Amneris

For solids... when did you start and what did you start with? How did baby react? How did it affect nursing and sleep?

For nursing... for how long did you do it? How did weaning happen? (child-led or mother-led?) How often were you nursing at 1 year and 2 years (if you were?) Did you give cups of expressed milk to toddlers when you weren't home? How long did you pump for if you pumped?

If you were working or in school full-time or close to with a baby, how old were they when you started and how long did you pump for? (research for the future...) How much did they nurse in person and did they have nipple confusion?

TIA!

ETA: My doctor was really pushing me towards infant rice cereal with iron at my last appointment, because she says around 6 months, the baby's iron stores run out and he won't get any from breast milk, and he might sleep longer on it. Not sure if that is BS or not, but I'm thinking it is (there is so much conflicting info out there.)

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webjockey

call me a skeptic, but unless the doctor has a specialization or significant knowledge on child nutrition, I wouldnt put much stock into what he says.


I "experiment" with foods to see what he's interested in, but I'm not planning on using solids as a primary form of nutrition until he's a year old. I just let him taste stuff from time to time and started doing so around 6 months. So far he's tried apples, bananas, pears, and sweet potatoes. He'll only have a few bites of apple sauce and bannanas. He'll also take a little water from a cup. I'm not a huge fan of sippie cups, but we'll see how long I feel that way.

Lex doesn't sleep through the night right now and I co-sleep. But I suspect it has to do with his grandmother refusing to let him sleep anywhere but on her chest.

Just my opinoion: I'd look up what the symptoms of iron deficiency in babies are, and if your kid displays that, or any abnomalities, I'd get him checked out. Otherwise, if he looks well, acts well, and is happy, I'm not going to worry.

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subbrock

i started rice cereal with majerle when she was 4 months old. she started smacking her lips and licking them and crying whenever we ate so i figured id give it a try. she didnt care too much for it, but her dad bought her some 1st foods and she loved it. LOVED it. so shes going to be 7 months old on monday and she moved up to 2nd foods last month after her pediatrician gave her the okay. she loves those too. it hasnt noticebly affected her nursing. i still nurse her on demand and give her one jar of food 3 times a day. shes even started tasting table food--and loves it. she'll eat baby food/table food until she pukes if i let her. which i dont! but she still loves her ninny. i probably do it backwards, but i feed her solids first and then follow it up with nursing. shes not a good eater unless its solids, so i like to make sure her belly is full. recently shes started sleeping through the night, in her own bed. well not 100% through the night, but i feed her every 4 hours. which means i only have to get up once in the middle of the night. good deal. not sure if it has to do with eating solids or not.

like i said before, shes still breastfed. i think im going to try to wean her once shes a year old, but we'll see if that actually happens. i used to pump when she was 1st born probably until she was 2 months old. she never did too well with the bottle though. to this day she cant drink out of a bottle.

you'll know whats right for JJ.

RedCatWaves

I'm throwing down the BS card on that doc.

Babies do not need solids til their 2nd year. I listened to the "experts" with my older kids, and did my own thing with my younger kids. The younger kids were exclusively breastfed the 1st year, solids starting in the 2nd year. All were healthy. The iron bloodtests done (done to appease the nagging ped who said they needed iron ) on my younger kids were normal, even though they were not eating solids, only breastmilk. When I started them on solids, I just mashed up whatever food we were eating and they were able to eat it just fine.

I never gave them vitamins either. Breastmilk is a perfect food. Perfect. PERFECT!

Baby cereal is crap food. It's empty calories and takes up space that might otherwise be used to hold breastmilk. It doesn't help them sleep longer either.

Good sleeping habits are something that is taught, not achieved with food. If your baby is not sleeping through the night yet, you need to work on his schedule, not his diet.

rainshower

i introduced both our babies to solids in the 6th or 7th month. i started with sweet peas because it was recommended to offer a food that has a natural sweetness like the sweetness of breastmilk for an easy transition to solids. neither of them really cared for jar foods except for the peaches and bananas. i loved the peaches too! their nursing and sleep wasn't bothered because initially all they were doing was experimenting with the spoon and the new textures and flavors. basically they were just tasting and spitting it out.

when i realized that jar foods weren't cutting it, i decided to just prepare unseasoned food that we were eating for them. i'd mash the peas up with a fork (never invested in a blender or baby food maker) and offer it to them. in the beginning, i'd prepare about a tablespoon amount of mashed peas for them. they'd roll around about two infant spoonfuls and spit most of it out. we'd do that for a week or so, then offer another food. i think baked sweet potato mashed up was the next thing, then bananas, peaches, string beans. each one being offered a full week before adding a new food. this way, we could detect any food allergies and easily eliminate the allergen.

