Baby-Led Weaning Support Thread #2

[Freya'sMum]

Ooooh! Lovely, lovely milk....!

Rule of thumb, until 9 months babies should be still having the same amount of oz or number and length of bf as they did before any solid foods were introduced, and if you notice this lessening then the chances are that the quantity of solid foods is too big!

Is usually not an issue with BLW as the fact that they can't overeat, 'coz they have to learn to self-feed and also decide when to stop, means they continue to have a large milk intake for longer!

Long-sleeved bibs came from Mothercare, did not find collar or sleeves too big (and Eryn is an average sized baby)!

Ax

[Bryony]

Loving all the ideas for bibs! 

Cathy - we do milk feeds at 7am, 11:30am (after morning nap), 4pm ish (or whenever wakes from pm nap) and 7pm.  Katie is BF so no idea how much she takes - or whether this is the right approach - she doesn't seem hungry in between but will empty both breasts when I put them near her    We dropped the DF a few weeks ago. She's a bit older than your LO though.

Bryony


B

[Corinne's Mommy]

Thanks for all the great places to find bibs.  I'm in the US, so just have to find something I can get here.  I think I should just sew some longsleeves, turtle neck, waterproof bibs, something I'm sure all BLW moms could use!  (but again...who has time?)

Pauline, Corinne did the same thing when I introduced banana- I held off for a while and re-introduced it today- she loved it!  Funny how short her memory must be! : )

Cathy- I too was feeding Corinne each time she woke (trying to stick with EASY) but just recently have started holding off until the 4 hour mark regardless of when she wakes.  I wasn't sure she was going to be able to hold off, but was fine.  She eats at 7:30, 11:30, 3:30, 7:30 no dream feed but wakes around 5am to eat (so she really doesn't take much at the 7:30 am feed). 

Ashlee

[Aly Mac]

Got our longsleeve big from Target on special!

Getting back into the self feeding now L is feeling much better.  Also, the throwing on the floor has reduced now that i don't make a big thing of it - thanks everyone for the advice.

I'm going to try and cut to 3bf soon as the two in the day are not very large. Prob is I'm still trying to wean her of bf to sleep slince she was sick, so there are more small feeds there.  Not to mention naps are all voer the shop as been waking early, so hard to know when to fit in the snack!

Made pancakes for bfast today and she loved it.  great food I gather for when we go out.  I made with wholemeal flour though, which makes thema  bit rubbery....

on a total non-blw topic - I'm just so amazed at how much L is not a baby anymore - so much more a toddler.  she is 1 this month...can't beleive it.....my baby is gone...

[ishkin]

Wow, long-sleeved bibs is a great idea!
Don't have them over here, so will try to order over the net (there're indeed those in Mothercare site, here's the link if someone else is interested:
http://www.mothercare.com/gp/product/B000TUUBHI/sr=1-6/qid=1191434297/ref=sr_1_6/026-5303053-5509212?ie=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=42866041&mcb=core)

Although I could use one which cover both legs as well

Currently we have our "eating" clothes, which I change him out of after each meal and it goes straight to washing...And till a month ago we used to eat almost completely naked, just in his diaper, I had one dirty baby after each meal!  Dunno what we will do at winter...

On other issue - tried to give him some toast with different coatings today- he just smeared everything all over his face. He cannot chew the toast I guess, it just becomes one sticky mass when he chews it...
Perhaps I didn't prepare it the right way? I will try to give it to him as a sandwich, perhaps it will go better.

Regarding the milk feeds - currently we have 4 : 7,11,15,7...Dropped the DF half a month ago...My LO gets manages to stuff lots of food into himself - we eat lunch around 13:30 or 14:00, so the milk feed at 15:00 is not so great, and I noticed he is dropping his milk amounts over the day too...I know everybody says it should stay the same until 9 months, so we're early... But he's the one who regulates his solids intake...

[ishkin]

Found another one: http://www.amazon.com/Bumkins-Waterproof-Sleeved-Bib-Blue/dp/B000EMDTS4/ref=sr_1_33/102-4195954-3551342?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1191435623&sr=1-33

[Cathy_D]

Thanks for all the comments about feeds - really helpful.

The cold seems to have gone, and with it the night wakings (hurrah!!) so I've tried stretching her longer in the day between feeds and she seems fine with it - in fact, I'm not sure she's even noticed!  So, we've had a couple of days where we've fed at 7, 11, 3, 6.30 and then the  DF at 10.

It went a bit wrong yesterday as she work early and fed at 6.30 and so couldn't last the extra half hour, and had to sneak in an extra snack in the afternoon to keep her going till bedtime, but hopefully once she's used to the 4 hourly thing, she'll be able to accomodate the odd day where one gap is 4.5 hours, and we will be able to stick to 5 feeds a day.  Leaving the DF well alone for now till this arrangement had bedded down a bit.

