weaning virgin - I don't have a clue

[emms10]

Hi

My DS is 5 months today and starting to wake more at night hungry so I think it may be time to think about weaning - he is only BF'd and will not accept a bottle.

I do not have a clue about amounts, timings, what do I need to buy? what do I need to keep sterile (this worries me more than anything)? is there a quick and easy breakdown and guide somewhere that makes everything simple - can anyone recommend a good book to follow?

Thanks

Emmsx

Usually they say start with something like baby rice and start with just a spoon at first for a few days then increase it to 2 spoons for another couple days and so on. ( baby rice can cause constipation which it did to my dd so i went onto farleys hienz fruit cereal which she loves and dont give constipation)
Baby rice is just to get them use the texture of solids. You just mix it with some of baby's milk.

Just start with one meal a day ( b.fast) for a week or 2 before starting another meal like lunch or dinner

Always give a milk feed before solids or half a milk feed then solids and then rest of milk feed.

Milk is still very important in their diet for the first year so make sure he gets plenty of it but he could decrease his milk intake due to been more full on solids which is what my dd is doing right now. ( also just started weaning)
As long as he gets about 25-30 ozs a day he will be fine.

Hipp organic website does a weaning chart which you get if you join their site and i find it really helpful.

I didn't do any of what the previous poster suggested, because if you wait until your baby is sitting up unaided, they don't need any purees or baby rice can feed themselves from the outset - it's called baby-led weaning and has lots of advantages.

A useful introduction is here and here and there's now a book by Gill Rapley- the HV who did the initial research about it.
BLW rocks

emms - once they get to 26 weeks then you dont need to sterilise anything so dont worry about that - if everything will go through the dishwasher/be washed normally at a hot temp it will be fine...

I have done what the first poster suggested but didnt really start with baby rice but with carrots/pear/swede etc - the old fashioned view is one new thing every couple of days to see if they react or not. Finger foods can be offered alongside as well as long as they are 6 months.

I waited to introduce fish/wheat/eggs/meat until a few months later but this isnt cast in stone either - it is only if you feel you have a history of allergies etc.

like anything else there are fashions to weaning but as long as you wait until 26 weeks then just do what you feel comfy with.

Emms, sadly you're likely to get more confused than less here There are two main 'approaches' to weaning really - purees and baby-led weaning

The puree approach, you offer small amounts of single tastes, building up gradually introducing new flavours and combinations and eventually introducing thicker textures and lumps before transitioning to proper solids. It can be a slow process, does require you to plan and pre-prepare foods (or use jars) but works well. Equipment wise it depends on your budget really, you need some way to steam the veg and some way to puree/mash to a suitable consistency. You don't need to sterilise anything but you may like to freeze batches of food in ice-cube trays, special weaning pots or recycled plastic pots.

BLW is really the other end of the spectrum, basically you offer whole foods from the start and allow your baby to go at their own pace in terms of what and when they eat. Well steamed veg, especially brocoli is a good starter and MrsJamin has posted the key links if you choose this route. It doesn't suit everyone as gagging, which they inevitably do, can be scary for everyone (even though its a necessary part of discovering food and the eating process and is a protective mechanism).

I, and it seems many many other people, adopt a mixture of the two offering purrees and finger foods together. DS1 is just 1 and eats whole roast dinners by himself now even though we started out with purees at 6 months as I was a bit of a wuss.

Whichever method you choose its important to remember two things

1. Until they are about 1 milk is their main source of nutrition so don't get hung up on what or how much they eat, it should be about exploration and fun
2. Its a means to an end - the aim is to get them eating a normal, healthy, balanced diet. There's no evidence that one weaning method is better in this respect than another (ie no evidence that one method promotes faddy eating etc) so the trick is to find the method (or mix of methods) that works for you, your dc and your lifestyle.

hth

I agree with Pheebe. People can get a bit hardcore about weaning but it's not that difficult.
I had the Annabel Karmel book which I followed fairly carefully at first but soon started winging it! I don't like some of it (e.g. she recommends starting finger foods at 9 months, which is much too late IMHO), but if you are nervous about weaning it's a good guide.
Read up on BLW even if you decide to do purees. It really helped me to relax a bit about weaning, and not worry about gagging.
Follow your baby's lead whatever you do, they know when/what they want to eat.

I am just starting out too and to be honest it's a bit of a pain as my LO doesn't seem to want to eat food very much and much prefers a nice bottle of milk. However, needs must and I use organic jars and baby cereals mixed with finger foods such as toast, baby rice cakes, bits of banana, green beans/other veggies. At the moment more goes on the floor or down his front than down his throat and he does tend to cry if he bites off a bit of finger food as he seems to not have a clue what to do with it (hoping he will learn soon!). Got stressed out about it it first but now I figure as long as he has his milk anything else is a bonus. I think experiencing tastes and textures is what's happening at the mo and eating will come later!

Just a thought- I was told recently by a breast feeding councillor/lactation consultant that she knows of babies who are perfectly happy still being exclusively breast fed at a year old. This suprised me but I thought it was intriguing and I imagine that these babies are given extra vitamin/iron drops and they will wean themselves in their own time. If you are worried about your baby being hungry, won't him putting in his demand for more milk just increase your supply?

I'm exclusively breastfeeding my 13 week old son and I am in no hurry to wean him, if he is still satisfied by my milk approaching a year old then I will keep on feeding him just my milk. I do understand your confusion and its all new to me too but I do feel that some babies are weaned far too early (as in the case of a girl I know who started weaning her baby at 8 weeks, apparently on the advice of a health visitor )

What I'm trying to say is maybe he is hungry because he wants to increase your supply and it will just take some time, he may not be ready for weaning just yet.

Don't stress (although I did - big style).

At 23 weeks i let my dd have a bit of my banana, which she had been grabbing at.

I then mashed a load of fruit/veg and put it in some ice cube trays in the freezer.

At 24 weeks I gave her a couple of tastes of the fruit/veg at brekfast time (8.30 ish)

At 25 weeks I also tried some at tea time (5ish)

At 27 weeks I introduced some at lunch (12.30 ish). Started to give her finger food as well at this point.

I then realised that she prefered finger food - so since then have done a mixture of mush and finger food at each meal.

Our day is now like this (8 months)
7bf
8.30- cereal and fruit
10.30 - bf - although she is now dropping this
12 - lunch
3 - bf
5 - teas
7 - bf

It took about 4 weeks to get her to eat a significant amount.

I now realise that if she eats loads she has less milk and if she's not too keen on food one day then she makes up for it with milk.

Oh, and once she was eating a significant amount (esp if it was pasta/rice) she dropped the night feed. She now goes 7-7 wothout a feed.

but don't worry if they don't drop a night feed when they're on solids as it's got nothing at all to do with food. My DS dropped the night feed loooooooong before he was weaned.