The idea is you don't give your baby purees of who-knows-what. You offer her little bits of recognisable food to play with, and gradually she eats them, and is thus less hungry for milk. In this steady, stress-free way, your baby very slowly weans herself.
Good links:
http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/
http://www.rapleyweaning.com/
I have to admit I have been trying a mixture of the conventional glop-on-a-spoon method, combined with BLW. Yoghurt, a huge favourite with many babies, including the Hungry Mouth, is glop, after all. But finger food is lots of fun, and less messy.
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Weaning woes
A brisk summary would be:
We've been well and truly 'had' by the breastfeeding police. But nobody doesn't end up eating solid food, right?
A less brisk summary would be:
As currently decreed by the BFP (see above), I breastfed exclusively till the Hungry Mouth was six months old, despite the way until extremely recently mums were advised to begin weaning when their babies reached four months old. But after six months of as much milk as she wanted, and not a sniff of anything else, the Hungry Mouth seems to be addicted to milk.
Two and a bit months later, she still doesn't seem to associate solid food with something that will assuage hunger. We parade a wide variety of foods, textures and shapes across her high-chair tray, three times a day. She is capable of spoonfeeding herself (and indeed resists being fed), seems to think many foods are interesting and deliciously lickable, has mostly mastered the 'pincer' grip required for picking up finger food effectively, can drink water from a bottle or sippy cup or even a cup held to her lips, loves to play Bang the Spoon and Drop the Snack, but...
...when she's hungry, she just wants milk.
We expect things to improve gradually, but I bet she'd be eating by now if we'd started sooner. Humph.
We've been well and truly 'had' by the breastfeeding police. But nobody doesn't end up eating solid food, right?
A less brisk summary would be:
As currently decreed by the BFP (see above), I breastfed exclusively till the Hungry Mouth was six months old, despite the way until extremely recently mums were advised to begin weaning when their babies reached four months old. But after six months of as much milk as she wanted, and not a sniff of anything else, the Hungry Mouth seems to be addicted to milk.
Two and a bit months later, she still doesn't seem to associate solid food with something that will assuage hunger. We parade a wide variety of foods, textures and shapes across her high-chair tray, three times a day. She is capable of spoonfeeding herself (and indeed resists being fed), seems to think many foods are interesting and deliciously lickable, has mostly mastered the 'pincer' grip required for picking up finger food effectively, can drink water from a bottle or sippy cup or even a cup held to her lips, loves to play Bang the Spoon and Drop the Snack, but...
...when she's hungry, she just wants milk.
We expect things to improve gradually, but I bet she'd be eating by now if we'd started sooner. Humph.
Nappy sizing and such
Just a quick word of advice. This applies to disposables, in my experience, as I've not tried the Other Kind.
You produce a perfect tiny pink bottom (attached to your newborn), and you take it home in due course ready to polish it clean at extremely frequent intervals. You are supplied with a small pack of newborn-size (size 1, they term it, if memory serves) nappies. Unless you knew your baby would be premature, in which case you have some even tinier nappies to hand. In case a baby elephant arrives instead, you also have a small pack of the next size up (size 2).
If you've never attached a nappy to a real baby bottom before, as I had not, fear not, 'tis very simple. Probably a midwife has additionally assisted you to change the first meconium-drenched nappy in the hospital. In the case of the Hungry Mouth (who actually wasn't very hungry at first), she squirted meconium over all her brand-new babygarb the first night, so take many a spare vest and babygro to the hospital. Incidentally, that sticky black Marmite-like meconium kept coming for several days before it all went lovely mustard yellow and runny.
