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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:
pispirispis · 19/01/2009 15:40

Thanks neenz!

Actually, having thought about it, I can see why it is said that BLW-ers can be "evangelical" and that BLW seems to have become almost a "religion" to some. In my case, I took a leap of faith and did BLW, prayed it would work then praised God when it did and became a convert. Then, I fervently bored the sh*te out of all who would listen, telling them how fab it is! Tee hee! Can you see what I did there?!

pispirispis · 19/01/2009 15:40

Thanks neenz!

Actually, having thought about it, I can see why it is said that BLW-ers can be "evangelical" and that BLW seems to have become almost a "religion" to some. In my case, I took a leap of faith and did BLW, prayed it would work then praised God when it did and became a convert. Then, I fervently bored the sh*te out of all who would listen, telling them how fab it is! Tee hee! Can you see what I did there?!

nappyaddict · 19/01/2009 16:27

pispiripis - looking for advice for a friend with an almost 6 month old who isn't sitting well alone yet. what do prop dd up with when she eats?

giantkatestacks · 19/01/2009 16:31

nappyaddict - sorry to jump in (am bored watching ds play with his the marble run) but I found my dcs were able to sit in an antilop before they could sit on the floor on their own - and theres always the bumbo...

giantkatestacks · 19/01/2009 16:32

oh unless it is a friend with a SN baby - sorry...[is annoyed at self]

pispirispis · 19/01/2009 16:42

Nappyaddict I just use a towel behind her back, she's very nearly sitting and doesn't need much propping. Agree with Kate re antilop and bumbo, or a couple of towels, one on each side if they have a different highchair?

nappyaddict · 19/01/2009 16:53

Can SN babies not use bumbos then?

Piri did your dd start being able to do BLW straight away at 6 months despite not being able to sit properly or did it take her a while to get into it?

pispirispis · 19/01/2009 17:05

We did purees for a few weeks until she was nearly 7 months before I decided to do BLW. But she started eating small amounts right away.

Aitch · 19/01/2009 17:21

it must depend on the special need, nappy.

i'll be haulinig out our antilop soon, i'll have dd2 to wean in another few months. i Can't Be Arsed already.

giantkatestacks · 19/01/2009 17:58

no I just thought there might be a special reason for asking nappyaddict rather than everyone else...still with the this is the real reason am confined to one puree weaning thread - am not allowed out to play with others...

Aitch · 19/01/2009 18:01

begone, and take your blender with you!

waspriceyp · 19/01/2009 18:14

I can recommend this product to help your baby sit in a high chair baby grippa
It's a fab contraption, just a thin piece of silicon you stick it to the seat of the high chair and it creates friction to stop your baby slipping around. I bought mine 3 years ago for DS and still using it for DD.

giantkatestacks · 19/01/2009 18:22

wow it like totally sticks the baby to the chair?

[flounces off dragging blender behind her in the manner of john sargeant]

neenztwinz · 19/01/2009 19:22

The Antilop is magic that way.. the DTs could sit up in theirs for ages before they could sit up in my mum's Mothercare highchair (I used to prop them up with a cushion down the back).

Can I ask a serious question now, BLWers, and I am not trying to prove or disprove anything here, it is just something that has always really interested me.

The thing is, 6mo babies who haven't started weaning are IME waking at least once in the night, probably twice, to feed. Which is fine. Now I know all the arguments about how food is not related to sleeping through but just ignore that for the minute. I'd just like to know how long was it before your BWL babies were eating enough to sleep through? And were your babies BF or FF? One of the reasons I was put off BLW was because the DTS couldn't pick anything up at all at 6mo, and they were BFing A LOT, so I just felt they needed something heavier on their tums. When I introduced a bit of baby rice, the cluster feeding calmed down. I admit they didn't sleep through the night again for a while (just before they were 8mo) and I think that is because it takes a while to build up to the amount of food that does make a difference to sleep. If I let them feed themselves now, I can't think they would get enough in them to sleep through at all. Getting up once in the night for one baby is not too bad but getting up for one baby then another is very tiring.

