Exclusive breastfeeding / when to wean advice please.........

**smiley** · 05-08-2010, 10:49pm

I know H is my 3rd child but I am all

about what to do!

DS1 was formula fed (I bf for about 6w) and weaned at 4.5m
DS2 was bf for 11m, but he had 1-2 formula feeds a day from 4m (as I was back at work and cba to express). He was weaned at 6m, but got iron from his formula feeds.

H was 7lb4oz at birth, and at 4.5m is just over 12lbs.
He is exclusively breastfed, although the 11pmish feed is a bottle of EBM, and he will happily take a bottle (and will take Aptimil that he has on occassion when I have escaped for a few hours

)

The HV has been driving me bananas about his weight (dropping centiles blah blah blah) and this being my 3rd, I know better than to be bullied into giving formula.

H is happy and chubby - he has proper rolls of fat on his thighs/arms, but he just isnt a big kid

He is forever chewing his hands, but he is teething (I can see the white bumps of two bottom teeth) - DS1+2 had a tooth at 4m and 4 teeth by 6m.
He is fascinated by us eating, but then, he loves to watch anything I/his big brothers do!

So, I was planning on waiting til 6m to wean but the HV keeps telling me to start to wean - which I thought was wrong as milk is more calorific?

Now a friend who started to wean her daughter at 4m said by 6m it is hard to feed some babies as you have 'missed the window' and it is harder for them to learn.

What would you do?

If I start at 6m how do I ensure H gets enough iron as it will take a while to progress onto meat/pulses?

Should I carry on as is just on milk, but give him the odd rice cake to gnaw on?

H currently feeds at 6/7am, 9.30, 12ish, 3ish, 6/6.30 and bottle at 11pmish (5-6oz).
Most nights he will go to 6/7am, but 2-3nights a week he wakes at 4/5 for a dream feed.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

s xxx

**Mrs B** · 05-08-2010, 10:57pm

Leave it til you think he's ready. Just to answer a couple of points;
- you can use formula to make up cereal, puddings etc from 6 months which will give him iron.
- bmilk is more calorific, you are right.
- I didn't start to wean C til 6 months and she didn't really eat til 8 months and was on finger food and a varied diet from then, whereas S was on purees and wanted to be spoonfed til over a year old. Age at weaning has nothing to do with it!
- not 100% sure, but think I've read that bmilk still does have iron in after 6 months, contrary to popular belief. Hope someone can confirm that!

**smiley** · 05-08-2010, 11:05pm

Thanks MrsB.

I'm not sure how important the whole iron thing is. The other 2 got their iron from formula, and the amount of formula in a bit of baby rice is hardly going to make much difference

All I know is it is sooooo easy now with just boob milk!

In my head, I figured I'd get the older 2 back to school (and DS2 settled in reception) early Sept, and then deal with the puree mess after that - H will be 6m mid Sept.

I do remember taking it v slowly with DS1 - purees etc, but with DS2 I only did a few weeks of purees and when onto mashed food as he had his 4 teeth and tbh, with a toddler, I cba to liquidise every day

H loves chewing his muslin, toys, his clothes, my shoulder, teething rings etc, so I suppose I could sit himin the bumbo with a rice cake......

s xxx

**Alabama** · 05-08-2010, 11:11pm

Go with your instinct (IMO ignore your friend and the HV). Don't worry about iron, he'll have enough stores to keep him going until you start getting some into him from solids. I went down the BLW route with DS2, just gave him scraps of whatever we were having whenever we had it and didn't worry to much about what he had & when so he had meat probably within the first week.

Don't overthink it - I was uber-relaxed with DS2 who is a DREAM eater, a wee slip of a thing, but a complete dustbin compared to his big brother who was weaned over-anxiously the Annabel Karmel way now and exists on toast, cereal and pasta mainly

**TopStar** · 05-08-2010, 11:20pm

My DS was ebf (we did try formula once or twice but didn't work out) so ebf up until 5.5m and then went in to purées bit by bit so at 6.5m he was having 3meals and bm.
It was at 7.5m that we introduced formula in cereal until then it was ebm in cereal and purées. I made sure the purées were a good mixure so he get all the vits but like you are was worried of missing some vits but since I was BFing to so went with it.
He has just come up to his birth percentile and my GP sad he'd never be s big baby but he's in proportion so don't worry. Untill now his weight has been yo yoing too.
Like others have said, follow your instinct and carry on BFing.

