Solids causing horrible sleep

[Mandy.kamal]

I've tried solids on and off for 2 months. Each time I give solids her sleep is horrible!!! Like waking at night like a newborn. She has been waking up screaming.

When I stop solids, she goes back to sleeping. She's 6 months and loves solids and so interested in eating. I feel horrible but want to stop again.

Anyone else had this issue? What do I do?

[Katet]

My DS1's sleep was horrid after eating any orange foods - Pumpkin, sweet Potato & carrot basically. So I avoided them & found it was better. Have you got a food diary of any in particular that you have offered because you might be able to find what the issue is.

[Shiv52]

If she's only 6 months now it could be she wasn't ready when you started? What age did you start weaning?

Could you do just breakfast so it is less likely to annoy night sleep?  When I started wesning my DD2 I found dairy really really upset her tummy.

[Mandy.kamal]

I started at 4 months as suggested by her ped bc she has reflux.
I've only done sweet potatoes, avocado and peaches

She wakes up every hour or so screaming. I've tried off and on a few times in 2 months and happens every time.

If I only give it to her in the morning she does a little better but not always. It usually affects all sleep.

[Haribo2012]

Our lo are same I think 6.5 months, we did baby porridge at breaki for a couple of weeks and I avoid acid fruits as mine has reflux too. Often find he does well with some plain natural yoghurt for tea or with a little banana in it, seems to settle tummy x

[Mandy.kamal]

Thank you! X

So did you all just keep at it until they got used to it? It's torture!

I've tried rice cereal and that plugged her up a bit. Very ripe bananas seemed okay for her. I'm scared to try any dairy- I cut it out of my diet when she was only a couple months old and so she hasn't had any diary through her milk yet.

I feel bad- she loves solids and eating. Don't know if I should stop and try again or keep at it with different foods

[Haribo2012]

What about trying other root veg like parsnips they are sweet?

[creations]

It looks like you haven't tried any carbsy foods such as toast fingers or pasta twists or protein foods such as meat/fish, they might go down better?
I avoided fruit in the evening for my silent refluxer.  But if you've only tried a few foods they might be the ones that don't suit your LO. It's hard and slow to trial different foods but it may be the only way forward.

The other thing to ensure when trying solids is that she is not thirsty (offer water with solids or BF during/straight after even if it is not E time) and that her milk intake doesn't drop. If she eats too much solids in one go she might end up missing out on her milk (from being too full) and then wake in the night wanting milk.

As Shiv said, trying at breakfast only may help.
You could also do some tummy rubbing and leg pumping to get wind out before you put her down for naps - I used to do this for my DS, he'd literally pass wind with every leg pump!  I lay him down on his back and gently lifted one leg up towards his shoulder, then the other then both, combined with rubbing gently in a clockwise direction on the tummy to get wind through.  That might help with sleep.

[Buntybear]

Sweet potato bunged Olly up too so we had to keep off that till he was nearer 1 I think.

[Mandy.kamal]

You wonderful ladies. Thank you.

I didn't give her any solids today. I wanted to only do breastmilk to see if that'll help with tonight. She napped amazing so fingers crossed.

So what's a safe food to try?
I'll try parsnips. Anything else?

As far as finger foods- I was worried her bites would be too big leaving her tummy with larger pieces to digest; causes more issues.

I gave her some thin, rice teething wafers. She loves, loves them but those cause the worst issues and hurt her sleep the absolute worst.

Mashed peas maybe? Avocados mashed up hasn't settled well for her either. Tempted to stop for another couple weeks again. Thoughts?

[creations]

There's no harm stopping for a couple of weeks and trying again.

FWIW my DS couldn't eat rice. Any kind of rice made him vomit which surprised me as I thought it was one of the safest foods but the thing with reactions is it can be anything, it's so individual.
I would try some toasted pitta bread so that it's quite dry like the rice wafers and let her gum and munch on a finger of it.  She would just spit out any big bits.
Or how about white potato wedges, oven baked wedges are dry on the outside but soft inside and easy to pick up for finger food.
Plain pasta is a good finger food.  Large chunks of roasted meat big enough to hold and gum and suck on.