Aitch · 19/01/2009 19:29

i can't answer that, dd was on formula before we started weaning, and if anything food disturbed her sleep rather than anything else. it's hard to separate out your personal experience, that your babies settled better, from the fact that they were eating... it may just have been the age at which they'd have started sleeping through. just like it may have been dd1's age to stop.

HOWEVER. as someone who has yet to successfully bf a child for more than a few months.... might i take this opportunity to hail you as a heroic figure for bfing twins to beyond weaning age?

(tbh i think that all bets are off with twins... anything that works and keeps you sane is The Best Way, surely? although i do know a few bfed BLWed twins and they seemed fine on it.)

ChairmumMiaow · 19/01/2009 19:32

Neentwinz- Food never made any difference to DS's sleep. His age has, and where he's slept, but even as he's got older and has learnt to absolutely stuff his face, what he eats makes no difference to his sleep.

However, even if it had made a difference, he had what he wanted, and was happy having (SIL tried to spoon feed him a few times early on and he was not having it) - I wouldn't have wanted to give him more solid food just to get him to sleep more. He wanted milk, and he was getting used to his food, so we were happy. Tired, but happy with the food situation.

ChairmumMiaow · 19/01/2009 19:33

Oh and yes, you have a lot of admiration from me about breastfeeding twins, even if I don't agree with you about any BLW 'mafia'. I had a cluster feeding milk monster and I have no idea how I would have coped with two of them.

pispirispis · 19/01/2009 19:40

Interesting one neenz.

My dd has been ff since she was 10 days old and at 6 weeks she slept more or less 11pm-7am and has been sleeping 7pm-7am since she was 3 1/2 months old. Has hardly ever woken (why am I tempting fate?) even when teething and only was having half her milk. Exceptions were a few 5am hungry awakenings due to growth spurt at 5 months and since weaning, she has woken once because she was farty after having her first pancake. I know I'm a lucky bugger

pispirispis · 19/01/2009 19:44

Oh and your twins are sooo cute in that photo!! V impressed you got them both to smile at once! AND manage to take a photo!

waspriceyp · 19/01/2009 19:45

Yes Kate and you have a satisfying (sp) suck noise when you get them out of the chair!

neenztwinz · 19/01/2009 19:48

Aw, thanks. I do think the twins thing puts a bit of a new perspective on it but I know there are lots of parents of singletons who don;t get on with BLW either.

Aitch, how is your LO doing now? IIRC she was prem and struggling to BF? How old is she now?

The DTs slept through the night from 11 and 13 weeks until about 6.5mths. The cluster feeding started at 22 weeks in the evenings but they slept from about 11pm till morning. Sleeping through stopped when they got a cold before Christmas. And they slept through again from just after Christmas when I stopped feeding them in the night. DT2 has gone right off spoonfeeding actually. She will have yogurt and oatibix fed to her but the main courses I offer are not going down too well at all (DT1 usually eats DT2's half). Today she had bread spread with cheesy spinach pasta for tea (the cheesy spinach pasta was what I was trying to spoonfeed her!) So I am considering more finger foods with her.

Chairmum, I love the name! I have been intrigued by Mao since reading Wild Swans. I have a biog on him but have not had time to read it.

neenztwinz · 19/01/2009 19:51

Pispiri, x-posted there. Is your DD drinking more milk now then than she was at 6mo ie to compensate for not eating a huge amount? Sorry BFing didn't work out for you .

Aitch · 19/01/2009 19:51

but there are lots of parents whose babies really, really don't get on with purees, for whom blw is a godsend. like i say, whateer works.

giantkatestacks · 19/01/2009 19:51

wow ppp - how am I? it makes sense what neenz is askign though because of the anecdotal correlation between ff and 'better' sleeping - if babies take longer to digest then they will be asleep for longer.

But actually I agree with Aitch in that once they have 'learnt' to sleep through they tend not to wake up even when they are hungry.

ahem so am sitting on the fence then...

neenztwinz · 19/01/2009 19:53

Sorry, your LO does eat quite a bit now (just read back) but what about in the first month of BLW when she couldn;t really pick anything up? Did you have to increase milk feeds?

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