Babyled weaning and a hungry 4month old.

[flower01]

DS is 2nd child. With my older daughter we basically did babyled weaning after spoon-feeding her didn't work. It was great for but she really didn't start that until 7 or 8 months...and didn't eat a significant amount of anything until she was almost 1. Now, I have a babyboy who is a big little guy. He's 100percentile for weight and like 90% for length. He's a great nurser and I'm not anxious to get him on solid food except that he is VERY interested. He stares us down at the dinner table and immediately grabs for food whenever he is around it. It's definitely different from my daughter. I know that 6 months is the recommended age to start baby led weaning but i feel like i'm going to have to give him something soon or he's going to be a very frustrated.


ETA: he sits up on his own very well AND he can push himself up on all fours.
Do you think i should spoon feed him...or should i just put a bowl of pureed veggies in front of him and see what he does?

[hotharmony]

I would look for the signs of readiness for eating food. Which are:
* being able to sit unassisted
* loss of the tongue thrust reflex
* interest in eating and food
* pincer grasp, although at 6 months this one won’t be perfected

If he is displaying all the signs then go ahead and give him some food whether it's by puree or blw method it's up to you.

[possum]

What makes you think he is hungry?
He doesn't know that you're eating food, but he does see you doing something interesting and would love to be a part of the action.
Showing interest in food is an indication that your baby is getting ready for solids - can't eat if he's not interested - but definitely look closely at the other signs of readiness listed by the PP.
You could try putting him in a high chair at the table when everyone else has dinner and offering him a cup, bowl, spoon to see if he will explore those for a bit.
Melinda

[flower01]

Originally Posted by possum

What makes you think he is hungry?
He doesn't know that you're eating food, but he does see you doing something interesting and would love to be a part of the action.
Showing interest in food is an indication that your baby is getting ready for solids - can't eat if he's not interested - but definitely look closely at the other signs of readiness listed by the PP.
You could try putting him in a high chair at the table when everyone else has dinner and offering him a cup, bowl, spoon to see if he will explore those for a bit.
Melinda

I don't think he's hungry. He is nursed on demand so it's not like he's starving. I was just indicating that he's obviously interested, he sits up unassisted and I wasn't sure how to go about with BLW since he's not 6 months yet. I am not quite sure about the tongue thrust (but DR. Sears says that starts to disappear between 4-6 months). I don't have a problem giving him a soft steamed carrot stick at 6 months, but at 4 1/2 I'm not so sure. I really don't want to puree baby food but, since he is showing signs of readiness for food I don't want to keep it from him if it's safe to let him have it.

I have no qualms about giving him food right now...I'm just not sure what to start with since he's so much younger than my DD was when we began BLWing.

[possum]

The title does say he is "hungry." I agree with you that he is not hungry if he is ebf on cue.
If as you mentioned you are not anxious to get him on solids, then I would try honoring his interest in the family meal while still delaying solids a bit. Kellymom.com has lots of great info including this page on solids readiness. There is a section that specifically addresses the eager baby who is interested in meal time before 6 months.
IMO, delaying solids until 6 months is wise because of allergy issues.
Melinda

[flower01]

Originally Posted by possum

The title does say he is "hungry." I agree with you that he is not hungry if he is ebf on cue.
If as you mentioned you are not anxious to get him on solids, then I would try honoring his interest in the family meal while still delaying solids a bit. Kellymom.com has lots of great info including this page on solids readiness. There is a section that specifically addresses the eager baby who is interested in meal time before 6 months.
IMO, delaying solids until 6 months is wise because of allergy issues.
Melinda

LOL! I guess my title was confusing...i didn't mean it literally, just indicating how much interest he has...specifically compared to what i saw with my daughter.

Thanks for the reminder about kellymom.com. I always forget about that site.

[lindsayjean]

hmmmm.... I think at that age you could just sit him with you guys and some toys to play with? 4 months seems awful young to me... I would never start a babe eating before at the very soonest maybe 5.5months. Sounds to me like he just wants to grab anything... not necessarily ready to eat. But... you could always give him something and as long as he developmentally can't get it to his mouth by himself (don't help) the only loss would be a little wasted food.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I have read about freezing breast milk into a popsicle, or into ice cubes and putting them into a mesh feeder. Do you think he would go for that? That way, he would still be getting breast milk, but he would also be participating in eating solids at meal times.

My son was exactly like yours. He started grabbing at everything I was eating at meal times, and even got a few things into his mouth at around five months. I think he was around four months or so when he really started getting fussy when I was eating. I held off until 5.5 months, and got a bit of slack for it, but he really as ready. I don't think I would go for it at four months, but I would try toys, frozen breast milk, possibly even a popsicle made from just water. He won't know he is having something different from you, but he will be in on the action rather than just watching.

[Heidi74]

I hear you. My second DS is now 7 months old, and at around 4 months I could have written your post. He is also really big--24 lbs at his 6 month checkup--and seemed ready for solids early. We were getting a lot of comments from friends and family who couldn't understand why we wouldn't just give that boy some rice cereal!

