Weaning - some info

[PeanutBean]

This may be old news to some but I thought might be of interest to some too. I went to a weaning talk a week ago and here are some of things they mentioned:

At 4 months start giving a cup of water starting after feeds. The point is of course not to replace milk, but is to help encourage the right muscle development required to move to solids. The cup should be free-flow as the sucky ones are bad for babies' teeth (even if they don't have any). The HV said that from this time if possible bottles shouldn't be given at all.

If you wean before 6 months you are supposed to go through a big procedure of starting with baby rice then introducing individual pureed veggies etc. At 6 months the gut should be fully developed so you can then start on a normal family meal just mushed up so long as it is low salt/sugar.

Babies should of course have full-fat everything.

Babies shouldn't have honey (I think until a year) as it contains botulism.

Nuts are recommended not to be given until 5 years of age!! No fish and some other stuff like that before one year (I'm veggie so didn't pay much attention to the meat stuff - sorry!). If you have allergies in your family foods like this and also eggs are supposed to be introduced in tiny amounts days apart while a reaction is watched for.

For drinks, apart from milk, real fruit juice (or concentrated as a second choice) should be given but diluted, rather than squash.

Probably more in the leaflets I've not got round to reading yet! lol Hope this is helpful for some of you.

 

[AC81]

thanks for the info ,i didnt know that about the water!

 

[PeanutBean]

thanks for the info ,i didnt know that about the water!

No me neither. I was thinking it was silly to invite a mum to a weaning talk at 3 months but now it makes sense!

 

[ryder]

I agree that is interesting about the water....

But... no bottles from 4 months? Can you elaborate a bit? Do you mean no bottles to give juice etc in? I tried giving her a drink in a little cup once and it didnt work well at all lol

 

[PeanutBean]

I agree that is interesting about the water....

But... no bottles from 4 months? Can you elaborate a bit? Do you mean no bottles to give juice etc in? I tried giving her a drink in a little cup once and it didnt work well at all lol

No they said everything ought to be given in cups, or at least to start moving towards all cups and no bottles. Presumably the idea is to introduce the cup now and then move over to cups exclusively as the baby allows. There are these funny angles cups you can get where the baby laps like they do with a nipple or teat or just the normal ones as long as they are free flow. We have a tommee tippee cup that came with the steriliser, it's not sucky but the baby is to squeeze the teat (it's not really a teat, not sure how to describe it) and then flows freely so no sucking. It says approved by the dental people but it wasn't mentioned at the talk so I need to find out about it. I don't know that everyone does just move on to cups (you'll see I'm not at that stage yet so can't speak from experience) and not sure how it applies if you FF. Maybe chat with your HV and see if there is a weaning specialist in their team to give you more info?

We will try a cup at 4 months and just see what happens!

Oh, did I mention sterilising? After 6 months only things with milk in need sterilising, up until 12 months when it can all be stopped.

 

[Vickie]

oh boy even cups now are hard, at 4 months it was well near impossible to get any formula down her with a cup (half of it ended up on her and me!--we tried because of teething)

 

[PeanutBean]

oh boy even cups now are hard, at 4 months it was well near impossible to get any formula down her with a cup (half of it ended up on her and me!--we tried because of teething)

lol They did say to expect it to go everywhere and them only drink half a teaspoonful if even!

 

[Pyrrhic]

I had to do a lot of cup feeding with Niamh when trying to get her to BF. There is a definitly technique involved! It's probably too difficult to explain over text, but at first you hold the edge of the cup against their gums, and bring the liquid line up as close to their gums as possible and let them 'lap' at the liquid. Then move on to letting them swallow the flowing liquid.

Probably best to get someone to show you though if you want to try it.

 

[sam#3]

https://www.babyzoop.co.uk/doidy.htm

Ive heard these are really good for getting a LO to drink from a cup x

 

[PeanutBean]

I agree that is interesting about the water....

But... no bottles from 4 months? Can you elaborate a bit? Do you mean no bottles to give juice etc in? I tried giving her a drink in a little cup once and it didnt work well at all lol

Hiya, I checked with the HV. She said if you're bottle feeding to introduce the cup with water still and work towards replacing the bottle over time but it's fine to keep on with the bottle for as long as you need to.

We gave Byron his first cup this weekend as he's now 4 months. He's quite good at it though not massively interested yet.

 

[XKatX]

Thankyou - very interesting!
If you go down the baby led weaning route, there is no need for baby rice or sippy cups. You just start at 6 months, giving finger foods. Carrots, apples, broccoli and let them find their own way. The theory is, that if they are not physically ready, the tongue reflex kicks out the food. If they are ready, they can swallow it. No need for purees etc.
Just a different angle to thin about!