LO getting enough?

[didiosa1980]

Kind of an odd question, but when DOES solid food start getting recognized by the stomach? Daycare will be implementing that into his day feeds, but will it take 1-2 weeks for it to actually count by his digestion?

[Fiver]

It's already being recognised by his stomach.  Some foods are harder to digest than others (like peas, carrots, sweetcorn raisins etc) and some even carry on going through the digestive system relatively unscathed in some people into adulthood (sweetcorn, for instance!)

Just don't worry about it.  Any decent daycare will be used to the fact that food tends to whizz through BF babies (or that's how it appears) for a little while when solid foods are being introduced.  Milk is still his main source of nutrition for now, so it's just good that something's going in for now as it means he's getting the idea of what to do with food (i.e. eat it)

[*Ali*]

Totally what she said ^^^

[didiosa1980]

Yesterday daycare gave him 4 4.5 bottles. I don't make that much so I gave them 3 4.5 bottles today and informed them to try solids 1 hour after every meal. The issue was, his naps were 30 minutes and 45 minute increments. When I picked him up, he'd been up since 1:40! This of course shot down the ability to properly space out his eatings. Now I'm worried that they'll run out of food for him because he won't sleep so well today and I didn't bring any frozen with because I only have a few dozen stashed away for true emergencies.         I know that he didn't sleep well because there was a lot of noise and stuff to look at in daycare...but I hope he can start getting more sleep soon!

He was definitely tired after getting home though. He was smiling and happy until about 6 when I gave him his cluster feed. He stayed asleep for around 3.5 hours until he got up to eat. After that, it went downhill into the 2 hours and 1 hour sleep times. We had yet another 5 AM wake period. I tried PU/PD and it seemed to work, but he usually gasses a lot so there was no way he was going down before his 5:45 feed. I ended up getting him up at 5:30 to try and get him to do something else for 15 minutes, but daddy ended up taking him so I could go back to sleep. 

[*Ali*]

Are you opposed to giving formula for one or part of the bottles? Now he is on solids he no longer has a Virgin gut anyway and his nutrients need to be coming from milk not solids.

Are daycare feeding him purées or finger food? 3 solids meals is an awful lot of solids for this age, especially if he is being spoon-fed and he may struggle with digestive issues if they are not introduced gradually.

[didiosa1980]

I am not making them force feed him; he only eats if he grabs for the spoon or shows interest in what is being presented in front of his face.

Yesterday, he had only one solids feed time for about 5 bites of half a baby spoon. (Maybe 1 tsp max.) We thought to give him finger foods, but right now the avocado makes that hard to keep fresh so I've been doing purees. I think we may just continue the purees for now and maybe try finger foods when his hand-to-mouth ability is much better. Maybe a few times of eating at a table sitting up with different food will get him used to non-bottles. His weak back muscles make it hard for self-feeding. If he can get some tastes in him, perhaps letting him play with some solids that he recognizes will help him transition easier than simply putting a plate in front of him right now and expecting to play with it. 

I'll make sure to have daycare keep his solids to a minimum for now until he gets used to them. Is 1 tsp per feeding time too much? ....Assuming he actually shows interest in solids at each feed anyway. I planned next week on making some banana or yam (depending on what I have time for &/or what is ripe). Should I stick with the avocado for now? 

I considered taking the 4.5 ounces back down to 4 ounces to utilize that extra 1.5 ounce later in the day and then try to pump more in the evening going by some more articles I saw on the forum (more often = better overall). I may have to break out my frozen in order to meet the 4 bottles this week until his sleep ability extends with the noise in the room. That's killing the feed times right now because he can't put himself back to sleep with such noise; at home it's almost dead quiet because we're so afraid of him waking up.    Of course once he wakes up, he's awake and can't go back to sleep.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

They do get used to napping with noise! Mine both had a bit of adjustment at first but got used to things being different.  If formula is not an option what about donor bm?

