FertilityZone

Hi there

Like you I was set on waiting until 26 weeks to start weaning Meg but I started on Sunday when she was just over 23 weeks. However, I'm not doing BLW as the thought of that was a bit scary for me. Anyway, it just got to the stage where I'm not producing enough milk for her anymore and she's hungry, really hungry. I think only you can decide when to start but why don't you just give it a go and see?

Hi Claire

You won't ruin your BLW plans if you decide to give some baby rice now and I know a lot of people who have done traditional puree/mush weaning alongside the finger food weaning of BLW. But if you wanted to be a BLW 'purist' you would wait until 6 months and wouldn't offer the rice. In terms of the amount he will eat, yes it will take a few months to get into the swing of things but this tends to be the same whether you are doing BLW or not. I think it is perhaps more obvious with BLW when they are not eating though as there is an awful lot of mess!

As far as I know there isn't actual any real evidence that giving solids helps babies sleep through any better - especially as the type of 'solids' you have to give before 6 months are far less calorific than milk. I think your idea to up the daytime feed amounts and try and wean him off the night feeds (which are likely to becoming a habit now rather than being really about hunger) is definately worth trying before going down the weaning option. And then if that doesn't seem to have an effect then you can go down the weaning route.

Hope that helps a little.

x

I say go with your instinct but I doubt that solids at any stage in any form will be a magic answer to more prolonged sleep. Sometimes that just depends on the baby! X

Hiya Claire,

I know exactly how you feel. I'm the only one out of everyone I know who has followed BLW. They all started weaning before 6 months and were trying to make me give O something and I refused and I'm soooooo pleased I did.

Early weaning doesn't help with sleeping through the night. My friend weaned at 4 months and now at nearly 18 months he still wakes up during the night.

The more feeding could be down to a growth spurt. My LO fed loads towards the 6 month mark.

I found that O caught on to eating quite quickly. She liked to bite and chew and moving it around in her mouth. By about 7 or 8 months she was eating well.

If the dream feed gets you an extra hour I'd go with it.

Dream feed worked for us and I may start doing it again as I have been up at 4 am the last 2 nights!!!

HI Claire,

How much does Alfie weigh as my HV has just asked that when I spoke to her about Xander?

When we went to weaning group they said that alot of people combine BLW with purees, especially if they are starting a little early (i.e. before 6 months). I am hoping to combine the two, although leave the BLW until Xander is 6 months.

It's all really confusing, isn't it? I know they say we mums know our babies best, but it still doesn't help avoid all the doubt and questions.

I think that people see BLW as some new, magical way of weaning a baby. It isn't, it is just a new term for an old process of putting food in front of a baby and seeing what they do with them. You don't have to choose to do purees or BLW. You can just choose to present your baby with food in a lot of different ways, some pureed that you feed them with a spoon, some in small pieces that they can pick up themselves.

The real thing I think to choose is whether or not you wait until 6 months. If you do then you don't have to be so strict about what food you give them (pureed or otherwise).

My own experience of weaning is that waiting until she was 6 months old was easier as I'm not the fastidious kind and can't be bothered to check everything or buy special food for her but would rather give her a variation of what we were eating. As it happened she won;t touch baby jars anyway. Despite presenting her mainly with pieces of food from 6 months (so called BLW) rather than purees it hasn't made her into a magical eater who will try anything - she's still as fussy as I was at her age having been traditionally weaned on purees! So don;t spend ages agonising over this and then looking back thining 'if only I had done it differently' as how well they eat and what they eat will depend on many factors, some beyond your control e.g. illnesses and teething at particular times. Do what you feel comfortable with and don;t feel you have to stick to a 'regime'. If you choose to start with purees and then, one day, happen to be eating a piece of toast in front of your baby and they make a grab for it, you'll probably let them try it. Conversely you may want to always give them the same food that you are eating (excepting some foods like honey until they are 1, etc) but if you are out it might be more convenient to take a jar of food or you'd prefer to puree some other foods as you find that e.g. apples are too much for your gummy angel unless stewed and mashed.

Don;t stress too much!!! xx

My DH wasn't happy about it but a few weeks ago he actually said he's sooooo pleased that I stuck to my guns because its soooooo much easier. He thought it was going to be difficult and thought that she wouldn't learn how to eat so I'm sooooo chuffed I've proved him wrong!

I convinced him that I wanted to do it because I am terrible in the kitchen and pureeing just isn't for me at all. I told him we'd save money and that they learn how to chew before they learn how to swallow. She ate exactly the same foods as we did. I'd just put it on her tray and let her have a bit of a play and put it in her mouth and stuff. Now she can wolf down a sandwich before I've had chance to make mine!!

I couldn't BF so I was pretty determined to do this!!

Hello just thought I would add , my little boy is 18 weeks old . He was still waking through the night at 14 weeks so I decided to change his milk to 'hungrier baby milk'. He then started sleeping right through. Then a week ago he started to wake again , I am now weaning him with baby rice x2 a day plus his milks. And he seems to be doing good again. Think it depends on the individual babys needs!! xx

Hiya

I am another BLW person! I started Ben on toast and butter at 5 and a hlaf months, as he was just soooooo interested in it. I also worried that it might make a difference 2 weeks earlier, but having then been to a blw talk the lady said a window of 5 and a half months- 7 months tends to be when babies are really ready for food and their system is ready to digest solids more.

At first Ben just put it in his mouth and sucked and then spat it out, then mainly wacked it around the highchair tray and played with it! There have also been days where he just hasn't been interested and i have just followed his lead. About a month ago ( when he was 7 months) i got a bit freaked out and thought, agghh is he ever go to eat, what if he never eats ( silly i know! ) etc so i made some mashed foods with lumps in adn bought a couple of different mashed foods, like Ellas and Plum…and he was not having any of that!!! He didn;t like it, didn;t want to be fed, wanted to feed himself and he plain refused it. So i went back to blw and relaxed and in the last couple of weeks ( he is now 8 months) he has just GOT IT!!! He is now eating meatballs, fishcakes, tuna pasta, houmous and rice cakes and yday we all had toad in the hole!!

So i would say, if you want to do blw, i would recommend it. The blw talk i went to, said that starting solids in any form doesn;t make them sleep more…and one of my friends baby started sleeping less and waking up more!

You could try Hungry milk…my 8 month old only just stopped his one night feed at 11pm/12pm a month ago, but i do know other babies that have been sleeping through at your babys age. We saw a sleep consultant and she said we had to wean Ben off his night feed and this was setting up his waking for the rest of the night and also making him uncomofrtable. I have to say he stopped waking for a feed within a few nights of stopping. So, you could try that, or the dream feed and then not for the rest of the night?

Also you could try feeding 3 hourly rather than 4 hourly…people suggested this to me - and i still feed 3 hourly, but Ben just adjusted the amount he drank when he changed from 3 hourly-4 hourly. The sleep ladyt said that once they are about 15lbs a good weight they don;t need feeding at night!!

Wish you lots of luck hun