even though they were getting used to being offered spooned food, they were still 99.8% on breastmilk. they were probably about 10 months old when they were really receptive to being offered solids and opening wide for mashed rice or mashed peas. by 10 months, i think i was giving them fresh mashed bananas so that we weren't really buying much jar food. i'd take tender baked chicken and mash it with my fingers, giving them a little texture to have in their mouths. they loved it. we saved a lot of money by not buying a lot of jar food! in the toddler phases i may have bought a few jars of diced carrots or chunky chicken with veggies that my mother could quickly prepare and offer them while we were at work.

i breastfed our son past 2 years, and our daughter to 3 years. they were suckly babies and enjoyed the calming effects of breastfeeding, but even when they were toddlers, i was producing a surprising amount of milk and would still leak. when they were toddlers, my milk was richer and didn't have the first-milk qualities that it did when they were infants. that's because they were older, were getting nourishment from a solid food diet, and my body knew to make the milk more concentrated with vitamins (at least that's what i've read).

as toddlers, they still latched on. i never pumped milk into a cup for them. their long legs were almost touching the floor. they ask for my breast by the nickname they each had for them. i weaned our son easier than i weaned our daughter. i would wake up in the middle of the night to her unbottoning my top and helping herself. i still crack up at those nights. i felt so violated!

never had nipple confusion. i was pumping milk since they were newborns because i had to prepare for returning to work and wanted them to have a stockpile of milk. i just made sure i bought the appropriate size nipple and opening for their age. avent bottles were great. they had a wide mound that their mouths would push up against, much like their mouth pushing against the areola and breast while latching on. the only times they had a bottle at home was when they were newborns and my husband would offer them my milk in a bottle, or when my mother fed them while we worked. other than that, they were latched on me.

hth

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Amneris

That's pretty much how I think too, RCW.

I don't really want to mess with his sleep schedule (not even close to sleeping through the night) because we co-sleep and I think it is better for him to self-regulate it.

I give him vitamin D drops, because since he is dark-skinned and we live in a cold climate, chances are he needs it. (So do I.)

I'm not crazy about that runny, mushy cereal either - looks like glue. But another thing I am hearing is that babies have trouble starting solids if they start too late. Makes no sense because in the old days and in developing countries, didn't/don't many mothers wait a year or two or longer to start solids with no issues?

I really don't get the big rush and haste in this society to start cereal and solids - why? I have also read that when you do that, in effect you have started a gradual weaning process.

Oh - he is showing interest in food and will stick his hand in my plate and grab it or grab my glass/bottle out of my hand and sip my water or other drink, so everyone thinks that means he wants to eat, but I think it's just his natural curiosity. Sometimes I'll dip my finger in food or drink and let him lick it and he makes a weird face and depending what it is, begs for more (he waves one arm up and down when he wants to nurse) or turns away - it's cute.

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medussa

Lilly is smacking her lips when we eat now and sometimes cries. I immediately put her to the breast when that happens--although I can't shake the feeling that she's thinking, "not this crap again."

fuzzbucket

I thought breastfed babies weren't supposed to be scheduled? Unless you mean a pre-bedtime routine? Maybe I'm confused.

Amneris: do what you feel is right. There is no need to push solids if neither one of you is ready. Follow his cues and what you feel.

My (very limited) experience: I only just started Harry on oatmeal in the last couple of weeks. I mix it 2:1 with expressed breastmilk. He loves it. It hasn't affected his nursing at all. We still nurse around the clock. The bonus is that he has started giving us longer stretches of sleep. Whether that is from cereal or not, I'll take it. I was exhausted from 4-5 feedings per night, (we do co-sleep).

I started pumping when Harry was 4 weeks old (I had a painful milk blister on one side and couldn't nurse on it). He would take a bottle very rarely until I went to work full time at 10 weeks. He now does great at home with DH during the work day. I plan on pumping (2-3 times per day) until he is one year.

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mad scientist

We started solids at about 7 months. I had briefly tried cereal at 6 months and he wasn't interested. At 7 months, he was eating garlic roasted sweet potatoes off my fingers. He was barely sitting up unassisted at 6 months, and that's a minimum criteria for me personally.

I nursed for 12 months and a few days. I never pumped and when I went back to work (at 12 months) I was unable to maintain my supply, even though I would have been happy to continue nursing when I was at home. DS took formula briefly and then whole milk, but not much (he started up with the milk again later). We mainly weaned to solids.

I made a judgement call to go to a bottle at 12 months because I was stressed enough about going back to work, and DS wasn't taking a straw or sippy cup at the time. He used to nurse to sleep so that I wanted him to have the bottle for comfort. He used the bottle until about 20 months. I probably won't go that route again with the next one, but I also hope to nurse longer since I won't be going back to work until she is 20 months old.

ETA - regarding sleep: DS is 26 months and still doesn't necessarily sleep through the night.

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medussa

That sounds yummy. Do you have a recipe? Don't laugh. I can't cook.