[didiosa1980]

I currently have a few dozen ounces of frozen that I can use...I just hate to take that out because of sleep schedules.    But right now we have not the funds, nor time to do much else. I'll just bite the bullet and use an extra 12'ish for the rest of the week and make sure I get a few more pump times in to try boosting my supply a few more ounces. ::crosses fingers::

[*Ali*]

I would definitely give him a mix of foods yes.

I wasn't suggesting they were force feeding him at all. I just meant LOs who are spoon fed when weaned tend to take more in to start with and so normally start on one meal a day and work up gradually to 3 meals a day over the next couple months. If doing BLW babies tend to swallow less in comparison so it isn't such an issue to go in with 3 meals a day relatively quickly. The danger with building up solids too quickly is their tummies are filled up during the day with food with comparatively less calories than breast milk. Then they wake up at night to make up the lost calories they couldn't fit in during the day. If you are happy for him to make up any shortfall at night by BFing then that is absolutely fine. You don't need to feel bad or like he isn't doing the night stretches he "should" be doing. You are all just doing your best under the circumstances. Hugs.

[didiosa1980]

As it seems right now, if I DON'T feed him overnight, then my supply will stagger a bit. I think that's the only other option for increase aside from giving him long stretches of feeding + comfort sucking to get the old brain working. I've gotten it to the bottles he'll need while at daycare (once his sleeping stabilizes some more), but nothing for the current emergency that I'm going to dig in to.

I figured the fats and calories in avocado would help with the 'less calories' than milk that he ends up getting way too early from lack of good sleep via earlier EASY patterns. I think I might actually test his sleeping ability for duration over the next week or two and see if the solid veggies and fruits that he gets will help him sleep longer (as sayeth in the book). He has gone down fairly quickly after eating, so at least we don't have any PU/PD afterward! 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Not entirely sure where in the book it says that (havent read it since DD2 was a baby mind ) but we now know that solids are not meant to fulfill nutritional needs at this age - avocado is a wonderful source of fats and calories but it is not finely tuned to a baby's specific needs like breast milk or formula is.

Awesome that he is going down better after feeds! Fx that continues!

[didiosa1980]

The book mainly talks about ramping up his calories during the day to help him sleep better at night. There's a lot of green in the diaper and it's not quite so chunky, so I think the avocado is starting to do its work, which means he's getting some calories from it finally.

I know hubby doesn't like what I'm doing because it goes against the book's PU/PD bit, but any time LO wakes, I change him and feed him. Of course, his sleep patterns are 3 hours or less, so this means he's getting around 4 - 5 feeds overnight. Last night he would wake up after around 1.5 - 2 hours, so this means he had around 5 feeds overnight from 6:30 - 6. But I know this is the best way to up my supply and since hubby doesn't have to get up to help PU/PD, he doesn't have to get up anymore.    So I am going to try to see the silver lining in this since LO falls back asleep by himself after eating and sleep in on the weekends and let hubby take baby until nap 1. 

[weaver]

I change him and feed him.

You know, I never changed my babies at night.  Just fed as needed, as dark and quiet as possible, and straight back to bed.  Kept everyone in night mode.  Might be good to have one less thing to do?  You're got so much on your plate!

[Fiver]

You know, I never changed my babies at night.

Ditto, unless they were soaking wet or had soiled themselves.  I always found it to wake them up a bit, so low key, but you know your baby best.

[didiosa1980]

There have been a few times when he would wake up after only 1.5 hours where I'd feed him only and put him back down. He'd wake up within another hour (way too short to be hungry) because he peed through all his clothes and onto the mattress pad. So I've learned to switch diapers in easy-to-change clothes. He is very patient now whenever he gets changed. I don't do anything more than swap diapers for a clean one, so he can usually get changed within 1-2 minutes tops and then we're up to eat. He doesn't scream or kick at me; just fusses and whines. He's such a little trooper! 

He had 2 1.5hour + naps yesterday at daycare! I don't know if staying at home the day before with daddy and that 2 hour nap helped him, but he only had 2 bottles due to the longer sleep.  So happy!!!