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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

When to 'Up' meals?

316 replies

MrsMagooo · 12/01/2009 15:47

Hello ladies,

I should know what I'm doing as I have a DD who's 2.6 but my brain has turned to mush lol!!

I started weaning my DS just under 2 weeks ago at just over 21 weeks, I realise this is under the 'guideline' age of 6 months but IMO he honestly did seem ready & he is loving his food.

At the moment he has breakfast (pear or apple mixed in with baby breakfast) & then lunch (so far have tried him on carrot, sweet potato, brocolli carrot & potato, apple & pear. (I make all the purees myself)

Anyway I digress - my question is when would it be ok to 'up' to 3 meals a day??

DS is enjoying his food, he eats very well & still has bottles (he also still wakes in the night to be fed hence we wondering when I can increase to 3 meals) but as I have started weaning before the guidelines I'm unsure as to when it would be ok to increase his meals.

Sorry for the waffle - any advice welcome

OP posts:
Aitch · 20/01/2009 14:35

i don't really believe in the gang thing, tbh. but i note that you started a puree one.
thanks for the bfing solidarity, ladies.

macaco · 20/01/2009 14:42

neenz it wasn't about being in a gang or anything like that, I couldn't give a toss what other people think, it was that as I had failed(and I don't like that word as I did the best I could do under the circumstances and would move heaven and earth to have a better outcome another time, as would all failed bfers). It was a few things.

  1. that suddenly he didn't seem to want a spoon anywhere near him unless he was feeding himself.
  2. that I was becoming uneasy about the quantities I seemed to be able to get into him really fast with a spoon. it felt unnatural. DH even joked I was fattening him up for Christmas. I worried (probably totally unnecesarily) about obesity and him not being able to tell when he was full.
  3. blw seemed to me a way to give him back some control. It seemed to me (not making judgement here) a way for him to drive the process. It seemed more natural and baby led for us in the way that bf is more natural and baby led than ff and seeing as i hadn't managed the former I felt happier trying blw. Don't anyone jump on me I'm NOT saying blw is more natural, just that it felt more "natural" or right for US.

nappy I used a mothercare chair at first and wedged a cushion down his back. Then I got an antilop and he sits better in that, although i bought the cushion that comes with that and sometimes wedge that down his back or round him (it's long and oblong).

Essie3 · 20/01/2009 14:44

I think we've hit an important point here about ff and BLW.
I feel so sad when people say they 'failed' to bf - it's so negative, you tried, and if it's not working out you sensibly and in an educated way chose an option - a good one, as ff is the next best thing to bfing - which prevented your babies from wasting away.
And I think I get touchy on BLW because I want to be in the cool crowd with the big kids, and I read all the books and everything, but in all seriousness HV, Bfing counsellors and midwives have urged me to get some food down my titchy DS.
Because I suppose I have a case where it does matter if he doesn't eat anything at all that's put in front of him? He's also v. headstrong and if he had his own way he wouldn't put anything other than my nipple in his mouth: he is extremely reluctant to drink water even.
I've bfed him endlessly all through long cold nights (also touchy due to tiredess? ) and held off on solids until 6 months with folks saying all sorts of weird things, and being a long-term healthy veggie and panicking about withholding meat but gag at the sight of it etc etc.

Essie3 · 20/01/2009 14:45

Tsk, x-posted- Macaco - 'failed' is a bad word.

wastingmyeducation · 20/01/2009 15:11

Essie, you did really well to hold off til 6 months with that sort of pressure. There's nothing to stop you giving him loads of things to try himself and then fill him up afterwards, when time allows.

DS was a bit loose in his Antilop so I'd sit him on a thick terry nappy, with one folded up behind him, more to prevent the buildup of food around the crotch than wobbliness though.

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 15:13

Essie - I'm a veggie and there's no way my lo is eating meat!

Essie3 · 20/01/2009 15:34

Ah, now I want my DS to have all options but secretly hope he'll totally reject meat... The plan is he can have meat at nursery (rather than insist on something different and all the food is home cooked there) and at my Mum's, but he'll be eating my food at home and therefore will be veggie there.

Who was it with the small baby in a high chair? Mine is little (the baby, not the chair) and I just use an ordinary cushion behind him. At home we have a Tripp Trapp (a generous gift!) and that is great for tinies. But IKEA do an inflatable thing for the Antilop chair which could work for other chairs too.
We've also ordered a Phil and Teds Me Too for outings, because he invariably is too small for the provided high chairs.

Now you all think my baby is the same size as the average garden gnome...

neenztwinz · 20/01/2009 16:04

Yeah, we are loving our little puree gang! I started it for that very reason, cos I felt that the weaning board was all blw and those not doing blw were too scared to post there.