As I'd hoped, now the cold has gone she has renewed enthusiasm for eating so we are now managing 3 meals a day. She's still not actually consuming a huge amount but is definiftely more interested than she was so that's a step in the right direction too. She's also getting MUCH better at eating simple things (banana, biscuit, avocado etc) without smearing them everywhere. So maybe the time has come to start on messier stuff like pasta and sauce.  I, too, don't really want to waste time cooking for her till I know she's going to eat enough of it to be worth bothering with, though!

Great idea about the 2 layers of bibs ... why didn't I think of that?!  Thanks, Pauline.

[evanskimberley]

Sophie had a cheese string yesterday and loved it. We have the original ones not the dairy lea ones, so they have nothing in them but cheese. They kind of dissolve  a bit in the mouth too.

[Lippy Chick]

Bit quiet on here in the last day or so.  We've had an odd couple of days.  On Wed, I tried to give her follow-on milk, but it was too thick and wouldn't come out of the bottle, so I had to find somewhere fast to buy a new box of the old formula.  So it was about an hour after her feed was due that she was being fed, hence no lunch that day.  Yesterday, I had a visitor from church come out and she stayed a bit longer than I thought she might, so no lunch then either.  This morning she took an hour to feed her milk and so no breakfast.  Did manage lunch today, tried her on broccoli, she seemed to enjoy holding it and licking the different texture.  Again, still not consuming anything.  Oh well, she'll get there eventually.  She's still being quite sicky after her milk at the moment, this has been going on for a couple of weeks now.  I might mention it to the HV at some point if it continues, I think it may be putting her off trying anything.  Who knows. 

Cathy, no problem about the bib idea.  Alice does do better since we moved her to 4 hourly, I hope you find the same.

Pauline

[grahamsmama]

She's still being quite sicky after her milk at the moment, this has been going on for a couple of weeks now.  I might mention it to the HV at some point if it continues, I think it may be putting her off trying anything.  Who knows. 

Meghan has started this again too.  The spitting up never went away entirely, but it's gotten a lot worse in the last week or so.  I've wondered if it had something to do with her 6 month immunizations.  She also hasn't been too thrilled with eating lately.

[Freya'sMum]

Cathy,

Pasta twists in pesto are less messy than in a tomato or cheese sauce for beginners - just speaking from experience !

Ax

[evanskimberley]

Those of you with Sicky LO - have you changed their milk to the 6mo+ formula? We did and it really made sophie's reflux worse, gone back to normal stuff today and she's much better.

[Lippy Chick]

It kind of started at the same time Alice got the cold.  However, now that the cold has gone, she's still being sick.  There is a sickness bug going round at the moment though.  For the past three days she's pooed with each milk feed and today twice with each feed.  Her milk intake has reduced too, however, last night she slept better than she has done for ages.  She's also very windy again and complaining of wind when she's feeding.  Spoke to the HV today on the phone and she said most of the people she's seen last week and this week have been sick.  We tried a couple of days ago to move to follow-on formula but it was too thick for the bottle and so had to buy the original pretty quickly.  I'm seeing the HV on Tuesday and see whether Alice is any better.  She has been quite grizzly today too, which is unlike her, so I am pretty convinced she's got a bit of an upset tummy.  See how she is in a couple of days, however, it's not particularly conducive to trying to get her to eat anything.  I think I'll continue anyway, if nothing else she's getting used to the textures and flavours.

Lynn, Alice hasn't had any jabs since 4 months, so it couldn't be that.  Maybe the bug has travelled across the "pond".

Pauline

[grahamsmama]

I think it may be a little stomach bug.  She also seems a bit snotty today, so maybe it's all connected.  Although the increased spit up has been a week.  We haven't switched formulas; I think the follow up formula here is 9+months.  I've never bothered with it since I give my kiddos protein foods by then.  Today she threw up so much of her feedings, I think we are bound to have a NW.  Oh, well, she did eat a little "dinner." We went out to dinner and she happily munched away on the brocolli that my big kids didn't want and some cheerios.  She is such a great dinner companion. She was flirting with the waiter and carrying on her little dinner "conversation."  LOL

[Lippy Chick]

We've decided to give the BLW a break for a couple of days to let Alice's tummy settle down again.  The acids and different juices she's sucking can't be helping her wee system get back on track.  We had a pretty poor night last night with her.  She woke up crying (which is unheard of) twice, but both times she wouldn't settle and we had to change her nappy.  So because she's pooing more, her bottom's really sore, which of course also means we have to change her nappy more often, which she really doesn't like because it's sore.  So the nappy changes in the night were quite traumatic because she was screaming in pain and there was very little we could do to comfort her until the job was done.  Her milk intake increased quite a bit today.  She took a 100mls more than yesterday and as the day went on cried less with every nappy change.  Also she has pooed less today too, not so often.  So hopefully, this bug is on the way out.  It's just been one thing after another, recently.  Next thing we know she'll start teething, if she isn't already. 

Sorry, I realise this isn't BLW related, but I know you'll all sympathise anyway.

Pauline