A question for the early weaners amongst you...

[Spandanna]

So DS2 is my third baby. All of whom I have weaned at 17 weeks for various reasons, but I can't for the life of me remember how I did it.

DS2 is 5mo this weeks and he started taking his first mouthfuls of rusk (refused baby rice and porridge) at 18 weeks. He has mastered the art of eating from a spoon beautifully and he has a bit of porridge and fruit puree at breakfast and then some more at tea time to put his omeprazole into.

The questions are, with early weaners when do you move to three meals? how much to give at meALS?And when to start adding texture? DS has maybe 10 spoonfulls at either solid feed at the moment. He cries when the spoon isn't in sight and guzzles it down such that I'm certain he'd go for more. He's a very big baby (not that he' been weighed recently but at 4 months he was 8kg) he's already filling 6-9month clothes at not even 5 months... so should I go for it? He wakes by midnight for a bottle and tanks it where at 2 months he was going until3am... we have all sorts of issues at ight with multiple wu but that's another issue.... however part of me thinks it's hunger..... what are your thoughts?

[Lolly]

My DD was weaned at 17 weeks because of reflux but I kept  her on rice cereal with a little apple and pear puree until closer to 6 months. I think I offered x2 per day. Once we were getting to 6 months I offered her finger foods and puree from then on and moved quite quickly to mashed food rather than puree. We moved to 3x a day at 6 months but one meal was only finger foods so she wasn't eating loads.

How much milk is he getting in 24 hours now? 

Laura

[Spandanna]

He has 5 bottles of roughly between 6 and 8oz at a time over the last few days since we swapped to comfort milk. Before that, on normal Aptamil, he could have 8/9 and sometimes 10 oz per bottle 5x a day (sometimes 6)

[Lolly]

He's getting plenty of milk then! I think it would be fine to increase the amount of solids you offer if he is looking for more, just watch that his milk intake doesn't drop.

Laura

[Spandanna]

Thanks...will keep going. We decided to introduce a bit of lunch today so he will have solids three times. He absolutey nailed it, it's like he can't get enough, that was an hour after taking a whole bottle (7oz) and then 3 hours later he has just drained another 8oz of milk! I weighed him this morning and he is 10Kg (and not 5 months until after the weekend!) so he is a big boy, I guess he just needs the extra food