How to start weaning

Hello, please be reassured that it is quite normal that your LO bowel habit will change. As you make the transition from milk to solids or even puree; the stool (poo) will become firmer. Do you breastfeed or formula feed as the latter can constipate as you may know. That aside feeding her will change her poo to a firmer state which is normal. There is no need to be exact but just note that she is pooing everyday. She will be getting water if you bf or bottlefeed. If you breastfeed you do not need to supliment with additional water. Dont get too concerned if she will not take water if you bottlefeed unless she is having days without pooing at all or poo that is like rabbit droppings as such often. Hope this helps xx

My son is now 8 months old and we were advised to give him when weaning only 2/3 bottles of milk but no more than 600mls? a day. We were also told to give him a small bottle of baby juice you can get from boots or supermarkets with one meal a day. So have been giving him breakfast, then after an hour or so he has a bottle of milk usually 240mls. Then after his nap he wakes for his lunch and has the bottle of baby juice with it. He then has a tiring play before going for a longer nap. Then has another bottle and at 6.30ish he wants his dinner. Once hes had that he has a bath, gets changed for bed and has a story in his cot and is out from 7.30pm till 7am doesnt usually wake up for a bottle during the night. POPPYCAT1 = i bought my son a baby safe safety food holder. You put the slippery food item into the holder. Cover with the net and you or your baby can hold it via the handles and they can mash it or chew it with their teeth or gums and not choke. They can get the juice or small bits through the net. My son loves it. You can buy it from smythes toystore £3.49.

Has anyone else chosen this route? First child was weaned on purees under advice from HV at 3 months but this time keeping bf even through the increased feeds needed but at 24 weeks have started to try blw as baby wants real food. She loves banana, rice cakes, mango but big problem with all the fruit and veg is that they are so slippery they spend a lot of time shooting out of her hand. Had her sat upright in her high chair and as the books say if pulls off too big a chunk she gags and it comes out but she is taking some of it still classing milk as her main food though. Just wonder if anyone had any suggestions for the slippery foods I'm feeding her (or shes feeding her self).

I defo agree with you nikki2412 - my hv didn't like it when I started my little boy on baby rice at 31/2 months, but he was taking too much of the hungrier baby milk! Mum defo knows best when it comes to their own child. Mine little boy is now on carrot and potato at lunch and porridge just before his last bottle at night most days!! At nearly 5 months, i finally got approval from a hv about weaning. I find the older the hv the more chance youve got of being treated like a mother rather than someone who doesnt know what your doing! x

for laurensummers:;;My son is now 32weeks old and is over 24lbs and 2ft 4in. He was 8lb 7oz when he was born. He was also advanced with everything, being able to hold his head up at 2weeks old and cutting first tooth at 14 weeks (now has 6). He was so interested in our food and was taking a lot of milk, far more than he should have been. He was also taking upto 18 oz between 10pm and 6am. I weaned him at 13weeks with a bit of baby rice mixed with his milk and introduced it in morning for about 2 weeks. Then he got baby breakfasts suitable from 4 months, fruity and banana porridges, or baby rice and fruit puree for another couple of weeks. I then started giving him vegetable purees at lunchtime for a couple more weeks till finally he was on three meals, two with puddings. He now eats lots of things and has some snacks too and has started finger feeding in the last few weeks. When I told my HV that I'd weaned him early she said,' I can see why he would need it!!!!!' (and he wasn't 6 months when i told her) The 6month guidelines are under review, and idefo believe that mother knows best, most of the time! Try her on baby rice, she'll soon let you know if she's not ready, but sounds like she may be. Use all the advice for wening a 6 month old, what to start with and when to start. I had areally good book 'CONFIDENT BABYCARE by JO FROST' which was a lifesaver and a recipie book 'TOP 100 BABY PUREES BY ANNABEL KARMEL'. You can get both on Amazon. Hope this might be some help good luck :-)

my daughter is 16weeks and im unsure if to start weaning, she was 8lb12oz born and has been advanced with everything.she stares at us when we eat she reaches for our food with open mouth and our drinks we've let her taste different things and she;s always opened her mouth wanting more. she used to sleep through waking only once at 2am for a feed (exclusively breast fed) but now wakes 4-5times wanting feeding im exhausted. some things say all babies are different but then i read not to start before 6months so i feel i shouldnt.if i do start how do i know how much to give her and at what times, its all a bit daunting although im almost sure she will like everything as she has tasted alot even licked an orange segment and wanted more (after pulling a funny face lol).my health visitor just told me to go to a weaning group but im a shy person and dont like being in groups of ppl i get very nervous,i will go but am reluctant to speaking out if i had any questions.im just very unsure what to do.

