Weaning novice: when to offer water, how much food in grammes is baby eating and other weaning headaches

[Gemmitygem]

Calling experienced mums!

DS (22 weeks) has now had 5 days of some food (baby rice, pumpkin and pear so far). He gets breastfed morning, evening and late evening, and about 14 oz of expressed milk in a bottle late morning and early afternoon (14 oz in total over 2 feeds). He has the food late morning and early evening (after most of the milk feed).

He seems keen on the veg etc and happy to eat as much as I'll give him, but obviously don't want to overdo it. SO far he has had up to 10-12 tiny spoons at each sitting, which seems rather a lot, but he's been fine with that, no probs with tum, digestion etc, I wondered:

1. is there some kind of amount guide for food? like 'not more than 30 g' or something?, a maximum ceiling.

1. At what point in weaning do you offer water? Is it only once they start protein?

1. What age would you introduce a 'breakfast', i.e. bit of oats or whatever after the morning feed?

Any tips appreciated!

[KathyMCMLXXII]

I think as long as they are getting loads of milk you can be pretty relaxed about how much food and when. Common sense would suggest to increase very slowly to give you a chance to pick up any problems. Milk's going to be his main food for ages and ages yet.

[fluffyanimal]

I wouldn't do any more than you are already doing at the moment. I don't think there are any guidelines for amount in grammes, but at 22 weeks if you are giving solids at all, then only a few spoonfuls for the sake of getting used to tastes and textures, not for the sake of actually filling / feeding him. Carry on like this for a few weeks - if you want to vary the food to try other tastes that's fine, but I wouldn't increase quantities and start breakfasts for a few weeks. But I would start offering water straight away, though don't stress if he refuses if he is getting plenty of bf. HTH

[Gemmitygem]

thanks!

today he started complaining when I took the spoon away and opening his mouth like a baby bird for more rice and pear, (normally he only does this if you try to take his bottle of expressed milk away, he gets the bottle twice a day whilst I pump the next day's milk at work)..

He ended up having one breast plus about 8 teaspoons of rice and pear plus the other breast, I offered him water but didn't seem interested (also prob a silly time to offer him water), but will maybe offer a bit of water just to get him used to the cup...