We managed to hold off until two days before 6 months. At first, we just had him on our laps at mealtimes and brought extra plastic plates and utensils to the table for him to explore. Any new "toy" from the kitchen, really. That tided us over to about 5 months, and then I let him figure out how to use a sippy cup with water. That took a while. Never tried the frozen breastmilk, although that is also a good idea.

Sometimes I think we should have started sooner, because mealtimes were so stressful the last week or so, but I just wasn't comfortable starting with finger foods before 6 months. With DS1 we had started at 5.5 months, and in retrospect I think we should have waited a little bit. DS2 probably could have started a week or two earlier, though...but not at four months.

Incidentally, he is doing really well with BLW, and actually eats quite a bit. He had a rudimentary pincer grasp on his first day of eating, and pretty much perfected it by seven months. Tonight, he was picking up tiny pieces of rice and eating them.

[dahlialia]

My dd just turned 6 months. She was showing a lot of interest in food well before 5 months (unlike my first, too). And I was asking the same questions, debating the same things.

I went with distraction until she was over 5 months. And then what I discovered is...she was interested in food, interested in what we were doing. But she didn't want to eat food. She did, however, want to taste it. She would squeal with delight if I gave her a spear of hard apple, pear, cantaloupe, etc., that she could gum and suck and taste. A month later and she still doesn't want to actually eat. When she gets a small piece of food off she'll spit it out. But if I don't give her some actual food to explore, while we are eating, she will get very unhappy. So for now, we give her large pieces of firm fruit, or things like a chicken bone, a firm piece of steak or chicken meat, etc. Nothing that is too easy to get pieces off. I also give her soft things like scrambled egg, mashed potato, etc., to play with. And it is interesting - because she is not ready to eat, she will not put these in her mouth no matter how much she plays with them. And once her hand is dirty she won't put it in her mouth until we wipe it off. But again, she wants the food, wants to explore it, because we have it.

When she is ready to eat, I think there will be no stopping her, she has the mechanics down so well LOL

[dislocator3972]

Originally Posted by flower01

DS is 2nd child. With my older daughter we basically did babyled weaning after spoon-feeding her didn't work. It was great for but she really didn't start that until 7 or 8 months...and didn't eat a significant amount of anything until she was almost 1. Now, I have a babyboy who is a big little guy. He's 100percentile for weight and like 90% for length. He's a great nurser and I'm not anxious to get him on solid food except that he is VERY interested. He stares us down at the dinner table and immediately grabs for food whenever he is around it. It's definitely different from my daughter. I know that 6 months is the recommended age to start baby led weaning but i feel like i'm going to have to give him something soon or he's going to be a very frustrated.


ETA: he sits up on his own very well AND he can push himself up on all fours.
Do you think i should spoon feed him...or should i just put a bowl of pureed veggies in front of him and see what he does?

That's exactly why I started my DD on purees and food i/o BLW. I expected to do some spoon feeding, but not as early as we had to. I think bigger babies may start needing more nutrition than just breastmilk earlier than normal-sized babies. Just my theory.

What about mesh feeders? I give my DD a frozen cube of avacado or banana or a piece of cold apple in a mesh feeder, then spoon feed her about an ounce or so of a puree once a day. If she's not into it, I don't worry, but after starting this she seems less hungry (back to nursing ever 2-3 hours instead of 1-2 hours like before we started foods) and happier.

If you think it's curiosity and not hunger, then you could probably do carrot sticks and other carefully picked food items to let him get the feel of foods. (Sweet potatoes, banana, avacado, etc)

HTH

[Heidi74]

Originally Posted by dislocator3972

I think bigger babies may start needing more nutrition than just breastmilk earlier than normal-sized babies. Just my theory.

HTH

Can I disagree? I don't think it's as simple as that, although it may be true in some cases. I always found it strange when people would say my kids needed solids early (both were big babies, but DS2 is extremely so....he had doubled his birthweight by two months and was over 24 pounds at his six month check.) The thing is--breastmilk is what got them this big in the first place, and breastmilk is far more nutritious than any of the foods I would be starting them on. What are typical baby foods? Most of them are the foods we as adults would eat if we were on a diet...peas, carrots, etc. Sometimes, big babies probably get that way precisely because the breastmilk is so rich. Of course, genetic potential plays in in a big way too...

Now, if a baby was nursing every hour out of true hunger, and it wasn't simply cluster feeding...ie. lasted more than a few weeks, it might be worth considering something like cereal, but my babies have not been nursing particularly often either...at least not for more than a short period of time to get my milk supply up.

[zwitterion]

Originally Posted by Heidi74

Can I disagree? I don't think it's as simple as that, although it may be true in some cases.

My DD has been 95th percentile for most of her life in height and weight, and she has been very slow to get into solids. She will definitely taste and try, and has enjoyed doing so from about 6-7 months, but even now at 19 months (and 95th percentile), she eats much fewer solids than other kids her age.

[claddaghmom]

OP, I feel for you. I introduced foods early to DD, too. She never did pureed or baby foods, in fact she hates them.

