoy food (finger food or mush). I started with breakfast as she is happiest in the morning, then I added tea as it still left me free to go out and about during the day. I finally added lunch which is a pain as she is soooooo messy that I feel a bit trapped in the house.

Don't stress (easy to say now!!) just offer her a little every day and eventually she will start to eat more and more.

Oh I also give her a beaker of water with meals. That also took a while to get the hang of but she can now fling it one handed into her mouth.

DD is 27wks. We started at 25 wks.

We started introducing food at 11.30pm (after milk) - baby rice with veg.

Dinner at 5.30pm -baby rice and fruit (bit of milk before and then milk after bath).

Now giving a tiny bit of breakfast at aroud 8pm.

Plan is to gradually cut out 11.30pm milk and milk before dinner.

I know people slate her but I am using Gina Ford's weaning guide and it is really easy to follow and gives good advice about when to feed and how to gradually cut down on milk at certain times. It gives plans from 6mths onwards with info if you have to wean after 17wks on medical advice.

Thanks for all your responses. I may have formulated a plan! (need a plan to function i'm afraid or it all goes bit tits up for me, neurotic maybe but I'm aware of it!)
I'm gonna try and chill out a bit and just offer her puree once a day again for another week just so she can get used to taking food off a spoon and see how she goes then try and work out how to build it up from there.

I suppose i was just a bit concerned that she wasnt really taking much I honestly thought she would gobble it down, she is a big baby, 91st centile and takes tons of formula and thought she would love trying food tbh.

pudding25 I had a look at gina among others for advice trouble I have found is that my dd takes 5 bottles a day and most people seem to assume with timings and what not that baby takes 4 feeds a day. What with naps in between there dosent seem like many hours left in the day.

I can see this is going to be a long process. Also does anyone know if the whole food is for fun until they're one is true, i thought it was important to get them used to chewing and swallowing to help with speech development, the full extent of my confusion coming to light now hey!!!

Ps sunshine75 was your dd on 4 feeds a day when you started weaning or have you dropped a feed. Your routine seems nice and straight forward my dd used to be on 4 feeds 7,11,3,7 but when she wasnt satisfied on this had to add another feed in the day to delay weaning which seemed to work ok, I have been wondering if i should go back to four feeds a day then she may be hungrier for solids but is that dropping a feed,which i know is not ideal but she she is on over 40oz a day so part of me thinks how could she possibly fit any solids in!!!

Luckily for me, ds made the weaning thing quite easy. I kept milk feeds and solid feeds completely seperate activities.
The first thing he had was some mashed banana at tea time. He hated baby rice but enjoyed the flavoured stuff.
I didn't really follow the advice I was given, all that tip of 1 spoon on day 1, 2 spoons day 2 etc.
But ds ate so much, I dropped milk feeds within 1 week to 3 a day, and then the next week 2 milk a day.
Your dd will tell you what she wants or needs. If she not eating much, as long as she has the milk, she'll be fine but at this stage it's all about her getting used to new tastes and textures etc. I think.

I also kept milk and solids seperate and slotted in food at our normal mealtimes e.g.

7am - milk
8am - breakfast
11am - milk
12pm - lunch
2.30/3pm - milk
5pm -dinner
7.15pm - milk
in the night till 8 months - milk

He dropped to 4 feeds at 8 months when he dropped the night feed, had 3 from 9 months and 2 from 10 1/2 months - he dropped the feeds of his own accord when he started taking less milk and more solids. I offered water along with the meals from a tommee tippee first cup and within a few weeks ds could use it himself (from 6 1/2 months or so)

Dd was on 5 milk feeds a day (7,10,1,4,7) but once I got onto 3 meals a day (which took a good 5 weeks) I went down to 4.

Seona - I do hope my dd drops the night feed soon as well

I gently encouraged ds from 6 months by gradually offering less and less milk at the night feed e.g. an ounce less every week or so - he got down to about 4oz before giving it up completely.

I'm prob gonna get jumped on for this, but I watered down night time feeds and he was off it within 3 days.
I did speak to h/v first and he assured me that as long as I watered it down and didn't add extra powder, it was perfectly safe and ds wouldn't get ill.
I decided on this route as he was eating so much through the day that I didn't think there was any need for him to be fed during the night.

I'm talking complete rubbish again. I didn't wean off night feeds till about 21 weeks not 17.

Flourybaps -you can do 5 feeds with Gina to start with.

First thing, mid morning, mid afternoon, bedtime and dreamfeed. You then gradually get rid of the mid morning one as thet eat more. Also, depending on how they get on, can start dropping the dream feed.

Thanks pudding25 I have tried the dream feed lots of times with my dd but she never took to it, it just served to wake her up then was a nightmare to get her back to slepp. Couldnt do it now anyway, she generally sleeps 7 till 7 and Im in bed by ten!

Her feeds at the mo are 7 10 1 4 and 7. Im still considering dropping one of the feeds in the day so she has more hunger for food. Im unsure what to do, may actualy brave clinic and have a chat to a health visitor, havent been for 2 months!