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 16:27

Sounds like the best way to go Essie. My dd doesn't go to nursey yet and I live in Spain, far from my meat-eating family, so so far so good. But being veggie is like being an alien here, so nursery and school and going to friend's houses and so on will be interesting...

nappyaddict · 20/01/2009 16:34

where in spain do you live piri

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 17:07

Nappy - in the south near Seville

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 18:07

can I just ask all you blw - how do you know when they have had enough - I mean obviously when they stop eating but I have the opposite problem in that when I feed cubes of casserole I know how much my dd has but when I do a finger food dinner (like tonight) it turns out like this:

one slice of toast (eats most of)
2 slices of cucumber
a few pieces of cheddar
one medium sized lamb meatball
a couple of tablespoons of rice (hard to tell - lots on floor)
about 6-7 small pieces of courgette

then about 3 tablespoons of yoghurt as she was still a bit whiny - only then did she stop making her clapping motion signalling more food please...

so in essence - how do I know if shes eating too much and it will impact on milk (and my supply)? shes only 8 months...

macaco · 20/01/2009 18:16

kate I don't have the answers as I'm no expert but one of my reasons to switch to blw was that I felt he was having too much when I spoon fed him as it was too easy to persuade another spoon in and so quick with so little effort on his part he could tuck it all away without really noticing he was full.
I know DS is finished as he starts dropping it on the floor for the dog. It's the downside of BLW as the dog is going to become completely obese at this rate!

macaco · 20/01/2009 18:19

pispirispis it's when you aks for no ham in your gazpacho cos you "don't eat meat" and they look totally puzlled and say, "but ham's not meat" that makes me laugh. Honestly I have heard it...pero el jamón no es carne...es jamón!

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 18:34

Macaco - I know, once in a pizza place I asked what toppings they had for someone who didn't eat meat, so they said chicken and mushroom. So I said chicken is meat, a pizza for someone who doesn't eat meat, you know, a vegetarian. So they said, aaahhh, ok, ham and pineapple then!

Kate - wow, that's a big dinner! You're going to have to fill the trolley in the supermarket at that rate I know my dd's finished when she starts picking up everything and dropping it again, or throwing it over her shoulder, or putting it in her mouth, gumming it and going "babababa" on the piece of food without eating it.

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 18:40

ppp - I know and she'd had an extra bf before it ostensibly because I wanted to watch Obama at 4pm.

Its a serious q though because I know that she wont have a big feed now before bed and that will have a knock on effect for my milk supply if it carries on - yet I like having at least one finger food meal a day.

I dont actually buy any more food though - my dp just gets less as shes eating out of his portion - he was late in tonight

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 18:55

Can't you express? (Sorry, don't know if you've mentioned expressing before, as I don't bf..)

waspriceyp · 20/01/2009 19:08

giantkatestacks, the truth is that as she starts to enjoy food and starts eating a varied diet (which it looks like she is) she will start knocking down the milk. I think you have it just about right tbh. My DD is 9 months and has 3 (quite big) meals a day, I don't really do snacks, and only has a bottle in the morning and a bottle at bedtime. I bf till 16 weeks btw. If you can incorporate BM in her meals, this is where I guess you'd have to mix BLW and traditional feeding. Make sauces with it, add it to fruit etc.

Yogurt and cheese are good for her too, but I'm not suggesting you start making BM yogurt or cheese at home LOL

waspriceyp · 20/01/2009 19:14

Aitch I enjoyed looking at your BLW site/blog thingamy. It was inspiring for me, because my DD idolises her brother. She has been desperate to grab his food (which pisses him off no end) since she was about 4 months old. Poor girl we used to sit her in her high chair at the end of the table watching us eating, drooling!
At the mo we're on finger foods, but she's been eating AK purees since 6 months ish (later not earlier I'm lazy), and grabbing stuff off the table since....well I can't remember. DS had a duck fit yesterday because she grabbed a fishfinger off his plate . T'was organic, fairtraded and from sustainable source of course.

Aitch · 20/01/2009 19:21

kate, dd used to eat meals like that, no problem, but then she'd eat very little the following day, it all evened out on the end. i was ffing so i know that she didn't reduce hre milk (nor raise it, i feel that she was meeting her growing calorific needs with solids) until she was 13 months.

personally i'd say it's a bit backwards-foremost to reduce the amount the child wants to eat so as to keep up your supply. your supply is there to meet their demand, that means if it does drop later on because they want solids then that will be the right thing. you really don't know until you let them do it, i suppose.

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 19:28

Yes I suppose so - its only that I dont want to lose the supply so much that I then have to add ff back in iyswim. And tbh am hoping to bf for a lot longer this time - until she self weans but that normally happens I think at about a year and a half - if it happens before then it might be because I have got the balance wrong.

Maybe I should post on the bf board for tiktok etc

I suppose what I'm asking is - if milk is supposed to be the main nutrition to a year dont I need to be more careful? and if I let her do it (as you say quite sensibly) then I wont be able to get it back.

waspriceyp · 20/01/2009 19:28

A friend of mine bf her daughter until she was 1. At that point she was doing an early morning bf and a bedtime bf. When she started to give her milk in a cup, her DD chose to stop bf altogther. I think that's great! The baby decided what she wanted and when.

Aitch · 20/01/2009 19:36

but it's pure supply and demand by that stage, if she wants it, it will be there.

waspriceyp · 20/01/2009 19:40

Also giantkatestacks, you'll get lots of information but will choose yourself whatever supports what you want to do. I.e. if you wanted to run marathons while pg you'd find literature that would say that's fine.
So no definative advice can be given, it's down to your dc and their development. They decide what they want and when they want it, to a degree. I think anyways!!!!

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 19:43

yes I suppose thats all true - I think am just shocked tbh by how much my dd will eat at this age compared to my ds but then she is twice the size and comparing them is such a stupid thing to do.

I suppose I wouldnt worry about it so much if it wasnt for the assertions about the milk being so important til 1.