Just started weaning and DS refuses milk after meal but seems to want more food - should I give it to him?

[Welshygirl]

Hi all

I Have just started weaning my DS and he has so far had some baby rice and puree sweet potato.

He has taken to it really well - too well almost and seems to want more food than I have been giving him. I have been giving him some of his bottle feed, followed by about 3 ice cubes worth of puree mixed with milk then attempting to finish with the rest of his bottle. He is obviously still hungry and will accept more food but not his milk. I am wary of giving him too much food as I assume it will take a while for his digestive system to get used to solids and I don't want to give him stomach ache.

Should I just give him more? or try to give him more milk before the food? What do you think?

Also I have attempted to give him water with his food in a sippy cup and he is totally uninterested - do they just get interested after a while? Should/could I put a splash of juice in his water to get him interested (although I'd rather not)?

How old is your baby, Welshy?

He is 24 weeks and quite a big boy 9.14lb at birth and 17lb a couple of weeks ago. Thanks Tiktok

I gave milk feeds and then gave solids an hour or so afterwards. That meant they still maintained their milk intake but still had a little appetite for solids too. Milk is still most important so if you are sticking to giving milk and solids together then I would give the majority of the feed first and then the solids. I did give a sippy cup of water along with solids but it was a long time before my lo's took more than a couple of sips.

I'd agree with Seona...he's too young for solids to replace milk, and her suggestions should help

I also agree about the water - just have the cup there and encourage him each time, and he will eventually get it. No rush!

Thanks for your replies. I have been giving him most of his milk before the food which seems to be working and he still wants the food afterwards.

However, I have now encountered another problem - after sleeping through (7-7 with a dream feed at 11) for the last 2 months, the last couple of nights he has woken up twice in the night for a feed (which was a bit of a shock after 2 months of sleep!). I have upped the amount of food he is having and hope this will make him sleep through again - is this usual? Do they just suddenly need much more food like this? Plesae tell me he'll go back to sleeping again!

No one can say, Welshy

Babies do change their sleeping habits. It does not mean they are reacting to hunger in the day - could easily be developmental and behavioural, and maybe a reaction to change in his life.

He might easily just go back to sleeping through as he did before, whatever you do.

my dds both changed their sleeping habits when they started eating (although we did blw), it made sense to me that their wee tummies would be feeling a bit different and so they'd wake up more.

Thanks for replies. Can understand that he might be waking because of change but it seems strange that he has woken screaming with hunger (which he hasn't done since being a little baby)and demolished a whole bottle (and done this twice in a night) then fallen asleep again. Perhaps it is another growth spurt or maybe the solids are increasing his hunger for food - it would be so much easier if they could talk!!

i think you've got it backwards, tbh. i think it's much more likely that filling him up with low-cal food like sweet pot (low cal compared with formula) is leaving him desperate for cals at night. if it was me i'd be encouraging him to keep up his milk and dial back the food to one meal a day.

(who am i kidding... if it was me i'd be putting some steamed carrot out on the table and letting him fend for himself. they don't have to work hard to eat puree, i sometimes wonder if that's why they eat 'too much', iykwim?)

Ooh that's interesting I hadn't thought of it like that. Maybe I'll try just one smaller meal a day and see what happens. You are a clever lot. It is quite easy to forget they need lots of calories as we (as adults) spend so long trying to get fat and calories out of things.