How do I start to wean a month before going on a longhaul holiday?

[forevermore]

DD2 is 23 weeks and was EBF up to 19 weeks and now on 3 hourly FF. My question is when do you introduce solids (I mean what time of the day) and what should i give. Do I need to be building up her FF intake first? (She only takes 5oz at a time). is it essential that she is taking more feeds four hourly (As most baby books suggest??).

I like the idea of finger food but also want to spoon feed puree. However, I will be going on holiday when she is 7 months; do you think i'll have to take a break whilst away (13 days)? Weaning seems only practial if you're indoors from what i've read? But cannot think what I could bring on holiday to last the full 13 days (We will be on a cruise ship).....TIA for any advice

Bottles every 3 hours is fine.

You could wait till your home or try a mixture of finger foods from the buffet and take this to puree some of the veg/fruit for her daily.

I am doing a mix of finger food and spoon feed with my DD. I think finger food won't be a problem at all even in a cruise. You can give her anything, from cherry tomatoes, pears, melon, avocado, carrots, brocolli florets, cheese, pita bread, rice cakes, ham chicken... anything. You may find more difficult to give her some purees? I am not sure which type of facilities you will have in the cruise to prepare her food.

My daughter is EBF so for use it was easy to introduce solids at lunch time, usually and hour after her BM. Lunch time is finger food and we started with pear, carrots, banana, apple, melon, brocolli, sweet potato, rice cake. Dinner time was introduced a week after and it is spoon feed (just easier for us). We have tried breakfast but she does not seem very interested at the moment so we will keep trying till she decides that she is ready for it. She is 26 weeks now and we started weaning her at 23 weeks (adviced by HV). The first week I only offered her food 3 times and then started building it up as I saw that she demanded more.

Probably it will be easier for you to take with you some finger food such as rice cakes. Another option is to take some porridge with you. We are using "Four Gain Porridge" from Plum which you can mix with mashed banana, carrots, brocolli anything that you can get once it has been cooked. This should make an easy puree to give to your daughter.

Hope this helps you and enjoy your holidays.

Forgot to say you can mash things with a fork.

Thanks for the advice. Do I need to sterilise what I use for solid feeding?

Hi Forevermore,

I don't sterilise anything. What for? My DD already puts everything that she finds in her mouth, so what is the point?

I just wash everything with hot water and soap and rinse it. Maybe other mothers will tell you "oh yes, sterilise" but I have not done it and my DD seems perfectly fine. Also I usually clean everything just after she has finished so I make sure there are not any chances of things going wrong with her stuff.

You're right it doesn't make sense. DD2 has everything. In her mouth she can reach including my hair.....