Weaning early (under 4 months)

[Jkelmum]

Now we have weaned i also face the problem she prefeers food to milk so i buy dried baby food like porrige mix with her milk to get the milk down her

 

[helen1234]

16 weeks isnt massively early i think weaning around this time is fine as long as food isnt being used as a substitue for milk.

i dont know bout you but i find this whole centile business quite confusing, as long as they are gaining i'm happy one month rhys put on a 1b this month 3oz.

i give him his bottle in the morning and the rest of the milk leftover i add to his porridge half hour later. so that way he's getting lots of milk.
i think at this stage slowly weaning is ok as long as you dont overload there tummy as they poop it out before taking the nutrients.

i weaned rhys at around 17 weeks but he oly had tiiny amounts till 21 weeks at 25 weeks i ditched puree all together and moved onto blw. rhys was tongue tied and was rubbish at taking a whole bottle i think it made his tongue ache lol he'd shove the bottle away after 3 oz but then eat 3oz milk with rice

each baby is individual and we wean them as we see fit

 

[Pessimistic]

https://www.babyandbump.com/weaning-nutrition/202561-hungry-baby.html

posted a thread similar to this with not much knowledge at the time, nothing but negative answers and I actually listened which I shouldn't have as now I am feeding LO a couple of spoons of rice a lot has changed for the better.

 

[Pessimistic]

https://www.babyandbump.com/weaning-nutrition/202561-hungry-baby.html

posted a thread similar to this with not much knowledge at the time, nothing but negative answers and I actually listened which I shouldn't have as now I am feeding LO a couple of spoons of rice a lot has changed for the better.

 

[Pessimistic]

sorry posted twice for some reason

 

[Abz1982]

I weaned Emma at 16 weeks - and despite HV telling me not to because she will he a fat child we have carried on.
I am currently working it in spoonfulls. I have her purees frozen in ice cubes and each cube is roughly 4 spoonfulls.
For breakfast she will get one of them, then I add some baby rice, or Baby cereal till there is about 8 spoonfulls.

For dinner she can get about 10-20 depending on how hungry she is, and also what it is. Things with rice/cereals are more filling than veg purees alone, and veg like potato is more filling than spinach or carrot I find.

Today she had 15 spoonfulls veg and rice puree and 5 spoonfulls fruit puree for her dinner. She is being very funny about her bottles though since she had a cold. She will not eat a full one in the morning, but will have wee bits here and there before breakfast - but she will polish that off. Then she will have half at about 11, then again with the sipping till 6 when she will have a whole bottle and dinner, then at 9 she wants more -bottle, then some nights more bottle between 11pm - 1am. And by a bottle I mean 210ml.

She has never been a fan of her milk, and would only take it when she was REALLY hungry - we have tried all the brands now. Milk makes her sick, which is why I think she is not keen to have it. Weaning her has been a godsend!

And I really dont think 17 weeks is early. My friend tld me that up in Forres they tell them ' off the record of course' to try and get to 8 weeks before they give solids! I mean............8 weeks?! Even I think that is too early.

 

[HannahGraceee]

I weaned ava at 16 weeks - Because she was so hungry and generally an unhappy baby because she kept eating ( I have no idea who she got that from )

I started with 1 tsp of baby rice and increased daily intill she was 10stp then moved on to 5tsp of baby dinner 5tsp of baby pudding then increased each by a tsp every 2 days till she was on 15tsp - 20tsp a day - then moved on to a whole jar of dinner and a whole jar of pudding

Not all babys will eat that much in one go but ava is just a piggie

Normally i know when she doenst want any more when she starts playing around with her food, like spitting it out ect ect

 

[Gwizz]

I also weaned at 16 weeks. Benjamin has always gained weight from day one and followed the 75% - 91% lines. Just before 4 months he started to drop and I was still feeding every 3 hours so I was advised to start on baby rice.

We started with a couple of teaspoons at lunchtime and by 5 months he was on the small stage 1 jars twice a day with a breakfast of baby cereal. He used to take a whole jar at a time and now he's on the stage 2 jars he has one for tea and then also a small fromage frais/yoghurt etc... He's a big eater!

I also found he dropped the milk feeds and amount naturally, being replaced at mealtimes with water/juice.

