starting solids at almost 5 months - questions.

[*Becky*]

M will be 5 months on Nov 1st. I was hoping to wait a little longer before introducing solids but she is taking 40-50 oz of milk per 24 hours and seems to be hungry all the time.

I am going to start with one meal a day. I am following the Annabel Karmel book and she says that you do not need to wait 3 days between foods as long as you start with foods from her list e.g. first foods so pear, apple, carrot, b squash. Is this ok??

At the moment she has 5 7oz bottles in the day - should I be cutting back to 4? She is not on a 4 hour EASY as her naps are terrible. Not sure if it is due to teeth, hunger or what.

How quickly do you progress to 2 meals? In her book she does this after a week which seems quite quick. I know all babies are different but what have others done?

thanks xx

[*Kara*]

How much does she weigh?

My only concern with introducing solids at her age is that your motivation is to try and fill her up... formula has more calories ounce for ounce than any solids that she will take in, as a general rule, it will not satisfy her for longer.  If she is taking that much formula - she needs it and she won't eat a balanced diet to compensate otherwise.

I see that you are in the UK - I have heard of something called Hungry Baby Milk over there - have you looked into that?

At the moment she has 5 7oz bottles in the day - should I be cutting back to 4? She is not on a 4 hour EASY as her naps are terrible. Not sure if it is due to teeth, hunger or what.

Re: naps - it could be developmental - there are many babies who have troubles napping longer than 45 mins between 4-6 months... it could be routine related - could you post your typical day in EAS format?

Re: the 5 feeds - have you tried offering 8 ozs at each feed?  Does she consistently drain her bottles?  If she is under 8 months and does drain them, I would add an ounce and see if that holds her for a longer time.

Re: the 3 day wait rule.  I would still wait a few days between new foods - I believe Anabel's book is based on weaning at 6 months +.

Re: adding new meals... we started with a tsp of cereal once a day at 5 months... moved to a larger amount at that meal over the next few weeks and added a second "meal" of a tsp of veggies at 6 months... then worked to increase that meal before we added her third meal at about 8 months.  That last meal then increased until about 9 months of age.

[*Becky*]

thanks for the reply.

She weighs 17 lb. i spoke to the HV yesterday and she said she thinks it is time to start. 50 oz in a 24 hour period is such a lot! We could try hungry baby milk but although it is not the BW way, I do feel that she is ready to start, but it will be slow. My HV was telling me to quickly get her onto chicken and turkey but I won't be! I will stick with one meal for a couple of weeks and just work through the first foods.

I could try 8oz, she has been on 8oz bottles in the past but I found it very difficult as she could go 3.5-4 hours on them BUT her naps were nowhere near a 4 hour EASY yk?

I have been trying to keep her feeds to more like 3.5 today rather than 3 so that is a step in the right direction I guess.

[*Kara*]

It is completely up to you, but I caution that it is not going to keep her full for longer. 

Incidentally, chicken is recommended as a first food in Canada.

[*Becky*]

well yes but if she is hungry and taking that amount of milk there is not much more I can do.

[*Kara*]

No, but the formula is a balanced form of nutrition, starting her on solids could skew that away from being well balanced in terms of where she gets those calories.

How long has she consistently taken that much formula?

 

I could try 8oz, she has been on 8oz bottles in the past but I found it very difficult as she could go 3.5-4 hours on them BUT her naps were nowhere near a 4 hour EASY yk?

I totally know what this is like!  I had the 45min nap monster for a couple of months   We had to move to an EAES type deal for a while   Remember, it's not the order of the letters, but the routine itself.

[Shiv52]

Hey Becky

Do you use the hungry baby formula?  I wonder would that help as I assume it has more calories per oz.  I have read recently that babies who take big amounts of formula can be ready for solids earliers in terms of needing more calories.  With BFing the calorie content changes as babies grow so they can last without solids longer (as there are more calories per oz as there has been) but FF babies sometimes need more calories that the formula is providing and unless you up the amount you aren't going to get any more calories through milk intake KWIM?  I can't imagine she could take much more formula. 

I started solids with M at 5.5 months as she was more than ready.   It was over 6 months with R. 

Is M sitting up?  Tongue thrust reflux gone? 

I used Annabel Karmel too and I didn't really bother with the 3 day rule as I started with pretty bland food and there is no allergies in our family. So carrot, sweet potato, baby rice, apple and pear puree and I then moved to more 'meal type' foods after a few weeks and M much much prefered them.  It didn't affect her milk intake at all and just added to it.  She was a greedy guts.  It did take us a few months to build up to 3 meals but by 8 months lunch would have been 2 cubes of savory, 1 of fruit, some finger foods and a yogurt!!

