Weaning questions

[marshmallow2468]

Hi,

DS is about to turn 5 months, so weaning is on the horizon. He was fully breastfed until a couple of weeks ago when he started having a bottle in the evening. I intend to give up breastfeeding gradually between now and 6 months. I have piles of questions if that's ok! We're hoping to do blw, but we'll see how he gets on, I'm open to doing whatever works.

1 - I know that salt has to be limited. I rarely add it to food while cooking anyway. Which stock cubes can be used? The baby ones from Boots? Oxo reduced salt? Something else?

2 - What about salty foods that I would class as reasonably healthy in moderation? Things like ham, salami, cheese. Basically my favourite foods! Any limits on them? Are there any cheeses that are lower salt?

3 - Speaking of cheese, are mouldy cheeses or those with rind (i.e. Brie) OK?

4 - What equipment do we need? I'm thinking things like cups, plates, bowls etc.

5 - Any rules about sugar? I'm not planning on feeding him Mars bars, but I'd like him to have as varied a diet as possible and be able to enjoy the odd dessert or bit of birthday cake, but wasn't sure if sugar was particularly bad for babies.

6 - How much should he be drinking, and how often? As well as weaning onto solids we'll also be starting to fully formula feed, not sure when bottles should be offered, and how much water he'll need.

7 - Should he have white bread or wholemeal/granary? I'm wary of anything with too many seeds.

I'm sure there's loads more! Thanks in advance!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Haven't got time to answer all of your questions. Some of them (like the sugar) can be answered on the NHS website

The only equipment I bout was a couple of sippy cups and a couple of long sleeved bibs, don't think you actually need anything else.

As for the bfing, the current recommendation is to drop one feed every two weeks. This is to give Lo time to adjust and to reduce your risk of mastitis. A BFC will be able to talk you through stopping bfing, have you got the helpline numbers?

Have you read the Mn weaning info and how do we get started with solids?