Weaning at 4 months

[Savannah11]

Any advice girls? I know all the recommendations are now 6 months but I know there is no way my LO can hold off until then. He's ebf and has started waking up every hour or two in the night to be fed! He just seems to be constantly hungry. I wanted to go down the blw route but obviously he is a little young for solid foods so is there anyway I can mix table fed with baby led? Also it was over 5 years ago the last time I did this (my first LO was just under 4 months when he started and he's absolutely fine!) so where do I start? Just with baby rice? And new foods every 4 days? Xx

 

[crownest]

Just a thought could he be going through the 16 week sleep regression /growth spurt. My son did at that age thought he was starving but he settled.

 

[jessmke]

I was thinking the same thing about the 4 month sleep regression. He may not actually be hungry, he is just waking a lot and nursing is the best way he knows to get back to sleep. At 4 months my LO was up every couple of hours and I had to nurse her back to sleep. Now she is going through the 8 month sleep regression and the same thing is happening. She is on solid foods now so I know the wakings aren't hunger related, but she needs to nurse to get back to sleep. You may find that starting solid foods doesn't help with the frequent wakings, but I guess you won't know unless you try. I don't have any advice on what to offer since we did BLW starting at 6 months, but you might get some good advice on the "traditional weaning" thread.

 

[BunnyN]

If its just to sleep better solids dont always help. Dd was a frequent feeder day and night. She loved solids when we started at 6 months and it did help her put on weight but she actually woke even more on solid food in the beginning because it gave her a gassy tummy. We started DD at more like 5 months on solids because he was also underweight and solids had made a huge difference with his sisters weight gain. Also he started grabbing food off our plates and he loved it so much he would kick up a fuss every time he saw us eating . He also put on weight better on solids but woke much more in the night with a gassy tummy. Babies often seem to BF to try and relieve tummy ache or reflux. DS would get into a cycle of frequent feeding and reflux. The feeding would start by making him feel better but then as he digested the milk it would flair up the reflux again. He would start feeding more and more and get more and more uncomfortable. I found giving him a little water when he got like that rather that a feed helped to break the cycle.

 

[noon_child]

I was thinking the same thing about the 4 month sleep regression. He may not actually be hungry, he is just waking a lot and nursing is the best way he knows to get back to sleep. At 4 months my LO was up every couple of hours and I had to nurse her back to sleep. Now she is going through the 8 month sleep regression and the same thing is happening. She is on solid foods now so I know the wakings aren't hunger related, but she needs to nurse to get back to sleep. You may find that starting solid foods doesn't help with the frequent wakings, but I guess you won't know unless you try. I don't have any advice on what to offer since we did BLW starting at 6 months, but you might get some good advice on the "traditional weaning" thread.

This!

Frequent feeding and waking aren't considered true readiness signs. Has LO got any of those? That might be:
1) able to sit well (even if slightly supported) without leaning or slouching
2) no tongue thrust reflex
3) able to handle objects and bring them to the mouth

MY LO had number 3 at 4 months but not the others.

 

[MindUtopia]

I second what the ladies above said. I actually found that starting solids led to much more night waking for the first month, so it may end up making things worse for you rather than better. We didn't have a 4 month sleep regression, but we did have one more around 5 months, with had a lot to do with her constantly rolling and waking herself up. Is anything going on with him developmentally that might explain the waking? If so, it might pass on its own anyway, without you having to change anything. If you aren't opposed to introducing solids early, you could always try a few days of baby rice in the evening before bed and see if it makes any difference. Most of the early foods they can eat aren't very calorie dense (if you think veg and fruit are what we consider diet foods) and they tend to pass through quickly rather than filling them up. If it doesn't, you can always pull back and wait it out to do BLW.

 

[dani_tinks]

My daughter's waking in the night too and has started to show a lot of interest in us eating but we're trying to hold off until 6 months. I believe she's going through the 4mo sleep regression and some developmental leaps.