[Mandy.kamal]

Thank you so much! She has her 6 month ped appointment this Thursday so I'm holding off until then at least. Then I'll try your suggestions- they sound great. Xx

[michaeljacknnugg]

We had disturbed nights at first with solids, but they eased off within a month. Once you're sure she's ready it might just be worth going for it.

Favourite first foods here were cucumber batons (cool on the gums), baby sweet corn and plain Greek yogurt.

[Mandy.kamal]

Ooooh great idea! Cucumber batons sounds perfect! What about carrot sticks? Too crunchy?
Did you purée the corn?

As far as BLW goes- I'm worried about choking on larger pieces of thing bitten off. Is that unlikely?

[michaeljacknnugg]

If you read the book (Gill Rapley is the author), then it puts your mind at ease.

Carrots and other steamed veg need to be soft enough to suck some of the taste off. Baby corn is great for this as tiny bits come off! I have puréed nothing this time, it's very liberating.

I've got a thread called preparing for weaning where I linked lots of recipes for more complex foods, if that helps?

[creations]

There are also lots of ideas for finger foods here:
Finger Foods (6 months+)

Mine really loved little sugar free banana pancakes (they can be made without egg and milk if you need/want to avoid those), we used to go through loads of those for snacks.

[Mandy.kamal]

This has all been so helpful; thank you. I'm going to read through all these ideas and try some out this week. Her tummy seems so sensitive. She is still intolerant to things in my diet so I've been worried to branch out a little. But I think a more BLW approach may be helpful for her

[Mandy.kamal]

She gnawed on cucumber all day today! She loved it!! Can't wait to try more suggestions. Wanted to give you all huge hugs for your help and support!!

[creations]

It's nice she enjoyed the cucumber
How was her sleep over night though - disturbed or ok?

[Mandy.kamal]

Her sleep was great. So maybe the puréed food was too much and causing the disturbed sleep?
She hardly got any cucumber off; mainly just gumed it so maybe that's better for her for now anyway

[michaeljacknnugg]

Fab! Yes, allowing her to decide how much to eat may well help. My baby went from very small amounts to LOADS!!

[creations]

I feel bad- she loves solids and eating.

You said this in an earlier post and it must have felt impossible for you to keep her happy by giving solids but also want to void them due to the night pains.  It's great she enjoyed her cucumber experience and then had a peaceful sleep. Looks like finger foods is the way forward, let's hope so

[Mandy.kamal]

A littl discouraged now. Had her 6 month ped appointment and she suggested I wait 2 more weeks and thinks that puréed food will be easier for her to digest....

She said start with peas and other greens and go from there every 4 days

[creations]

Oh dear I can see why you feel discouraged.
Well, it's your call at the end of the day.
I wouldn't have started with peas as they have to be pureed to prevent them being a choke hazard, but then pea puree has a bit of a weird texture don't you think, or is that just me thinking that?

I wouldn't have thought it any harm to offer a finger food to suck, lick, gum as you did with the cucumber over those 2 weeks but obviously I am not a paediatrician.  There are such varied thoughts on weaning I feel that parents need to inform themselves and make their own choice.  When my LO was 6 months I went on a weaning course run by the local health visitors and whilst I listened intently I disagreed with what was said and made my own mind up (in essence they said BLW was dangerous but also said puree stage lasted only 2 weeks and finger foods had to be introduced at 6 months - I couldn't work out how one was described as dangerous and the other advised as best practice when they were both finger foods.  In other parts of the UK at the same time as this HVs were giving advice to go the BLW route and no purees...such varied advice).

I do agree that introducing green food earlyish can be helpful as it gets LO used to the taste.

[Shiv52]

It is difficult as there is so much advice out there.  This is my third baby and the HV was out there and gave me a booklet and was really really pushing purees and I asked about finger foods and she was all 'um they wouldnt be as important as purees'.

What I found with both my DDs was they werent overly fussed on individual food like carrot on its own. I used the Annabel karmso weaning books and moved onto her suggestions for meals quite quickly. So from early on they liked things like sweet potato and spinach or Apple,pear and apricot.  My HV says they actually recommend Annabel Karmel as a weaning guide now as her meals are balanced.