Solids - is she ready?

**tigger71** · 29-09-2006, 10:36am

After weeks of waking up for a feed whenever the mood took her, Emily has settled into a consistent pattern over the past few weeks of waking at around 4am, having about two-thirds of a bottle and going straight back to sleep again.

Two nights ago, however, she completely drained the nighttime bottle (just under 7oz), then last night she woke up at 4.30, did the same and refused to go back to sleep! I did what I normally do in these situations, put her back in her cot and left her to it, but at 6am she started really kicking off. As soon as I gave her some more milk she conked out almost immediately and didn't wake up until 9.30 (so we both had a nice lie-in, but still.....

). In other words, she was obviously tired but clearly still hungry!

This morning she has virtually drained another bottle and is still whinging, which leads me to suggest she is still hungry once again!

So am wondering whether she's trying to tell me she's ready for solids? Or whether I should just up her milk feeds? She'll be 17 weeks next week so could start her on baby rice, but was hoping to wait until after she's had her last lot of jabs (the week after next) as it knocked her appetite out last time and don't want to try shoving rice down her if she's barely even taking her milk!

Oh, and for the past week or so she's been staring at us eating - I was at a friend's house for lunch yesterday and she couldn't take her eyes off me while I was eating, looking a bit disgruntled and poking her tongue out every so often!

Advice, please??

xx

***Marti*** · 29-09-2006, 11:09am

I have no exerience in this department, but all i can say its gotta be worth a try, if she doesnt like it/ it doesnt work than least you have gave it a shot...

as you can tell, im abit of a trial and error mum

**tigger71** · 29-09-2006, 11:13am

Me too.....!

**skylark** · 29-09-2006, 11:28am

Hi tigger, I would suggest that you hold out giving her solids. things like baby rice and porridge have very little nutritional value and her little body has not fully developed the systems to process solid food yet. So at this stage it would just fill her up without actually giving her any benefit. I would just increase her milk.

**lucypede** · 29-09-2006, 11:34am

Have you tried hungry baby milk - it might keep her going for a bit longer and fill her up better at bedtime. The lusting over food thing is one of the signs they tell you to look for though. But I think most HV's would say extend her with hunry formula first!

**Julesb** · 29-09-2006, 11:46am

I'd also try the different formula before trying the rice.

Weaning babies doesn't necessarily make them sleep better either.

**MamaJ** · 29-09-2006, 12:37pm

Your baby is going through a growth spurt which is typical for her age and all you need to do is up her milk intake.
Babies go through growth spurts every few weeks and when they are breastfeeding although it seems they are starving the extra sucking is so they up the milk supply from the breast, as a bottle fed baby just increasing the amount would work.

**Azana** · 29-09-2006, 03:07pm

what MamaJ said. She is highly unlikely to be ready, her digestive system would probably struggle - also I remember with dd1 sleeping got worse with weaning ( for lots of other mums too) - the first foods are LESS calorific than milk. You are probably itching to get going with weaning, I was with dd1 - trust me it is a total PITA

Marti I don't think it is really a trial and error situation, though I am with you in sentiment....the official advice now is 6 months - 5 months at least I would say makes sense.

**Shoppie** · 29-09-2006, 03:22pm

I did a similar thread with weaning in the title so if you search threads started by me, you should find it. The advice was pretty much acrosss the board to leave it for a bit.

**Swiss Babe** · 29-09-2006, 03:23pm

I would also recommend the hungry baby formula. DD (15 weeks) was like this a couple of weeks ago so I gave her Aptimal Hungry Baby for a few days and it seemed to help and she is now back on the normal Aptimal. I put it down to a growth spurt and we just rode it out. She is now back to sleeping through again and not crying after the bottle has finished so looks like it was only temporary...

I am trying to hold out weaning for as long as possible because it sounds such a palava