Just go with the flow babes and you are the best person to judge when your baby has had enough!

xx

 

[DY08]

This post has been really useful as I've started to think about weaning my little girl who is almost 17 weeks, but have been worried about whether it is right or not even though a few years ago the recommendations were to wean at 4 month! I intend to wean her slowly starting with baby rice and was just wondering if there was a particular time of day it was best to feed her.

 

[Gwizz]

I intend to wean her slowly starting with baby rice and was just wondering if there was a particular time of day it was best to feed her.

I got told at first try lunchtime, one meal a day for 2 weeks then add in a teatime meal etc.. but I was having terrible trouble with sleeping (still am to some extent but nowhere near as much!) so HV said to focus on the teatime meal to see if he would sleep longer at night. I must say I did get longer sleeps out of him when I started to do this...

Good Luck
x

 

[porkypig]

Thanks for your replies guys.

Firstly Claire, it IS on advice from the clinic. One of the resons I kept stum about it on here was because you are made to feel like you are doing something wrong because some members dont agree with it and cant but help themselves to tell you so.
Sorry, but your reply was exactly what I was hoping to avoid, hence explaining why I am weaning early - I shouldnt have had to explain my reasons why but i did, and you just ignored my reasons
Please stop being the weaning police. it makes people uncomfortable who want to talk about things openly.

Hi Kimbowee, she's on 40oz average over 8-9 bottles and hasnt changed her amount. If anything she is wanting her milk a bit more this past week, it does seem to be doing her wonders!
I dont think I will ever give her a full jar yet, but for example we had vegetable tube and she could have had the lot, but I make that into 3 meals!! She much prefers veg to fruits. (even when it looks like meconium!!!)

Hun, you dont need to explain yourself to ANYOne, end of the day, its up to you what you do with your baby and if you think your baby needs something more than milk than fair enough. My little one has always been a big boy and is constantly hungry and has a lot of milk and is over 16lbs. Ive started giving him a little powedered biscuit in his last feed and thinking of giving him some baby rice soon. xx

 

[lisac25]

i'm so glad to see this post pop up, nearly 7 years ago when i had my first the guidlines were all diff, and i started weaning her at about 4 months, my LO has now reached the stage where i think she is ready but i am worried sick because the guidlines say 6 months, i think i should just follow my natural insticts and stop worrying (which i do a lot of/more so than with my first actually lol) i aggree that we should also not be made to feel bad for our decisions x

 

[lisac25]

ooohhhh also sorry nospirgchick to invade your post, for those of you that have weaned "early" was just wondering what signs you got from your baby to let you know they were ready?

 

[Aidan's Mummy]

I weaned aidan at five months. The milk was not staisfying him he went from only waking up once at night to waking up 5 times and then being fed an 9 oz bottle and an hour later still being hungary. I started ontiny amounts of baby rice and mixed it with his formula milk and i noticed a difference straight away he actually started sleeping though.

Maybe try give LO a tiny amount of rice when they wake up and just before they go to bed
xx

 

[FierceAngel]

we weaned luisa at 17 weeks as she was loosing weight.. i had a feeling it would be for the best and then at the next weigh in hv suggested it

we started with baby rice then porridge and then home made purred fruits and veg - apples pear,cauliflower, brocolli, carrott etc

she is now having 3 meals a day at 7 months and happy and healthy, i orginally wanted to do blw but i know i did the right thing.. she does eat finger foods now and has most foods mashed rather than pureed...

tbh im sure you didnt mean any harm or offence claire but i do think you need to read back and see how people are offened.. replying to a thread for the sake of it is pointless.. if you cant help a topic then why not do what most of us do and reply with some hugs but say you have no advice.. the op was not looking for opions on early weaning being right or wrong...

like i said im sure you ment no intentional harm but your post did more harm then good if tht makes sense..


nospringchick- feel free to pm me anytime if you want help re early weaning due to poor weight gain xxx

 

[asacia]

tbh im sure you didnt mean any harm or offence claire but i do think you need to read back and see how people are offened.. replying to a thread for the sake of it is pointless.. if you cant help a topic then why not do what most of us do and reply with some hugs but say you have no advice.. the op was not looking for opions on early weaning being right or wrong...

like i said im sure you ment no intentional harm but your post did more harm then good if tht makes sense..

