Help! Weaning nightmare!

[charlotteb24]

Hi there!

My little boy is now 4 months old and due to him always being hungry, the HV has suggested we put him onto some solids.

I first of all tried making my own, puree carrots which didnt go down too well, so we left it a few days and tried really puree'd potato which he ate ok for a few days and then started spitting out.

I put it down to my cooking and bought some of the ready made stage 1 pots to no avail as he has hated all of them.

I have now put him onto heinz farleys pure baby rice made up with his SMA white. He will drink it if i put it in with his bottle (which defeats the object) but as soon as i try and feed him with a spoon he won't take it and spits it out all over the place.

What on earth do i do? looking back i did things the wrong way around and should have tried baby rice first but i'm new at this and the HV was rubbish about helping!

Please, any suggestions?

 

[Serene123]

Could he just be going through a growth spurt? The 3-4month one is a biggy!

 

[charlotteb24]

Could be, but he has never been satisfied by his milk, even the extra hungry stuff, feeding him every hour and a half surely isn't good for him? Its been like that since he was about 3/4 weeks old!
Though it could be a growth spurt i guess, who knows! but i think it would stave off his bottles every 1.5 hours if he did eat solids. I dunno what to do!

 

[hypnorm]

i wouldn't recommend putting rice into bottles, could be a choking hazzard.

 

[Frankie]

Liams feeds have been hectic some days he'l just drink n drink n drink hence why I had to stop BF at 10 weeks, the hungry milk helped a bit

Started offering him some baby rice (which he doesnt like) HV suggested putting a hint off apple puree in with the rice (not loads just a little) and he took to it, then eventually got him onto full rice without the apple puree.

His routine at the moment is:-

5:30 - bottle then back to bed

10:30 - bit of baby rice and bottle

1-2 - pureed veg with mash and a bottle (portions swing from 7 spoons - 10) just go with the flo

5ish -little bit more pureed veg and a bottle

8ish - bottle

im sure he would eat more if i let him

 

[daisyday]

Are you sure that he was spitting it out and that it wasnt coming back out because he hasnt managed to get the hang of using his tongue properly.

They have a reflex to push their tongues out for quite a while which ends up pushing alot of the food back out.

If not it might be the temp of the food maybe? If he's used to having his bottles warm then try giving him the food at the same temp as the bottles.

Also it could just be that the new flavours are too strong to start with. Try mixing the carrot in with the baby rice and see if that works.

I think its just a case of trial and error to start with. I found that my son love's pureed sweet potato. I had to mix it with baby milk to start to make it really soft but after a few weeks he would eat it pureed by itself and he loves it now with cinnamon in it.

Hope this helps maybe a bit

 

[mommyof3co]

I think he's telling you he isn't ready. Even if it's the tongue thrust reflex that is a sign he isn't ready. even if she told you to start you should watch him more, if he isn't eating it and is spitting it out his body isn't ready for it and you should hold off and just up his milk for now.

 

[rach321]

How much milk does he take at each feed?

 

[chrissy&marty]

hmmm well with my little one who is almost 5mounths i give her about 3quorters of her bottle then some of the baby rice on a spoon, its hard for them to get used to it at first so many children just play with it in there mouth at first to get used to the texture, i think u just need to persist, rice is the best thing as it is mixed with the milk he is used to so the taste will be familiar. hope i could help. good luck x

 

[Blah11]

I don;t think he's ready yet Try and hold off a few more weeks and have another go.

 

[Brockie]

I don;t think he's ready yet Try and hold off a few more weeks and have another go.

agree hon i think him spitting it out is showing you he's not ready xx maybe try again in a few weeks? x

 

[charlotteb24]

My gut instinct is that he may not be ready too really, though today he actually ate 5 spoonfuls, chewed them up swallowed and opened his mouth for some more! It so difficult to know what to do!

He is taking 5/6oz of milk each feed and he feeds when he is hungry which can be anything from 1.5 hours after the last bottle to 3/4 hours. One blessing is he is sleeping from around 10pm till around 5.30am most mornings.

I guess the easiest thing will be to just look for signs from him and i definatly don't want to force him or make him feel anxious about food.

Thanks all for your support! xxxx