Fuzzbucket did you skip the rice and go straight to oatmeal?

spiderlashes5000

I started adding cereal to bottles of expressed breast milk and formula around 4 months because of her reflux. It didn't really help...but no harm done. I didn't introduce any other solid foods until around 6 months but those were just for fun and were pureed vegetables. Solids didn't become a food staple with mine until 1 year.

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sarah42

I breastfed/pumped until DS was 5 or 6 months, and my supply couldn't keep up while I was working full-time. Once I started supplementing with formula, he wanted to nurse less and less until we stopped completely at 7 months. I would have continued until a year, but it didn't work out.

I began giving cereal when DS was 4 months, on our pediatrician's recommendation, because he wasn't sleeping well at night. He loved eating cereal, although it didn't help him sleep better. However, moving him into his own bedroom helped everyone sleep better, and the first time I gave him formula, he slept 12 hours through the night, and has done so 99% of the time since then.

After DS had been exposed to all the cereals and baby fruits/veggies, we began offering him more and more soft/mashed table food, and he's usually a very good eater now--he will try to eat anything we give him, but he has trouble with very chewy or hard foods.

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fuzzbucket

Our doctor said to go rice, oatmeal and then barley. She was pushing me at 4 months. I waited until 5 months, and then because I was going crazy from lack of sleep, I gave it a try. I figured it was worth a shot and I could stop if it didn't go well. We did rice for 2 weeks and he didn't like it. We switched to oatmeal and he went for it like gangbusters. Today was the most he's ever taken at once: 1 tablespoon of cereal w/2 tbs breastmilk.

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geeky

I agree with Webbie and RedCatWaves. Pediatricians know about illnesses. They are not experts in nutrition and in my experience few understand breastfeeding. Somehow the human race survived for thousands of years before they invented iron-fortified baby cereal. I did not do that nor did I give vitamins (though in your case, it does make sense).

I gave mashed up avocado mixed with breastmilk at around 6 months. Moved on to other pureed fruits and veggies, then pureed meats at around 7 or 8 months. I made all the baby food myself. With the future babe, I am considering skipping the purees and just doing table foods / baby led weaning.

They say start with rice, because at 4 months that is all the digestive system will tolerate. There is nothing great about rice cereal. If you wait until a baby is older, then you can start with any of a variety of foods.

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Amneris

Mmmm, mashed avocados with breast milk sound GOOD. I bet he'll love that.

I thought the WHO/UNICEF/American Pediatric Association recommendation for solids is now at least 6 months rather than 4...

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RedCatWaves

I think people confuse the term "on-demand" feeding to mean that babies should do that forever, even after they aren't newborns anymore. Newborns should be fed on-demand, absolutely. But, babies can be easily scheduled. The newborn phase is only about a month long. I did indeed "schedule" my breastfed babies...I like to sleep. No, I NEED to sleep. Sleeping at night was my number 1 priority with each baby, and I had each one doing it by 9-12 weeks of age (the 4th one was sleeping through by 2 weeks).

I gently formed their schedule over a period of weeks to get their longest sleep time to be at night. I also held them off feedings a few minutes at a time so that after a few weeks they were feeding every 3-4 hours, rather than every 10 minutes, like some babies want to do. I let them "tank up" before bedtime though with serial feedings.

Someone above mentioned that their 5 or 6 month old nurses 4-5 times a night?!?!? I'd have blown my head off if mine did that. I need to sleep.

I'm really, really good at the newborn phase. It's my very favorite age. If I could have a dozen more newborns, I'd do it in a heartbeat (the fact that they become toddlers and eventually teens is what stops me ). People ask me how to get older babies to sleep through the night, and I really can't advise them. If you don't start the right sleeping habits in the newborn phase, it becomes quite a deeply ingrained habit, and it's going to require a lot of work to reverse it.

RedCatWaves

It's hugely liberating not to have to spend hours of your day preparing and shoveling goop.

webjockey

In time, you forget what it's like to sleep soundly.

As a mom who works outside the home, there are tradeoffs which includes how you get to schedule your child. I'm willing to suck up some sleepless nights for a few months for the sanity work gives me. And sane mom=good mom.

I don't know about the rest of you all, but I haven't found the need to go to a pediatrician, much less get his/her advice. Other than the heel prick when he was a newborn, I haven't been back since.

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subbrock

really? how come? well obviously there has been "nothing wrong" with your child, but how do/did you overcome that 1st time mother worry? ive worked in child care for over 5 years and have had many parents who feel like i know more about their child than them, but the second i had majerle its like it all went out the window...i understand if you dont get your child immunizations, then you probably wont need to take them. but, other than immunizations, we've had a few minor health things to deal with. theyve all panned out to be "something" too. have you not had any of those? im very curious and impressed by your confidence!

RedCatWaves

I worked when my older kids were babies. It was even more important then that I got adequate sleep.

When people talk about the sleep deprivation of early parenthood, I really don't identify with it. My kids slept from early on. I could never go for months and months on end with interrupted and inadequate sleep. I get cranky...and I get sick when I don't sleep enough.