I took Sophie to the clinic today to be weighed - first time I've taken her there as the health visitor usually comes to the house.
So...our usual health visitor very reluctantly told me 3 weeks ago that I could start weaning Sophie, even though she said she STILL didn't understand the reasons for weaning preemies according to their actual age. I didn't tell her we started in August when Sophie was 5.5 months old
Today it was a different health visitor and she told me that we should now be introducing meat, fish and cheese...she said if we started weaning 3-4 weeks ago this is the stage we should now be at. She said there is a danger of missing the window for doing this if we don't do it after 3-4 weeks of weaning????
Now I'm panicking because we've been weaning her for a lot longer than she thinks, and all she's had so far is pureed butternut squash, sweet potato, courgette, apple and carrot, baby rice and baby porridge. What if we have missed the window she is on about?!
She was also asking if Sophie is sitting on her own yet and rolling. She's only 5 months corrected and I'm sure not even full term babies are all sitting at 5 months? She can sit really well without much support but definitely not on her own yet - and she is still much smaller than full term 5 month olds. She has rolled from her front to her back and vice versa but only twice each way and it's two weeks since she last did it.
I'm sure both health visitors think that the 13 weeks premature bit got cancelled out when Sophie reached her due date
So...our usual health visitor very reluctantly told me 3 weeks ago that I could start weaning Sophie, even though she said she STILL didn't understand the reasons for weaning preemies according to their actual age. I didn't tell her we started in August when Sophie was 5.5 months old
Today it was a different health visitor and she told me that we should now be introducing meat, fish and cheese...she said if we started weaning 3-4 weeks ago this is the stage we should now be at. She said there is a danger of missing the window for doing this if we don't do it after 3-4 weeks of weaning????
Now I'm panicking because we've been weaning her for a lot longer than she thinks, and all she's had so far is pureed butternut squash, sweet potato, courgette, apple and carrot, baby rice and baby porridge. What if we have missed the window she is on about?!
She was also asking if Sophie is sitting on her own yet and rolling. She's only 5 months corrected and I'm sure not even full term babies are all sitting at 5 months? She can sit really well without much support but definitely not on her own yet - and she is still much smaller than full term 5 month olds. She has rolled from her front to her back and vice versa but only twice each way and it's two weeks since she last did it.
I'm sure both health visitors think that the 13 weeks premature bit got cancelled out when Sophie reached her due date
These blooming health visitors get me so stressed! First we were told not so long ago that we shouldn't be anywhere near thinking about weaning - and then a different one yesterday telling us we should be onto meat and fish etc. She also said Sophie's lunchtime and teatime bottles should be decreasing when she starts on the meat etc - so that got me thinking am I giving her anywhere near enough?! We've just been going pretty slowly so far and she started out on one ice cube and is now on two ice cubes of fruit or veg at lunchtime then we give her baby porridge at bedtime with her bottle. I always thought that the milk should be her main source of food for a while yet and really we have just been trying to get her used to different tastes and textures so far but yesterday the wifey made me think we are going too slowly! I feel more confident that we're doing the right thing after what you said though - thank you 
