weaning a premature baby

[Mrs Mc]

ok so this is slightly hard to get my head round but...
My girls were born a month early and all the mikestones, development checks, weught charts are done from their gestational age rather than actual, e.g. Last time I got them weighed they were plotted at 5 months old rather than 6 months.
I talked to my HV about whether I should wean at 7 months rather than 6 but she said to go ahead at 6. Im doing TW and loosly following Annabel Karmels baby meal planner. I make all the girls meals and they are currently enjoying lots of fruit and veg purees. She talks about moving onto meat and fish at 7 months but Im wondering if I should wait til nearer 8. What do you think?
Anybody out their with experience of a preemie? My concern was that they say the digestive system isnt matured til certain points and technically my girls digestive system is a month younger . Its all vety confusing

 

[ShelbyLC]

I was actually wondering the same thing and did some reading last night. Do a keyword search "weaning" in the preemie/NICU section and you get lots of good threads asking this same question and getting tons of answers. From what I understand, preemies should usually be weaned according to actual age, not corrected age.

Here's a good article I read earlier today that explains a lot: Introducing Solids to Your Premature Baby.

The main think though seems to be follow your baby 100% and if they aren't showing all the signs of being ready, it doesn't hurt to wait.

 

[bumpyplease]

My son was born 6 weeks early and I was worried about the same thing. But all the advice I have been given was to wean him at his actual age not adjusted. My son had silent reflux and so getting his milk down him has always been a struggle so we decided to start weaning gently at 5 months actual - just with baby rice and fruit and veggies. He LOVES his food!! We started off small and slow and let him guide us. At 6 months I started giving him toast, beans, well cooked scrambled eggs cheese etc and at 7 months introduced meat and fish.

It's nice to see him enjoy mealtimes now and for it not to be a big stress for both of us and since starting on solids he has also started to enjoy his milk again (he's FF)

Good luck!

 

[bumpyplease]

Oh and annabel Karmels meal planner book is brill - I use it all the time!

 

[lozzy21]

Niamh was born at 35 weeks. We started weaning a week short of 6 months and by 8 months she was eating everything we were, No purees and nothing mashed. I went on the view that if she was able to pick it up and put her in her mouth then she was ready for whole foods. I only pureed food for a week or two.

 

[confused87com]

i weaned my son at 5 months, so should have been 31/2 months. He didnt have a blood transfusion when tiny so was quite anaemic. I was advised to wean him, he could sit etc, he took to it really well, i just held off meat etc until another month or so later ,so again 6 months actual age. He did so well and loved food. i did find it odd that they get judged for thier adjusted age but fed from their actual, just to confuse us!

 

[missk1989]

https://www.hipp.co.uk/expert-advice/baby-5-to-8-months/weaning-your-baby/weaning-a-premature-baby