[*Becky*]

thanks shiv...I feel a little stressed about it as you can probably tell
I would love to do something by the book but I also can't see her hungry as it brings back bad memories of the first weeks of her life.

She can't sit yet and no her tongue thrust has not gone completely.

With H I just started when I felt he was ready and that was 5 months. This time the HV have been advising me to start from 4.5 months and I am trying to hold off so of course am now thinking about it all too much... as usual!

[clazzat]

We started x on solids a couple of weeks ago - we offered it to him to see if he was interested and he absolutey wolfed it down from day one so we carried on!

We didn't follow the 3-day rule, as such, but I cooked a sweet potato for him and it lasted him over a week! Lol. We are still on one meal - I have tried offering him some tea, but he isn't interested yet, so we will leave it.

Since we started solids he has napped much better - 2h lunchtime naps are now not that unusual - and I think he has actually started putting on weight. I know that the solids don't have as many calories, but I do wonder if it just takes longer to digest and therefore he feels fuller for longer and it is keeping him going. He is having the same number of milk feeds as he was, but they are a bit better spaced and I am fairly convinced he is taking more at each feed.

[Lolly]

Becky, I would try the hungry baby formula first and give her bigger bottles, if she's not sitting properly and still has the tongue thrust she's probably not ready for solids. If she is draining the 7oz bottles you should put more in them, with bottle feeds there should be enough in the bottle so they can stop when they are full and not just because the bottle is empty so ideally there should be a bit left in the bottle.

I don't think the hungry baby milk actually has more calories but it's a different composition which makes it harder to digest. It's designed to hold off on weaning, when babies are taking large amounts of formula but not old enough to wean. We did start my DD at5 17 weeks nder the paeds advice for her reflux, but she was sitting unaided at that age and she had lost the tongue thrust reflex.

{{HUGS}} for the stress!

Laura

[Shiv52]

I agree I would try hungry bay formula first too.  I would wait until she is sitting and tongue reflex gone before solids too xx

[*Becky*]

see i told the HV about the tongue thrust and she said it had nothing to do with not being ready for weaning.

So...are they supposed to be able to sit completely unaided? H did not do that until 7 months but he was def ready for solids before that...

[Shiv52]

This is from the NHS website on weaning......

.Healthy diet: weaning and beyondIntroducing solid foods: the first steps
Three signs your baby is ready for solids

Every baby is an individual, but there are three clear signs which, together, show that your baby is ready for some solid foods alongside breastmilk or infant formula. It’s rare for these signs to appear together before six months.

•They stay in a sitting position and hold their head steady.
•They co-ordinate their eyes, hand and mouth so that they can look at the food, pick it up and put it in their mouth all by themselves.
•They can swallow food. Babies who are not ready will push their food back out.

Some signs mistaken for a baby being ready for solid foods:

•They chew their fists.
•They wake in the night when they have previously slept through.
•They want extra milk feeds.

These are normal baby behaviours and not necessarily a sign of hunger, nor being ready to start solid food. Starting solid foods won't make them any more likely to sleep through. Extra feeds are usually enough until they're ready for other food.

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So the 3rd sign that they are ready..the not pushing food out..thats the tongue thrust reflex.  Maybe your HV should read the info she is meant to be giving out!!! 

[*Kara*]

I agree with the ladies Becky... if she still has the tongue thrust you are kinda stuck between a rock and hard place, so to speak.  Try the hungry baby milk and increase those bottles and see what happens...

Hopefully she doesn't eat you out of house and home with all that formula! 

FWIW, a good friend of mine had a petite little lady who easily ate 40 ozs a day.. then it suddenly dropped down to 30-32ozs right around 5 months.  Maybe she is just doing some serious growing

[Dench]

Just wanted to mention that the hungry baby milk doesn't have more calories, it just contains more protein which makes them *feel* fuller, think it has less of something else so the calories remain the same as standard milk, so I don't think there is any issue giving her this, could be worth a try.
I've been giving my son some pureed veg and fruit since 18 weeks, he's now 22 weeks.  He loves it!  I'm just giving him a little bit every day for fun, I'm not seeing it as topping him up as the calories are so low.  I filled ice-cube trays with pureed sweet potato, carrot, pear and peach and he has a combination of 3 cubes per day at around lunchtime.  I've tried the baby rice and porridge but he mainly pushes it back out, I guess it's not sweet enough!  Can't wait to give him chunkier veggies!
My little man is a horrendous napper too, usually 40 minutes!