Weaning EBF baby

[Orangedaisy]

I am new at this motherhood thing and would appreciate some tips on starting weaning. I am EBF, no pumping or bottles yet (mainly as I am scared to rock the boat-I had mastitis when DD was 10 days old and we had a few issues with her putting weight on-now we have the BF thing nailed I haven't wanted to mess with it).

Should I bite the bullet and get pumping in order to mix breast milk with the baby rice and purées? What about skipping bottles altogether and getting her onto a cup (and if so what goes in the cup-breast milk, formula or water?). Kind of fancy trying straight for a cup just to see if it works... Appreciate I could do purées or BLW, fairly tempted to try a bit of both. And if I were to go straight for the cup, should I just do this for with meals or could I leave milk in this for an evening so I get to go out? I know I could try a bottle but if I can go straight to a cup why not?? Or am I being daft...?

Also a bit concerned about when to do food vs breast feeds. I can't pretend we have anything like a routine yet, DD feeds on demand about 9 times a day with no proper pattern to it really. Any tips on this would be great too.

Many thanks in advance.

[Mildpanic]

How old is your little one?
You seem to be overthinking the whole weaning thing. It is better if you can relax and remember that milk is the main source of nutrition until about one.
How do you want to go? Baby led weaning...fantastic but messy beyond belief. Purees....also great if you want to be sure DC is consuming but can be awkward to then try to add lumps later.
Mix of both, works just as well. What will work for you? Get a Doidy cup if you can. Cheap supermarket beaker often better than the non spill, need super suction.
If DC over 6 months and sitting unaided then get an Antiop chair from Ikea and a few good cover all bibs. Literally give them bits iof what you are having. Don't worry too much about what they might like. My dd loves iceberg lettuce, pineapple, ham, avocado, chips and spagetti as a start???

[BertieBotts]

I just carried on breastfeeding as I had been doing and offered food BLW style at mealtimes. I gave him water in a cup to play with and eventually he worked out he could drink from that too. I never gave milk in a cup because I didn't see the point.

Cutting down/eventually stopping breastfeeding is a totally separate thing to introducing solids, so don't worry :) You only have to worry about one at a time!

[NK5BM3]

If she's already 9 months there's nothing stopping you using the sippy cup. You can get a doidy cup from Mothercare or boots. You can of course try BLW too. Both my kids were weaned that way and although we had several attempts with mush, they didn't really take to it (nor did they take to the bottle tbh). They were both bf till 2 and 3 years too.

Re no of times to bf, I would try and keep to 'after meals' so something like this might be something you wish to try:

Morning: wake up, have breakfast (baby cereal and milk - pumped or cows). If she needs a further drink then you can bf.

Mid morning: fruit snack that she can hold, chew on like a soft pear?

Lunch: whatever you hope to feed her, some milk in sippy cup and if necessary afterwards another bf.

Mid afternoon: as above for mid morning

Dinner: dinner, some milk in cup then bf if necessary.

Last bf before bed or whatever time.

That can reduce your no of feeds gradually but still keep supply.

I don't know what your circumstances are (going back to work or whatever) but don't feel that you need to stop bf just coz of work. As I said, I fed both kids to 2 and 3 years successfully. I went back to work when they were 6 months old. Both refused the bottle so when they were at nursery, they had cows milk in a sippy cup. I did however feed just before I dropped off at the nursery, and then went back to nursery at lunch time (I work v close by to nursery) and then at pick up at 5. And then at home.

Good luck!

[NK5BM3]

Whoops sorry must have read wrong that she's 9 months...! How old is she?

[CultureSucksDownWords]

OK. I would agree with PP that weaning is not as complex as it seems like.

You don't need to express milk for cooking with (unless you prefer to), as you can simply use whole cows milk in cooking/on cereal from 6 months.

Assuming you want to continue to breastfeed alongside weaning, then to me it is pointless to try an introduce a bottle (of expressed milk or formula). You are supposed to stop any bottles at 12 months anyway, so it seems daft to introduce one only to have to plan to remove it later.

When I started weaning, I offered water with meals in a free flow sippy cup. Not much was drunk for a good while, but they do get the hang of it eventually.

In terms of weaning style, traditional weaning is spoon feeding purees whilst also offering some finger foods when your baby is interested. Baby Led Weaning means only offering food for your baby to learn to self feed (although some BLW-ners are happy for loaded spoons to be offered for runny foods).

You could try offering expressed milk for an evening feed in the sippy cup once your baby has got the hang of drinking from it, instead of giving it in a bottle.

When you start weaning, you only need to start with one meal a day. Offer food (spoonfed or BLW) about 1 hour after a breastfeed so your baby isn't too hungry or too full. Stick with one meal a day for a week or two, and then introduce another meal, and do similar until you are at 3 meals a day by 8 to 9 months old.

I would strongly recommend going to your local library and getting the BLW book (by Gill Rapley) and a traditional weaning book (eg the very popular Annabel Karmel). Have a read of both and see which approach appeals to you.

[MsBug]

Dd didn't have milk from a bottle, when she was about 8 months we introduced a Tommy tippee cup of water with her meals. If I wanted to leave her for the evening she had ebm (if I had bothered to express) or formula in a cup. When she stopped bf at 16 months we started to give her a cup of cow's milk at bedtime too.

We never gave dd baby rice, and she only had a few pouches of purees when we were out as a backup plan. So you don't need to express milk for that.

We introduced one meal at a time, starting with lunch. To start with she hardly took any food and bf just as often as before. Once she started to eat at lunchtime we started giving her breakfast too. She dropped bfs by herself until she finally gave up at 16 months.

[Justgotosleepnow]

Hi you know you don't have to move onto formula when you wean onto solids, yes?
Just offer food at meal times. If they eat it great, if not no worries, just bf as normal.

You will find the food goes up and bf goes down quite naturally and it all finds it's own rhythm.

You don't need a 'routine' just go with the flow

[Orangedaisy]

Thanks everyone for your tips-sorry should have said LO is 5 months now so I intend to start around the 6 month mark.

[zonkmeister]

I am in the process of weaning DD2 and seem to have forgotten everything I did first time round - went far too quickly to begin with and ended up giving her terrible constipation (finally passed a giant perfect sphere yesterday - it looked like giving birth, poor thing!) so have reeled right back and now just giving her tastes a couple of times a day and continuing to EBF. Seems so different with a different baby- DD1 was huge and hungry and I went back to work around the same time as weaning so she had bottles and stuff. DD2 is so much smaller, I have no idea how much food to give her!