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Baby rice....what age?

As most of you know Bronwyn is a big girl. She has been taking 7oz of milk for some feeds, so I have put her onto the formula for hungry babies. She is wolfing that down too. It has been suggested that I should mix babyrice in with her milk. I am not convinced, that at 6 weeks old, that is a good idea! Although some woman in a shop said she gace her son babyrice at 5 weeks!!!! I think Bronwyn will need weaning early due to her size. Just wondered what your experiences are. Thanks

Replies

  • Hi caroline,

    I'm no expert but I think it's a little early for baby rice, putting it in her milk also runs the risk of it becoming too solid and her choking (I know I'm over paranoid with things like choking but that's what comes of being a peads nurse!)

    My friends baby was a very hungry baby and she put him on hungry formula and just weaned him a little earlier than usual bout 3 and half mths.

    Hope you find a solution

    Love jd_mummy x
  • Hi Caroline

    I think you'll find everyone has a different opinion or experience on this and advice tends to differ from one hv to another!!

    As far as i know babyrice should never be added to the milk in the bottle as this can be a choking hazard.

    Ethan started on a tiny bit of baby rice at 12weeks as he was exclusive breastfed and was hungry we personally thought this was a better option than introducing formula just to fill him up.

    I think the boxes of baby rice say from 4months but i think hv's will always go on about not feeding a baby until 6months. I personally think this is ridiculous and always want to ask them what age they fed their child but never have the nerve!!

    Hope this helps Take care love Tasha xx
  • Hi Caroline,

    I gave Jack baby rice from 13 weeks although not in his bottle, that's when he was ready to be weaned. Like the others i'm no expert, from what i remember with Charl you are not supposed to give it too early as their digestive system is still immature and can only cope with milk. Try and hold back a few weeks, maybe untill she is 10 weeks, then see if she'll take it off a spoon.

    Hope you are well.

    Chat soon. Zoe x
  • Hi Zoe!
    Im am fine thanks! Getting no housework done due to a clingy baby and a clingy cat who has been AWOL for a week and now wants to be everywhere i go! Including following me to the toilet!!!!

    We are using stage 2 milk for hungry babies which seems to be working, I need to finish the stage 1 stuff as I have a new tub of it. Bronwyn is taking great interest in what I am eating too, which is strange!
  • Hi Caroline. The official advice (I saw a lot of dieticians with Bon) is that you should give milk exclusively for the first six months and then wean onto solids starting usually with baby rice. However, each child is different. I would say in my opinion that six weeks is too early, but as you say Bronwyn is a large baby and if she is ready sooner, then there isn't much any government advice can do to change that. See how it goes on the new formula and if that doesn't do the trick, try offering her a few spoons of rice made up with the formula. 'They' reccomend that you give new foods either at breakfast or lunch so you can monitor for adverse reactions.

    You are lucky that she is interested in eating, I struggled to get Bon to eat anything for the first eighteen months and he has only in the past year shown any interest in what we eat. He's currently eating bacon for England when he gets the chance. With all the stress we went through with him and his weight, any food he actually chooses is a bonus and I really don't care how fattening it is! I have noticed that his dislike of a meal is in direct proportion to the effort I put into making it. The more effort, the less he likes it.
  • Thanks for your advice girls. I wasn't actually planning on introducing bay rice yet, just wondered what ages you had all started your babies on it. I don't think Bronwyn is ready yet but have been getting all sorts of dodgy advice. Mainly from family members who thinkthey are being helpful, but also from random strangers who as soon as they hear her size feel the need to tell me to feed her baby rice!
  • Hi Caroline. I started Bon on a spoonful or two of rice a day when he was five and a half months. He was massively underweight and he was being weighed weekly and lost weight and he really couldn't afford to do that. So with the agreement of the HV I began to wean him. He took to it OK, was obviously ready, I had to give him formula aswell to help, stopped breast feeding at around seven months and he slept through consistently from that week onwards. He gave up milk, just refused to take any in any form from any kind of bottle or beaker at around eight months so had to be fully weaned at that point.

    Advice is great as long as you know the motives of the person giving it to you. My hubbie's gran is just very kindly and having brought up 12 children knows what she is talking about but has no interest in controlling me or Bon. My MIL, however, is and so I listen, nod and generally ignore her.

    The problem is that all children are different and therefore no advice will ever be 100% for you as Bronwyn will do her own thing when she is ready so just arm yourself with information and go with your maternal instinct and the signals Bronwyn gives you. If you are doing what works for you, you can't go too far wrong.

    Don't mean to sound preachy, maybe this is the result of being an supposed 'older mother'!
  • Hi Caroline, like the others have said, you will get lots of conflicting advice.But I agree never to give rice from the bottle.If a baby is ready for weaning, they should (in theory) be able to take it from a spoon (the flat weaning spoons ar great).

    I had conflicting advice between having my first and second baby from the same hv. With Niamh I was told not to introduce anything until 17 weeks at the very earliest, but she was just so hungry (even on the hungrier formula) that we started at about 14 weeks. She hated baby rice, and within a couple of weeks was onto 3 meals a day. shes still a good eater thank goodness, but I have to give her lots of healthy snacks because if it was up to her, she'd eat 24hrs a day,
    With Tara, I was asked by the hv at 5 weeks if Id started weaning yet, and when I said Id offered, but she wasnt overly interested, she told me to keep offering. And, as with Niamh, Tara also eats like a horse.
    Basically, you will know when Bronwyns ready, and she'll soon let you know.
    Kas xx

    p.s sorry for the essay
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