I digressed there, didja notice? Sorry: we are discussing sizing. The key thing here is that babies grow. They grow very fast. Their bottoms grow too. In a couple of weeks you can hardly squeeze the sticky side tabs onto the adorable nappy picture strip, ands you still have a half-pack of size 1s. So out you send Hubby to achieve size 2s - and many of them, you reckon, since the other thing newborn babies do is wee. A lot. Ten times a day, perhaps. But only a few weeks later, every poo squirts copiously up her back (Pampers) or down her leg (Huggies). Time to upsize, despite that spare pack or so. Off you scurry to get size 3s, and at this point, you could invest in two packs, shall we say. Depending on how hungry the Hungry Mouth you've had is...the size 3s may do another month or so. But by the time your baby is about 4 or 5 months old, you may well be onto size 4s, from which some skinny babies never graduate. The Hungry Mouth is on size 4+ at 8 months, but she is thinning down as she gets more mobile, so I don't think we'll need to upsize just yet.
At size 4, I think you could start taking advantage of the jumbo packs and 2-for-1 offers. Try to use all the discount vouchers for the 'leading brands' you'll probably have been sent, but do try out supermarket own brands. Cheaper, and sometimes less leaky. Though sometimes bulkier (no problem in winter and when your baby is very small and needs warmth). Boots and Sainsburys are good.
And give your spare tiny nappies to brand-new mums who haven't yet got the hang of their preferred brand or size.
You produce a perfect tiny pink bottom (attached to your newborn), and you take it home in due course ready to polish it clean at extremely frequent intervals. You are supplied with a small pack of newborn-size (size 1, they term it, if memory serves) nappies. Unless you knew your baby would be premature, in which case you have some even tinier nappies to hand. In case a baby elephant arrives instead, you also have a small pack of the next size up (size 2).
If you've never attached a nappy to a real baby bottom before, as I had not, fear not, 'tis very simple. Probably a midwife has additionally assisted you to change the first meconium-drenched nappy in the hospital. In the case of the Hungry Mouth (who actually wasn't very hungry at first), she squirted meconium over all her brand-new babygarb the first night, so take many a spare vest and babygro to the hospital. Incidentally, that sticky black Marmite-like meconium kept coming for several days before it all went lovely mustard yellow and runny.
I digressed there, didja notice? Sorry: we are discussing sizing. The key thing here is that babies grow. They grow very fast. Their bottoms grow too. In a couple of weeks you can hardly squeeze the sticky side tabs onto the adorable nappy picture strip, ands you still have a half-pack of size 1s. So out you send Hubby to achieve size 2s - and many of them, you reckon, since the other thing newborn babies do is wee. A lot. Ten times a day, perhaps. But only a few weeks later, every poo squirts copiously up her back (Pampers) or down her leg (Huggies). Time to upsize, despite that spare pack or so. Off you scurry to get size 3s, and at this point, you could invest in two packs, shall we say. Depending on how hungry the Hungry Mouth you've had is...the size 3s may do another month or so. But by the time your baby is about 4 or 5 months old, you may well be onto size 4s, from which some skinny babies never graduate. The Hungry Mouth is on size 4+ at 8 months, but she is thinning down as she gets more mobile, so I don't think we'll need to upsize just yet.
At size 4, I think you could start taking advantage of the jumbo packs and 2-for-1 offers. Try to use all the discount vouchers for the 'leading brands' you'll probably have been sent, but do try out supermarket own brands. Cheaper, and sometimes less leaky. Though sometimes bulkier (no problem in winter and when your baby is very small and needs warmth). Boots and Sainsburys are good.
And give your spare tiny nappies to brand-new mums who haven't yet got the hang of their preferred brand or size.
Sleeping through the night
Hah! While other babies in my antenatal group seem to be nightly overcome with such drowsiness that they succumb to dreamland at 7pm and don't surface again until dawn's pearly light, ours has a regrettably active social life with Mum and Dad at regular intervals through the hours of darkness. Sometimes hungry, sometimes inexplicably sad, sometimes cheerily ready to play, sometimes she chirps or chokes (alarming, but perhaps just a self-burp?) loudly enough to wake us, and perhaps herself, but then sinks swiftly back into sleep.