I am so embarrassed about it. Because she was sitting up unassisted at 2 months, then by 3 months had a pincer grasp, she was grabbing food and eating it w/o a reflex. I gave in to it, sadly. Her first food was a carrot and sipping water out of my cup. She then went on to eat lots of fruits and some veggies. *At least* I waited until 6-7 months to start introducing anything she wanted.

Next time around I am going to try different methods to avoid this situation. I'm going to try

freezing my milk so it can be gnawed on
providing baby toys/utensils so the baby can play with them at the table
and if the babe gets as demanding as DD was, we might just have to separate our family for meals.

Good luck, I feel your pain!

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by Heidi74

Can I disagree? I don't think it's as simple as that, although it may be true in some cases. I always found it strange when people would say my kids needed solids early (both were big babies, but DS2 is extremely so....he had doubled his birthweight by two months and was over 24 pounds at his six month check.) The thing is--breastmilk is what got them this big in the first place, and breastmilk is far more nutritious than any of the foods I would be starting them on. What are typical baby foods? Most of them are the foods we as adults would eat if we were on a diet...peas, carrots, etc. Sometimes, big babies probably get that way precisely because the breastmilk is so rich. Of course, genetic potential plays in in a big way too...

Now, if a baby was nursing every hour out of true hunger, and it wasn't simply cluster feeding...ie. lasted more than a few weeks, it might be worth considering something like cereal, but my babies have not been nursing particularly often either...at least not for more than a short period of time to get my milk supply up.

DS has always been a big baby (born at 9 lbs, 21 lbs by 6 months, 27 lbs at one year) and has also always nursed just about every hour. We started solids (via BLW) at 6 months, but he would just play with the food. He didn't start actually EATING much until closer to 14-15 months old. Breastmilk was what got him that big, and was all he wanted/needed.

[hakeber]

My ds was very interested in food and trying textures and flavors at about 4.5 months and I had read that if they grab for it and can try it, let them at it. The first food he ever had was a stalk of steamed broccoli. Didn't do him any harm.

We skipped the puree and spoon stage, except when we were having soup for dinner, then he got soup from a spoon. But all of this was just exploration and EXTRA calories. It wasn't instead of BF. Though he did sleep longer at night once he started really getting into solids with protein, beans, eggs, meat, dairy etc (between 6-12 months). It really didn't do him any harm and it certainly didn't interrupt his nursing schedule.

ETA: we gave him soft foods and gnawable foods like teething biscuits, and small bits of banana, and papaya, cooked apple chunks, pumpkin, carrots, (we tried avacadoes but they made ds constipated) and breastmilk pops (Breast Milk pureed with fruit or veg or both) and then later on eggs, and pasta, broths, and chicken and fish, and then by the time he was a year we had introduced dairy so he got cheese and yogurt and stuff like that.

I feel a bit silly asking this, but that's why we have these forums here, right? To learn? So what's the big deal with starting solids at 4 or 5 months old if they show all the signs of readiness as listed by hotharmony? Why would I want to postpone and distract and avoid giving them food if they seem ready? Did I just get incredibly lucky, or what?

[claddaghmom]

Originally Posted by hakeber

My ds was very interested in food and trying textures and flavors at about 4.5 months and I had read that if they grab for it and can try it, let them at it. The first food he ever had was a stalk of steamed broccoli. Didn't do him any harm.

We skipped the puree and spoon stage, except when we were having soup for dinner, then he got soup from a spoon. But all of this was just exploration and EXTRA calories. It wasn't instead of BF. Though he did sleep longer at night once he started really getting into solids with protein, beans, eggs, meat, dairy etc (between 6-12 months). It really didn't do him any harm and it certainly didn't interrupt his nursing schedule.

ETA: we gave him soft foods and gnawable foods like teething biscuits, and small bits of banana, and papaya, cooked apple chunks, pumpkin, carrots, (we tried avacadoes but they made ds constipated) and breastmilk pops (Breast Milk pureed with fruit or veg or both) and then later on eggs, and pasta, broths, and chicken and fish, and then by the time he was a year we had introduced dairy so he got cheese and yogurt and stuff like that.

I feel a bit silly asking this, but that's why we have these forums here, right? To learn? So what's the big deal with starting solids at 4 or 5 months old if they show all the signs of readiness as listed by hotharmony? Why would I want to postpone and distract and avoid giving them food if they seem ready? Did I just get incredibly lucky, or what?

It has to do with the average time of GI tract development...aka when the gaps between the goblet cells close and the digestive/endocrine system begins excreting all the proper enzymes, etc.

Yes, there are babies out there who experience this development earlier than others. But how are you to tell short of cutting open their stomach and looking?

You can wait for all the signs, but those are related signs, not definitive symptoms. Just b/c DD got teeth early or sat up early, doesn't mean her stomach was working properly.

Additionally, there's a cultural aspect to this as well. Meaning the American culture pushes solids very early. So it's hard not to overcompensate for that when dispensing advice.

[hakeber]

Thanks for that! Definitely worth taking into consideration.