**Lilacgirl** · 05-08-2010, 11:49pm

Iron is my concern too. Zach was exclusively breastfed and was found to be anemic at blood tests at 5 months old.

Anyway Emilia is 23 weeks now. And I'm hoping to hold off until 6 months.
I started Zach at about 20 weeks as he was up all night and very unsettled generally. Didn't help at all with either issue (we later found out he was milk intolerant).

**Bert2e** · 06-08-2010, 08:01am

Yes BM has less iron in it than formula but it is more bioavailable than that in formula so is absorbed better by the gut. There is also evidence that formula actually irritates the gut due to the cows milk protein so that it bleeds and looses more iron that way. There is no need to supplement a bf baby with iron in most cases. Good article here

Weight wise many bf babies show a plateau in weight at about 4m and it's nothing to worry about. And I really wouldn't worry about the "window of weaning" - it was a fashionable theory a while ago but not now.

You are totally right about bm being higher in cals - if you wean before 6m then all you can give is pureed fruit and veg and as we all know there are no calories in pureed carrot! Your HV simply needs to have some further training in this area as the advice she is giving is out dated

- oh and I think the chewing hands / watching you eat thing is just a normal developmental stage as you say.

So I'd say stick to your plan of weaning at 6m, stop getting him weighed then do BLW and he can chew on chunks of iron rich steak in the first week!

ETA: That wink smilie really doesn't look like a wink does it!

**Duckie** · 06-08-2010, 08:18am

I would wait too if I were you. Bert2e has said what I was going to say that the iron in breastmilk is more readily available than that in food. It was my concern too but both of mine have been fine waiting till 6m - actually I started Elliot at 5.5m thinking he was ready as he was a big baby but he really wasn't interested and I wish I'd waited a bit longer with him. Anna took to it like a duck to water at 6m but he took a lot longer to be eating a decent amount.

**alex** · 06-08-2010, 08:38am

Originally Posted by Bert2e

Yes BM has less iron in it than formula but it is more bioavailable than that in formula so is absorbed better by the gut. There is also evidence that formula actually irritates the gut due to the cows milk protein so that it bleeds and looses more iron that way. There is no need to supplement a bf baby with iron in most cases. Good article here

Weight wise many bf babies show a plateau in weight at about 4m and it's nothing to worry about. And I really wouldn't worry about the "window of weaning" - it was a fashionable theory a while ago but not now.

You are totally right about bm being higher in cals - if you wean before 6m then all you can give is pureed fruit and veg and as we all know there are no calories in pureed carrot! Your HV simply needs to have some further training in this area as the advice she is giving is out dated

- oh and I think the chewing hands / watching you eat thing is just a normal developmental stage as you say.

So I'd say stick to your plan of weaning at 6m, stop getting him weighed then do BLW and he can chew on chunks of iron rich steak in the first week!

ETA: That wink smilie really doesn't look like a wink does it!

Exactly what Bert2e said

I am suprised that your HV is encouraging you to wean before 6 months.

I would wait too but you know exactly what you are doing and I'm sure will make an informed choice

And well done on exclusively breastfeeding for 6 months

especially after some of the comments you were getting from your friends re stopping when H was only a few months old

**Bluebabe75** · 06-08-2010, 08:41am

I'd wait too

I thought Emma was ready (mainly due to her grabbing food off our plates and shoving it in her mouth) but she's really not bothered about the purees. I'm persisting because she's over 5.5 months now

and I can't see the point in stopping, but it hasn't made any difference to her milk intake at all yet.

I have replaced the ebm dreamfeed with a bottle of Aptamil (which she takes very happily) as I got fed up with the expressing - I know it means I'm not exclusively breastfeeding anymore but I'm happy that I got to 5.5 months without giving formula and it's made me feel a lot more positive about feeding her for longer, so I think it will have long-term benefits too.