weaning ?!
hi,
my daughter is my second baby. and she is 16 and a half weeks old. she was breastfed for the first 9 weeks, but after 2 painful bouts of mastitis, and sobbing for a week every time she fed, my partner finalyl convinced to me to stop torturing myself and just switched to bottles. i felt awful for the first week, but when my daughter started sleeping through from 11pm - 7am at 10 and a half weeks, [breastfed she want feeding every 2 hours] i felt much better and happier that she was fuller for longer.
at 13 weeks i switched her to the hungry baby Aptamil because she started waking in the night for a 7oz feed, and immediately she started sleeping through again and going for 4 hours between feeds.
however, now at 16 week and a half weeks, shes going every 3 hours on a 6oz bottle. ive tried giving her 7oz over the past week but she either refuses it or throws it back up, but she always seems to still be hungry after a feed.
my son was weaned at 18 weeks as he was on hungry baby formula from 5 weeks old, and was on 9oz every 4 hours till 18 weeks when i started weaning him [he immediately slept through from 10pm - 6am] i just gave him baby rice in the morning and at night before he went to bed till he was 22 weeks and then started with apple, banana blended till 24 weeks then carrots sweet potato etc.
however i had planned to breastfeed for 6 months exclusively with my daughter, and my son is now 4 years old and weaning/feeeding guidelines have changed so much in that space of time [ie no longer make bottles up in advance, although it never did my son any harm i dont do it with my daughter]
so im wondering what to do? whenever me and the boyfriend are eating, she watches us so intently and everything that goes in her hand goes in her mouth, and im so worried that shes still hungry, but i dont want to wean her too early but she refuses/throws up any more than 6oz.
ideas?
Replies
My son was a very similar story to your daughter except he just struggled with bf and we later found out he was tongue tied, hungry baby milk only satified him for a while and i then said to hv hes never satisfied and i weaned him at 17wks even though he was prem and apparently they need to wait longer the hv was very supportive, within a day or two he was happy and sleeping brilliantly,
although i was told to slowly remove the hungry baby milk as he ate more, but wen they reach 6months theres night time milks which are fantastic!!! as i was loathed to stop hungry baby milk at bed time,
even though he was 17wks when we started hes had no allergies and will eat anything, but never liked baby rice had it a couple of times then used it to thin down carrot swt potatoe etc which he loved, And im not sure 100% on the rules of age etc but we tried baby led weaning, offering him sticks of steamed carrot etc cheese, brown bread etc and by 5mnths he would happily eat sandwiches. Jack was one in july so im sure the rules wont have changed a huge amount, but my health visitor simply said if hes hungry, feed him.