It is a tough one really, because while some people might find it hurtful, others might find the information invaluable and helpful.

Take me for example, my LO was bottle fed EBM when he was a small baby, and I thought I was doing it right. A lady on another forum told me I was actually overfeeding him and stretching his stomach, which would make it much harder to get him to breastfeed in future. I followed her advice, and although it hurt to be told I was doing things sub-optimally, I'm so glad she had the guts to share what she knew with me. Likewise, I didn't know about rear facing carseats until I read on here.

I think if we have information, we should share it with people, as there are a lot of people who don't know the current guidelines, or the research it is based on.

I'm sure no parents wants to blindly take risks, and gentle, helpful sharing of knowledge can help us all make informed choices for our babies.

It is hard to strike a balance between sharing what we know, and making people feel judged, but I sit on the side of the fence Claire does, and think that we should talk and share advice. We don't always agree, me and Claire, and we do some things very differently, but I'm always grateful for her sharing her opinions and knowledge, and I hope others can see that she (and me, and many others) are just trying to help

 

[FierceAngel]

i totally agree hun, but opions on early weaning are well known already without it being thrown at early weaners every time they start a thread...

if the question was.. should i wean early or what do you think of early weaning then the debate of early weaning is an answer expected.. but wen a member asks other early weaners for their expereince on early weaning she obv isnt expecting to be shot down with debate,,.

i think to be fair claire acknowledges tht her response wasnt helpful after saying tht the reason she replied was because no one else had,...

claire apoligised if her post caused offence which was good of her many dont bother wen they upset people..

as i said i know claire didnt mean any harm i just wanted to add to why people get upset..

xx

 

[lesleyann]

kyle has been having some ricesince about 4months. and his now on some jars at the moment he says how much he has because he still takes a full bottles and just before bed takes 10-14oz


I never make a Early weaning thread because i no that certain people on this forum will jump you for it same as the carseat threads, so i stay away from them and its always the same people

 

[ellismum]

Ellis was weaned at 5 months. He was taking 9oz bottles every 2 or so hours and would still be wanting more, a lot less settled, waking again and he his weight gain started to stall. I spoke to my HV first and she advised me to start weaning and to take it slow and try the BLW route once he was 24 weeks. He is so content now I am glad we did it when we did. Incidently, she also remarked that one of the main reasons the WHO now state 6 months is due to poor steralisation practices in poorer countries and whilst its safer for them to recommend "6 months BF" in western countries this is not so much of an issue and to reduce the risk of allergies (luckily, this is something that doesn't effect mine or my OH's family) avoid gluten, eggs ect initially. I'm lucky in that I have a great HV who I trust and whilst it's great to have guidelines, do babies know to follow them?

 

[purple_socks]

Not really 'getting involved' in this debate...i'm keeping my personal view to myself...tis ur child and ur decision. However i did feel the overwhelming urge to add my 2 pence to the thread. U seem quite quick to anger on the subject nospringchick (as did some other people), which i understand. it is a controversial subject. there r lots of things that make me feel 'judged' as a parent and i know how tedious explaining ur reasons can b. However i think u might have over reacted to claire's post. I know she started with her veiw point on the subject but in actual fact she was offering advice...and by the sound of it it was a nice gesture because she felt bad that no1 else had replied to u.

I would say, if you really must wean this early, I would only give very tiny amounts of baby rice.
With a six month old or older baby I would say it should always be their decision when to stop eating.

Claire simply stated she personally didn't agree with early weaning...these sorts of statements happen in loads of posts and generally they add to the diversity of a thread, however in certain subjects (in particular early weaning, and FF) people take them as a personal attack and r really quick to get offended. I don't think u should. do u think the feeling of being judged might stem more from ur own doubts or insecurities?...y else would u plan on doing something but keeping it a secret? Even if i was the only person in the world that thought something, and everyone else told me i was wrong i would b out and proud with my choice if i felt i was doing the right thing....have courage in ur convictions!

anywho...i just wanted to say my bit coz from where i'm standing it seems like claire was being a little bit 'picked' on for replying even tho she was offering advice like everyone else.