weaning advice and where to start?!?!

[happygolucky]

Laila is just over 20 weeks old now and was born nearly 4 weeks early. Am I best to wait until she's 24 weeks old or 28 wks old to start weaning and I know it sounds daft but how do you start? What foods are best to start with?
Sorry for sounding random but I just want to know what everyone else did and how you found it.

Thanks:0)

 

[embojet]

Molly was born 11 weeks early, and I was advised to start weaning at 17 weekis from birth. My nurse said it is good to start early with preemies as they can take longer to catch on, and when they are crawling around etc using more calories, they will need more energy. I started 2 days ago with 1 spoon of baby rice which she seems to enjoy. My nurse suggested trying other flavours early for molly asshe has had a lot of bad experiences with her mouth eg ventilated and nasal gastric tube. Just take it slow and make it fun!

 

[mommyof3co]

I don't have a preemie so don't take my word on it, I would think though with a preemie since they are already having to catch up starting solids too early could be too much on them. If she isn't showing signs of being ready..such as sitting with little to no support, holding head on her own all the time with no problems, showing interest in food, loss of the tongue thrust reflex...things like that i wouldn't start until she is 6mo old. As for where to start everyone has different opinions, I personally didn't want to give Hayden cereal first and we chose orange veggies because the flavor is closest to breastmilk..well not flavor but sweetness, fruits would be too sweet and then green veggies a bit bitter. Plus they are easy to digest and low when it comes to allergies...so we started Hayden with sweet potatoes, then avocado, then banana, it was actually awhile before he had cereal.

 

[Jem]

Ollie was 4 weeks early and I started him at 18 weeks, I tried him on baby rice to start with but with my daughter I started her with baby breakfasts as she hated baby rice lol! If you feel Laila is ready then give weaning a try. Pick a time in the day when she isn't tired or hungry and go from there. You'll get funny faces and probably more coming out than going in at first but she'll get use to the different tastes and you'll be well away. After 2ish weeks of baby rice I started to introduce veg purees and then eventually fruit purees and built the meals up. He's on 3 meals a day now x