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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:
wastingmyeducation · 20/01/2009 20:02

I know what you mean kate, DS hardly seemed to feed on Sunday and I was worried, but I've had no problems since.
If milk is available on demand, and they are allowed to regulate how much they eat of the solids they are given, then the balance should be right.

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 20:14

Kate - You shouldn't worry - it sounds like your dd is doing fantastically!! I'd be very happy if my dd ate that much (would be slightly worried about the shopping bill though )

Your dd picked up and ate as much as she wanted to eat, and it's fabulous she obviously enjoyed it so much! As Aitch says, it's very up and down, one week my dd eats loads and then the next week she only has tiny meals.

Plus, she had milk before she ate so she's getting the best of both - lucky her! BTW your dd sounds like an ideal candidate for blw (not trying to 'convert' you or anything }

IME some babies bf loads and eat very little up until even 15 months, whereas others start eating a lot and quickly get on to 3 meals a day and drop milk feeds quickly. And of course mothers of both types worry about it! Don't worry - sounds v much like you're letting your dd go at her own pace.

welliemum · 20/01/2009 20:15

Just for a different perspective - here's a link to a thread I started a while ago. (You don't need to read the thread, just the OP, to get the gist of it).

It's discussing an observational study of weaning in a fairly poor sector of the Delhi population.

The average age of starting solids was 13 months. Fewer than 1 in 5 babies started solids at 6 months, and some hadn't started solids at 2 years (though I think they were drinking other types of milk by then).

So these mums would probably be totally mystified by this discussion because their ideas of when a baby needs to eat are so different. (I don't think anyone would recommend weaning at 2 years by the way).

If their 6 month old wasn't keen on food, these Delhi mums just assumed that the baby wasn't ready; by contrast a lot of MN posters would assume that their feeding method wasn't working. They would be looking to switch from puree to BLW or vice versa, different food, cutting out a milk feed, etc etc.

I really think we know far too little about the transition from milk to solids to set goals for when and how much babies should eat. Yet a huge percentage of weaning problems discussed here are simply the baby not meeting an expectation of what they should be doing.

I think that a lot of the time we should be fixing the expectations, not the babies.

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 20:25

ppp - I think she would have been a good candidate for blw because shes quite happy to eat anything in any way - but as Aitch says we're now moving onto finger foods anyway as per the normal way of things.

We did think about it at the time but didnt because I knew what I was doing with the mashed food and was/am happy with it. Plus we have major time pressures here with school runs at odd hours etc and I dont drive so we have to leave the house really early blah...

do you think am being a bit pfb about a second child?ohmygod...

welliemum is right about expectation though - I think maybe my dd is doing a very good job of eating and slowly selfweaning but because I have been reading so much about extended bf I have lost sight of what should be happening.

waspriceyp · 20/01/2009 20:25

I think that the best piece of advice I recieved was, "you're expecting a child not a baby". Your DD will be totally different from your DS, mine is.
My DD has another influence that my DS didn't have. My DS!
He strives to be a big boy, she seems so far to strive to be like him! Also girls seem to be quicker off the mark, earlier to crawl etc. Go with her, see what she wants. It will work out!

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 20:32

Re "your dd sounds like an ideal candidate for blw" - only joking - of course most babies can do blw.

[as this is also serious discussion, pispirispis covers back]

pispirispis · 20/01/2009 20:47

No, not pfb! It's easy for me to tell you not to worry, but I think we all do. Omg she's eating too little, omg she's eating too much! I'm the same. But as waspriceyp says, go with her, it's your job (or dad's of course) to cook and her job to eat ((or not))Try not to worry about it (I will try to follow my own advice too )

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 21:07

PPP - I will try, I promise...

Essie3 · 20/01/2009 21:33

Kate can you express? How old is your DD? I'm at a similar stage, although I'm expressing now in order to continue bfing until 1 year old (and I totally hope for a situation like waspriceyp gave as an example where he decides to stop bfing so I don't have to decide).
I was told by my bfing counsellor (Sharon Breward MBE, she's the best, google her!) that you won't run out, but you will adapt; if your baby is feeding twice a day then you have the right amount for that. I'm seeing her next Weds and can ask her if it would help? CAT me if you want that.

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 21:43

essie I can express but nowhere near the amount I used to be able to - dd is 8.5 mths. I have put a thread up on the breast/bottle feeding boards as I felt it was probably not a 'weaning' question and a bit of a hijack .

Maria2007 · 20/01/2009 21:46

Kate & Essie, I have similar questions about my milk supply (for similar reasons as you) and yes, it's a fine balance to sustain I think (between increased meals & milk supply staying ok). I've been doing the same as Essie, expressing to keep my supply going, and so far it's worked very well (but I too, Kate, definitely can't get as much milk as I used to, but I think that's normal at this stage of bf from what I understand)

giantkatestacks · 20/01/2009 22:54

Maria - you should be ok until you're on three proper meals I think - its then that it starts to get a bit problematic. I cant face expressing tbh - not in a systematic way anyway.

Essie3 · 20/01/2009 23:13

Also can't manage the same amount - so phew, that's normal!

nappyaddict · 21/01/2009 00:10

With DS I would only give him a small amount of food when we first started. Then when he started to eat all of what I gave him, the next day I would give him a little bit extra and keep giving that amount until he started eating all that. So basically I always offer a bit more than I think he will eat so if he decides he is hungrier it's there for him. I'd take him out of his highchair after we'd all finished which would be about half an hour. Usually by then he'd start playing with it rather than eating it and I'd know he was full. Also sometimes I'd hand him a bit of whatever was on his tray and if he took it from me and put it in his mouth I would leave him there a bit longer and if he didn't and pushed it away and shook his head I would presume he was full.

Maria2007 · 21/01/2009 10:42

Essie, yes, I suspect it's normal because at the very first months of bf there's a huge milk supply (more than the baby demands)... I think because of the very frequent growth spurts (not sure). Or it could be that at this points our babies feed bigger quantities on the breast? Anyway, not sure what the reason is, but I think it's true that at this stage smaller amounts of EBM are normal (please correct me Tiktok or others if I'm wrong!)

neenztwinz · 21/01/2009 13:00

Interesting BFing tangent! From what I know about BFing, there's no need to worry about your supply at this stage, cos the baby drinks milk and your body replaces it, so if your baby needed more milk she'd started drinking more your body would make more. No need to express unless you are away from your baby eg at work.

The DTs go through periods of loads of milk and then sometimes very little. But there is always enough! That has been the case since 12wks old. Before that I felt they were growing faster than my supply so I just had to keep feeding and feeding. But this far into BFing it doesn't matter exactly how much milk is taken every day, your supply will go up and down as required.

Kate it sounds like your DD is doing great with the finger food, I'd just let her have as much as she wants. That's the whole point isn't it, that she decides when she has had enough?

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