ok so this tells me how to start weaning, which iv done. what next? i started with lunch time jad 2 days with just a couple of spoonfulls of babyrice. today he swoped this for an ellas kitchen carrot puree thing. he loved it and wanted more but i dont want to give him belly ache, so i gave him some for his tea time feed aswell, and topped him up with milk after the food. is this right? xx

stopped on the banana as she was a bit constipated; have now started her on steamed then blended sweet potatoes, apples and carrots - she loves it. still breast feeding her as well.

notice my daughter keeps looking at us while we are eating, waking up during the night for feed. So I tried her on mashed banana two days ago; pulled a funny face at first but she loves it now. 2nd day a quarter of banana with baby rice and breast milk. Today was her 3rd day; she is enjoying her food. Now I'm looking through baby recipe books, trying to find her the best nutritional food for her.

What food did you start your little ones with? My baby girl is 4 months and just started baby porridge and wonders where to go next? Any advise mums?

I started weaning my daughter at around 4 and a half months when her mid day bottle wasn't being finished and she just didn't seem interested. I'd had the freebies of sachet food and baby rice so tried that and she loved the sachet. She's never taken to baby rice with added flavouring of fruit so I stick to the ellas kitchen sachets. Up until she was almost 6 months she was doing her 4 regular bottles then a tea of half a sachet. Now she has one bottle when she wakes up at 4:30-5am, one at 10 with a baby biscotti then half a bottle and half a sachet at 2, the rest of the sachet at 5 with no milk, then a bedtime bottle at 5:45-6. She's always been a good sleeper and she has kept to it during her weening so I know she's having enough. At 7 months in a few weeks I want to introduce less pureed food especially as she loves to chew bread rolls. Like all mums say you know when your baby is ready for change as the give the simplest signs.

i started weaning my boy at 4 months, the hv told me to wait till 6 months but i weaned all my other 4 at 4 months, plus he is hungry and he watches me eat all the time, he was a big baby almost a 10pounder, so he needs his solids, i give him 2 baby jars for breakfast and then teatime a dinner from jar and a pudding jar, i think you know yourself when your baby is ready, i dont have no one say wait, if hes hungry and wont have his bottles what else can yu do, let him starve and lose wait.

Comment below is spot on- the health visitor would probably advise breastfeeding till six months. But I mean, if you really want to stop then they can't make u carry on. I would probably recommend Apitimal First Milk till six months, as it's nutritionally close to breast milk. With regards to the bottle there's Tommee Tippee, which has a teat resembling a breast. Or of course there's also Avent, Dr Browns or Medula. I suggest buying just one bottle to see if your child prefers one or the other. Also because of your baby's age, the teat flow level is important- I think judging by the age of your baby u should get a medium flow teat. There's also the steriliser to consider. It's quite a bit of work but once u get into the cleaning of all the equipment it gets better. If your child is hungry there's also Hungry Milk instead of First Milk. Aced six months switch to Follow On Milk as it's nutritionally tailored to a baby's needs from that age and complements weaning . Good luck!

hi every1, i started weaning my son at 22 weeks we have only been doing it for 2 weeks and he is loving it. the question i wanted to ask is, i'm breast feeding as well and i feel we r ready for me to stop but i just don't have a clue what milk to give him. i know i should ask the health visitor but i get the feeling when ever i ask them something they look down there noisies at me. he is my first and sometimes feel i don't have a clue about what i'm doing. if anyone has any advice that would be great

with my first daughter, i had no idea what to do in regard to weaning and ended up pureeing all her food from six months combined with breast feeding. She is just over 2 and it took until she was 22 months old to eat lumpy food - not for want of trying!- and still refuses things like mince etc. it has been a nightmare. my second child is a week under 6 months and totally breastfed, yet for the last week has shown major signs of wanting to eat so tonight i decided to take the plunge and try baby led weaning......amazing! it was a messy business, but she took the food, chewed it and swallowed....granted not all of it, but she tried everything! a revelation, so i will continue with it tomorrow.

My son now 6 month old, has changed his diet for himself. He started 3 weeks ago having porridge cereal and pureed vegetables however got very constipated - not going to the toilet for 4 days he became very uncomftrbale and upset. NHS direct were superb and after seeing an emergency doctor for medicine - he no longer likes this type of food. For the last 3 days - what now works for him is apple and prune for breakfast, scrambled egg with toast for lunch or 2 potatoe wedges and pear for tea. He prefers finger food and no puree foods. Any advise what other food we can offer him?

Yes, that's the book we have too from a friend who recommended it, her daughter is in the book. Its a brilliant book, well recommend it!