It has only been recently (the last three weeks or so, at around eight months) that we started to think of 'sleep training' as a way to get our Hungry Mouth to breastfeed less at night and thus hopefully eat more solid food in the day. (See gloomy weaning posts.) At a healthy weight of 8.5 kilograms she certainly can get through the night without more feeding after 11pm (and some would say she doesn't even need this late feed), so we thought we'd try just cuddling her instead of feeding her whenever she awakes.
Well, some nights are fine - she wakes once or twice, doesn't protest about not being offered milk, and drifts off again with the help of our seashore-sounds baby CD or a cuddle or both. A few nights, she has slept through until 6-30am from 11pm, which is really fine by us. But some nights contain a ghastly two- or three-hour stretch of wide-awake baby: repeated comforting, interspersed with yowls, keeps both parents alert, whether lying tensely in bed or freezing by her side.
And after months of feeding on demand several times a night (not as bad as it sounds, as she usually immediately dropped off after a quick drink), I am attuned to even baby rustles and subject to a variety of anxiety dreams...so I tend to wake up a few times anyway. And being gripped by a panic-stricken wife hissing 'where is she?' tends to wake up my hubby...
So the title of this post is (deliberately) misleading. Nobody's sleeping through the night chez nous.
It has only been recently (the last three weeks or so, at around eight months) that we started to think of 'sleep training' as a way to get our Hungry Mouth to breastfeed less at night and thus hopefully eat more solid food in the day. (See gloomy weaning posts.) At a healthy weight of 8.5 kilograms she certainly can get through the night without more feeding after 11pm (and some would say she doesn't even need this late feed), so we thought we'd try just cuddling her instead of feeding her whenever she awakes.
Well, some nights are fine - she wakes once or twice, doesn't protest about not being offered milk, and drifts off again with the help of our seashore-sounds baby CD or a cuddle or both. A few nights, she has slept through until 6-30am from 11pm, which is really fine by us. But some nights contain a ghastly two- or three-hour stretch of wide-awake baby: repeated comforting, interspersed with yowls, keeps both parents alert, whether lying tensely in bed or freezing by her side.
And after months of feeding on demand several times a night (not as bad as it sounds, as she usually immediately dropped off after a quick drink), I am attuned to even baby rustles and subject to a variety of anxiety dreams...so I tend to wake up a few times anyway. And being gripped by a panic-stricken wife hissing 'where is she?' tends to wake up my hubby...
So the title of this post is (deliberately) misleading. Nobody's sleeping through the night chez nous.
First toothlet
Whee! The Hungry Mouth seems to have cut her first tiny scrap of tooth, lower front! it looks short and sharp and greyish...we hope its appearance will shortly improve to longer and whiter.
Now the Hungry Mouth is eight and a half-ish months old, so this is indeed about when she should be growing tiny teeth, but we were convinced she was teething back when she was but a six-month-old...she did all the teethy things: dribbling, rosy cheeks, red bottom, unaccustomed yowls at night, constant chewiness. This went on for about three weeks, I think, and then it all stopped (except the chewing, which metamorphosed into more general mouth exploration - licking and chomping and such). And as you've already guessed, no tooth! Maybe her teeth were just getting on the move, sub-gum.
Or maybe, she wasn't teething at all. This very first toothlet has been accompanied by none of the above clues.
Mysterious little tot!
Now the Hungry Mouth is eight and a half-ish months old, so this is indeed about when she should be growing tiny teeth, but we were convinced she was teething back when she was but a six-month-old...she did all the teethy things: dribbling, rosy cheeks, red bottom, unaccustomed yowls at night, constant chewiness. This went on for about three weeks, I think, and then it all stopped (except the chewing, which metamorphosed into more general mouth exploration - licking and chomping and such). And as you've already guessed, no tooth! Maybe her teeth were just getting on the move, sub-gum.
Or maybe, she wasn't teething at all. This very first toothlet has been accompanied by none of the above clues.
Mysterious little tot!
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