Throughout pregnancy, wether it's wanted or not, people want to give you advice. During my pregnancy I always had people telling me what I should and shouldn't be doing, feeling, eating, thinking. Most of which I didn't listen to, some of which I did. However that didn't stop when I had my baby. People who don't even have children think they know what it's like to have children. Thankfully the two people who's advice I do listen to, my mum and Gavin's mum, were never like that through my pregnancy and haven't been like that since Logan was born. My mum always said from the outset she would never try and tell me what to do with my child. That was something I appreciated. Being a new parent is hard enough without your own mother thinking she knows how to parent your child better than you do.
However with that said the questions around weaning arose.
'So when will you start solids?'
'You were on solids from 10 weeks'
'Maybe putting him on solids would stop him feeding so often'
Without trying to convince me I knew my mum thought I should start him on solids relatively early. Everywhere I looked however, all I could see was everyone saying 'Don't do it till 6 months' and at 3 months that seemed like a hell of a long way away!
Then came the health visitor. At 4 months she came out to talk about weaning. She gave me the official NHS stance of 'No solids till 6 months' then she gave me her honest opinion. Bigger babies might need solids before 6 months. She told me not to do it before 17 weeks. To preferably wait till he was at least 20 weeks but that I'd know. I'd know when it was the right time. That was all I needed to remind me that he's MY child. Health proffesionals may suggest one thing, your mother might suggest another and I sometimes forget that I know best. They don't call it Mothers Intuition for nothing. So at 18 weeks and two days, Logan had his first taste of something more than milk (forget that one time Gavin let him lick chocolate spread off the end of a spoon).
So far it's been the best decision. As usual I've prepared myself for the worst, so anything less than horrendous has been a pleasant surprise. I anticipated there being porridge all over the floor, the walls, me, Logan. Everywhere. When in actual fact he took it like he's being eating solids for years. He's not quite fully mastered taking food off the spoon. Sometimes he forgets what to do and starts licking it off the top of the spoon. Other than that we've had no major problems.
He seems to really be enjoying it. We're taking it slowly, he gets one bowl in the morning/early afternoon, twice I've tried to give him another bowl in the afternoon which hasn't been succesful because he's teething so both times he was getting upset because his mouth was sore and I didn't want to stress him out anymore. We will take it slowly, it may take us a while to work up to different flavours and textures but so far we've had baby rice and porridge and he's enjoyed them both.
We decided to try the baby rice, creamy porridge and banana porridge from Aptamil (it was 3 for £5 or else I wouldn't have bought all 3) once he has the hang of those I will start to prepare his fruit and vegetables for him as I would like to know what he's consuming. Though I wouldn't say no to the tins and pouches you can buy at the super market. They may be handy when we are in a rush or going away for the day etc. Who knows. I'll wait and see what happens at the time. His high chair is the Mamas and Papas Pesto Deluxe Folding High Chair, usually £49.99 which I thought was a really good price so imagine my delight when we went to buy it and it's on offer for £43.99!
I don't claim to be an expert. I do believe that health proffesionals know best and that in most cases waiting till the 6 month mark may be best for most babies. But not all. Go with your gut. Mummy knows best.
What are your weaning stories? Did you start early? Was it a success? Was it a disaster? I'd love to hear your experience.
Kirsty x
No comments:
Post a Comment