Hi all

Im looking for a bit of advice for weaning premature babies. My daughter was born at 34+4 weeks and is now 4 months old. My hv told me that I should not even consider weaning her until she is 6 months. I thought this was fine until I was reading a few things and it said that premature babies should be weaned early due to being low in iron or something like that.

Has anyone started their premature baby earlier than 6 months and if so how did it go? I just don't know what to do. I think I will mention it to the HV again. I know she is not ready yet to be weaned as she is showing no signs yet of being ready. If she is ready at 5 months though I wouldn't like to hold her off if its ok to wean her at that stage.

Confused!!!!

Louise

hi my son was born at 32week and i weaned him at 4 1/2 months and he was ready for it cos the bottles werent satisfying him but that was 10yrs ago and i know alot has changed since then.But saying that you will know when shes ready for it

Hi, my son was born at 29 weeks and I was advised by the Neonatal nurses to weak him at around 18 to 19 weeks because he wasn't settled on milk alone. You wean from their actual birth day not the day they should have been born because their digestive systems have had milk for just as long as a full term baby would have if that makes sense.

Kenny is 8 weeks now and is a hungry wee man. He was 33+1. My mum is trying to persuade me to add a tiny bit of rusks into his diet but im not keen. She said she fed that to me and no harm was done and I loved the taste. Kenny has to take liquid Vitamins for a year and when I give them to him, his face lights up because of the different flavours.

My twin girls were born at 32+5 and I started weaning at 21 weeks (13 weeks corrected). They were no longer satisfied on milk alone and the food has really helped and they clearly needed it.

The BLISS website suggests starting prem babies early and my HV suggested holding on until 6 months.

I've found with my girls that they are very good at giving me signs when they are ready for me to take the next step.

Denise re rusks, if you do introduce them make sure they are gluten free. We're playing safe and staying off gluten until they are 8 months (6 months corrected). We found Baby Rice is a great food to start them on and then start on veggies and fruit. Annabel Karmels book is great for ideas and hints.

Eve was born at 31+5 weeks and I weaned her at 4 months (actual age) - she was so starving I had no choice and she loved it!!

i weaned my twin girls at 4 1/2 months, they were born at 32wks. just start really slowly, teaspoon at one feed for at least 3 wks, and take it from there.

Thanks. Is it better to give her the rice before her bottle or after it? I think I will start her on it next week and see how it goes.

what i started with was, give her a little bit of milk so she knows she is being fed, then show her the spoon, show her that your putting it in the food, make a big fuss of it and put it to her mouth and let her taste it then go from there. then give her the rest of the milk. do it at the time of day that ur relaxed and when u dont have visitors so that she has all your attention. they say not to try when they are screaming hurngy as they get to disstressed. i made the rice really runny the first time so that it was more like milk. good luck, let us know how u get on.

Hi just to let you all know that I started Kara on baby rice on Friday. She got on really well. I gave it to her at her lunch time feed. She was a bit funny with it but took a few wee spoonfuls for me. I couldn't give it to her on Saturday as she was screaming for her bottle but I gave it to her yesterday and today and she loved it. She didn't want me to take the spoon out of her mouth. She was whinging to get more. She then finished her bottle. I was so proud of her. I hope this continues. She will be 5 months on Saturday. Her daddy can't wait to see her tomorrow getting her spoonfeeds as he has been working all weekend.

I was just wondering how long do I keep her on one solid a day before I start introducing more. I was going to give her a different taste every couple of days and alternate the rice but still keep it at 1 feed a day but I am not sure what to do. I don't know when to start on 2 feeds a day and so on. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Louise

glad ur going well. i had the same food for a week but i only did that for about two and a bit weeks and then i just gave the same food for two days or so and just now add new foods in all the time. and as for two feeds go slow, i gave it three weeks beforei gave a second feed and i am still only on two feeds and thinking of adding in the third.

Hey girls, I though I would bring my weaning questions back to this topic. This might be a very silly question, but here goes anyway. Do you sterilise their bowl and spoon or can they just be washed in hot soapy water. I asked my friend who has 2 girls and she cant remember what she done. Kenny is 5 months in 1 week and I was going to wait but might try him with something today.
xx

Denise

I just wash the bowl and the spoon in hot soapy water. I have loads of spoons though for Kara so I tend to just put the spoon in the dishwasher. Apparently you don't have to sterlise bowls and spoons just the bottles. Hope Kenny enjoys food.

Thanks nashy, I gave him a little bit of Rusks at lunch time and he loved it. I washed and sterilised the bowl but with your advice I wont bother with the sterilising now. He would have eaten the lot if he had the chance but I dont want to give him too much too soon so he had a few spoonfulls and Im glad I had his bib on, what a mess, lol. I will so the same tomorrow and just see how things go.

lol thats great. The mess is so funny. Kara always loved the rusks although I haven't given them to her as often now as she is on 3 proper meals.

If you are going to use jars watch the ones with the vegetables and are coloured orange as they stain everything and have destroyed a lot of my bibs. I keep these bibs now for this type of food.

Good Luck with weaning its not easy.

Thats great that Kara is taking 3 meals a day.

Iv bought baby rice to use instead of the Rusks as I was worried they were to sweet and they were not gluten free. I borrowed the Annabel Karmel book from the library as I dont want to use the jars and would rather make my own food. She recommends that pre-term babies are weaned between 4-7 months uncorrected age so im confident im doing the right thing weaning him now and bugger the HV if she doesnt agree.

Exactly the HV are only going by books and rules. Mums always know best. I gave Kara baby rice the first few days although I found her very windy with it. I had intended of doing my own meals but I am not very good at cooking as I don't eat a variety myself and wouldn't know what to mix with what lol. I know I'm terrible. I have heard about the Annabel Karmel book but I didn't want to buy it in case I didn't use it. Maybe I will go to the library and see if they have it. I never thought of that. Then I could be the best cook ever. I would prefer to do home cooking for her although the jars are handy at times.

I got two of the Annabel Karmel books and they are a godsend. Easy recipes even a rubbish cook like me can follow.

:o:o:o I can't believe what I'm reading! This is totally the opposite of what I have been advised by my HV. Weaning advised at 6 months, my LO was born 5 weeks prem. So take 5 weeks, divide by 2 = 2 1/2 and plus onto 6 months = 6 1/2 months. Well, nothing much else I can do now, as LO is already over 6 months and I'm starting weaning in 2 Saturdays time, as I want hubby to be home when she has her first solids... But I don't think she's at all interested in food yet, and she only has 4 x 7 oz a day and doesn't want more. So hardly starving her...

Good luck with the weaning. I think its a bit of a grey area when it comes to weaning premmie babies but im going by advice from Bliss. He is doing really well with the baby rice so im going to try him with carrots tomorrow.

My HV told me to wean her at 6 months corrected age - she would have been 8 months!
I started weaning Morgana at 5 1/2 months uncorrected age and she seemsto enjoying it, laughing with food in her mouth and opening wide for the next spoon. I'm trying to make sure to give her higher calorie food with vegetables and fruit, such as greek yoghurt and potato and cheese.
I think most HV don't know much at all about premature babies, so I followed the advice Bliss gave.