We have been doing BLW with our baby and I would recommend it to anyone (above 6 months!) The only reason food was ever puree'd in the first place was because weaning started at 3-4 months and a baby that age can do no where near as much as a 6 month old, the age in which they now say start from for health reasons. As I've just read some comments on here, I completely agree. It has so MANY benefits than spoon feeding. They get more nutrition from milk in the first year, so for that first year, solids are more 'fun'. Its so much more rewarding to see your child develop feeding themselves. Once they start to take more food down, they know themselves when they are full up - not what you are shoving down them. Encourages their handling skills and gives them confidence. It makes our meal times so much easier too - she just has what we are having! No extra cost, no waiting around while we feed her then no her getting fed up while we eat. She eats with us, so everyone is happy. I personally can no see why anyone would be against this. Tried and tested - it really works. My daughter is a particually hungry baby and at times I have sometimes found it hard with how much she does have milk feeds, as feeding on demand, but at the end of the day its milk where she is getting most of her nutrition from so just have to keep that up for another 4 months or so until she turns 1, as now 8 months. At the end of the day, as a lady has already added here, its true, you do need to slightly tailor everything to suit your baby as every baby is different. But give it a go, its really amazing, works so well and well worth it. Can take a little time for them to pick it up fully, but it doesn't matter, there is no rush in the first year! For anyone worried about the choking side of things, of course, there is always a risk of choking - even when spoon fed - but be sensible and don't give things like grapes or obvious hazard foods and of course always stay next to your baby, as you would in other forms of feeding. Just common sense really, but very rewarding. Hope this helps for anyone who was thinking about trying it :-)

I've just started to wean our 6 month old using the baby led method and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she started eating. We did vary the method slightly to suit her. From 5 months, once a week we would give her a big piece of broccoli to play with, but not eat because she was interested in our food. At 6 months struggled to pick food up, so we would hold up what she was aiming for and let her take it out of our hand. She’s doing much better now at picking up food. She does refuse food when she’s had enough, sometimes that can be after a very small amount. I think the things that are working well for us is that we cook and so we can give her what we eat, we just cut things into baby friendly shapes and I breastfeed her before she eats, she was ready for food. The positive things are we don’t have to do separate meals we just have to cut food slightly different, she can experiment, she eats as much as she likes, we don’t have to wean her off purees, but the biggest benefit is that this is a lot less stressful than I was expecting. I worried at the start because for some meals she’d have just 2 or 3 pieces of food, and then others, she’s be eating like there was no tomorrow. Also she can be a bit lazy, she will sometimes open her mouth and wait for us to feed her, we would put something in her mouth we knew she liked and then encourage her to take it again, if she continued we’d consider it the end of the feed. Some people that know we are doing it disapprove because they think a baby isn’t able to eat solids this way, but the first time she put food in her mouth she chewed before swallowing and then held her hand out for more. She’s never choked and we’ve wouldn’t force her to eat something she’s didn’t like. She’s a very content baby. To anyone tempted to try this, it’s definitely worth it. We tried a couple of variations to help our baby, but had they not worked then we’d decided to try it until she was 9 months. This is because her main source of food for the first year is supposed to be milk, and so we had time to let her do it at her own pace.

My baby is also 6 months and uninterested in food. We are trying a combination of 'baby led weaning' and Annabel Karmel's home cooked puree, but so far no luck. She is happier with the baby led approach to be honest. At least she opens her mouth and puts food in that way, (not much actually stays in) but her mouth locks shut for the puree. I'm feeling the pressure to get her to eat more but don't want to force her, it breaks my heart to see her upset over something that should be a pleasure.

Hi my baby is turning 6 months next week, shes showing interest when she sees us all eat and can pretty much sit upright on her own, the thing is she doesnt seem that interested in the baby food, iv tried the baby rice, fruit pureee and varied other ones but shes not that fussed, shes not a bug eater anyway, she has 7ounces every 4 hours and even then she leaves 1 to 3 ounces quite alot, i generally feed her around lunch time when shes wide awake snd isnt starving but not to full to eat either, but shes just not that interested, does anyone have any advice as this was never a problem with my other two children

my son is 4 months old now and still feeding every 3 hours but am feeling that he needs something else, please can someone help in starting him on puree food. he has had a little bit of baby rice and enjoyed it but have not started him on it regulaly as off his age so giving him it when most restless. but am wondering when u start to feed regulaly do u start with one feed a day and then gradually build up to 3 meals aday aswell as milk or what, please can someone help xxx

Paro82 - I just started my blending potato, bananas, carrots to a puree using his milk. I let him have the same food for a few days to get used to it then try something new, after a while you can get lumpier and then start having more than 1 food on their plate, keep increasing amount and lumpiness until they can at what you are eating. I'm stuck now as my lo is lactose intolerent and I have no idea how to move him on or what to give him.

hai! can any one suggest from where to start i mean i am so confused what to give to my baby in solids for the very first time.should it be veges or rice or what?..... i am so confused can any one help.