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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

Solids v moving to formula?

11 replies

Youngie · 27/02/2010 20:05

Hi, my baby girl started to waken multiple times in the night looking for a feed (I'm exclusively b/feeding), so my Health Visitor recommended as a last resort that I try her on a spoon feed of baby rice as she seemed to be hungry (she was around 20 weeks).

She's now 22 weeks, and although the one evening spoon feed has helped a little, she still feeds 1-2 times through the night. I've now reached saturation point with exhaustion (she's also waking her baby brother who now is getting up ridiculously early), and am contemplating introducing a 10pm bottle of formula, but I'm completely confused about what's the best thing for her.

Initially I chose the spoon feed over formula as I thought b/f was the best thing for her & I didn't want to affect my milk supply. Now I suspect a bottle of formula would have a better impact on the night feeding, and don't know if I did the right thing introducing the solid feed (I've still just kept her on one spoon feed of baby rice).

Would it work OK to have the one bottle of formula and the one spoon feed? Should I delay the formula and increase the number of spoon feeds?

I feel like whatever I choose I've let her down by not exclusively giving breast milk only for 6 months, and am wondering if I started her far too early with the spoon feed.

Any advice would be appreciated. All I know is that I am now beyond tired and need a break.

OP posts:
winnybella · 27/02/2010 20:13

Waking up just once or twice for bf at this age is good! Sorry, maybe not what you want to hear, but it's true. Plenty of babies wake up 4 or 5 times.
Could you co-sleep from the time she wakes up for the first feed? It makes it much easier.
I don't think either baby rice or formula are a great thing at 5 months, but out of the two, I would choose rice, I think. Using formula is more likely to affect your supply and you might feel tempted to give more and more of it.
Don't feel bad- you bf for 5 months and sleep deprivation is hell. Still, your dd is a very good sleeper, relatively speaking!

winnybella · 27/02/2010 20:15

Also, giving solids or formula will not necessarily make her sleep better- quite unlikely, actually.

ArthurPewty · 27/02/2010 20:15

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PureAsTheColdDrivenSnow · 27/02/2010 20:15

Why not BF at 10am instead? Same amount of calories in BM as in formula...

rice will not help with the sleeping through, believe me..

PureAsTheColdDrivenSnow · 27/02/2010 20:16

meant to add that solids this early could actually disrupt sleep, rather than assist it, if their gut is not ready they may well be more uncomfortable.

ArthurPewty · 27/02/2010 20:18

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flowerybeanbag · 27/02/2010 20:18

Do you have a DP/DH who could do some of the nightfeeds if you express?

ThePinkOne · 27/02/2010 20:20

Sorry but I agree with winnybella. 1-2 feeds in the night isn't unusual at this age. Is she in your room? I'm just wondering if she's waking DS up cause it takes you a while to get to her? If she's already in your room would you consider co-sleeping?

It's so hard at this age. Can anyone have your DS in the day time so you can catch up on some sleep?

Original poster
Youngie · 27/02/2010 20:27

So now I feel worse Sounds like the resounding feeling is that I've not done the right thing by introducing the baby rice.

I tried very hard to keep to just the breastfeeding, but I was struggling to function and be a fun mum to my toddler with hardly any sleep in the night. I was completely breastfeeding on demand as often as she wanted it, but it got to the point where my supply seemed to stay static no matter how often I put her on, so the number of feedings day and night significantly increased.

OK - so I'll try and stay off the formula until 6 months (sorry, but I'm not someone who wants to still be b/feeding much beyond that, at least not exclusively). But have I in some way caused her harm by giving her the baby rice? If I stopped the spoon feed now would that be the wrong thing to do?

I've not introduced any other types of solid food yet as I wanted to put as little stress on her gut as possible.

OP posts:
Original poster
Youngie · 27/02/2010 20:28

Sorry - I should add that she's still in the Moses basket in my room beside the bed, and I do co-sleep with her from the time she wakes up, but I find I no longer can fall asleep and stay asleep when she's feeding or lying beside me.

OP posts:
ThePinkOne · 27/02/2010 20:45

Don't feel bad Youngie. You've only done what you were advised to do by your HV, to whom you are supposed to be able to go for advice. You've now asked for other opinions and got some more advice which you might try - or not.

Don't let this get you down. You've got enough on your plate

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