How to wean at 6 months?

J

joyofliving

Registered User
Hi everyone,
I want to wean my baby at 6 months but I don't know how. She refuses to take the bottle and the sippy cup. I do feed her rice cereal and banana from a spoon which she eats after a lot of fuss. But feeding formula from a spoon would be impossible, isn't it? Any suggestions would be helpful. Also at what time should cow's milk be introduced? I know they say not before 1 year but I have heard introducing it earlier may not cause so many problems if the mother drinks milk regularly anyways which I do.
Thanks.
 
It sounds like maybe she is not ready for any solids, hence the fussing and pushing away. Cows milk really should not be given before 12 months. You are dealing with very sensitive digestive systems in little ones. I'm afraid I can't help with wanting to wean at 6months but I know it takes time, you can't just take it away overnight. I think Mel above said she had seen the book at Bumps to Babes - perhaps you could call them to see. Good luck with your decision making.
 
I agree with mumto2, I don't think you should introduce cows milk anytime before 12 months. Even at 6 months old, her digestive system isn't fully developed yet. I don't think giviing her cow's milk will solve your problem of her not taking the bottle. Perhaps you can try different types of nipples. There are also bottles out there where the flow of the milk is much more similar to that of a mommy's breast so perhaps you should try that (one of the brands is Adiri - they sell it at www.milk-factory.com). Or perhaps it's the formula that she doesn't like. At six months old, she should still be getting majority of her nutrients from milk. Solids at this point is only introducing her to the different tastes, textures and also for her to learn to eat solids. Unfortunately it seems like you might need to keep on trying different bottles on her until she finally gives in.
 
I agree that you should try different brands of formula and diffrent teats. I weaned my baby off the breast at 6 months and it was a battle to get him to take the bottle. A couple of things I tried were:

1. mixing the formula with expressed breast milk or just giving expressed milk in the bottle for a little while. That way the baby gets used to a bottle without having to get used to a different tasting milk at the same time.

2. beginning a breast feed and then slipping the bottle into the baby's mouth (this one requires some dexterity!).

3. the Pidgeon Perastalic teat (someone please correct me
if I have spelt that wrong). These teats are meant to encourage a sucking action similar to that of breast feeding. I am not sure if that is all just marketing gumph but my baby liked these teats a lot better than the bigger avent teats.

I also agree with the poster above that the Gina Ford Weaning book is very good. It is very perscriptive but just take what you want from it and ignore the rest.

Good luck!
 
I will try getting the Gina Ford book from Bumps2babes. Which different formulas should I try? Till now I have tried only Enfamil which she does not like at all. I will also try different teats, she refuses bfree and avent teats. My aim is to start trying weaning now at four and half months so at least by the next 2- 4 months she is completely weaned. I certainly would not give her cow's milk before 12 months.
 
My baby seemed to like the Hipp Organic Formula from Bumps to Babes and the Bellamy's Organic from 360. I think these are more expensive than other formulas sorry. The other formula that he absolutely guzzled was the Cow and Gate one from Wellcome. I looked on the cannister and it has "vanilla flavour" added to it (i.e. sugar!) so no wonder hedrank so much - he liked the vanilla milkshake! Note though, not all Cow and Gate has vanilla flavour so check the cannister.
 
100 baby purees by anabel karmel is available at pollux books at either IFC airport express station or kowloon airport express station below elements mall. Although I would recommend getting it from shopinhk. They're generally speedy with deliveries.
 
My son had a mild case of eczema when he was 3 months old so when he first tried formula (at 5.5 months), we only tried hypo-allergenic ones. He tried Nestle Nan-one, and Peptid. He wouldn't take any of these two even when I mixed it up with breastmilk. Finally he drank Meiji (hypoallergenic version). You can probably also ask your pediatrician cause they normally have smaller trial packs at their office.
In terms of book, I highly recommend Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. I've never seen it in HK but you can order it from Amazon. It's an excellent book that covers you up until they are toddlers:thanks:thanks
 
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Thanks Nashua852. We normally place book orders to our US warehouse every Mon/Tues and the shipment arrives in a week.
 
Hi Rani,
Gina Ford's "The Contended Little Baby Book of Weaning" seems to be out of stock at ShopHK. Any idea when will it be available?
Thanks.
 
Dear Geomum,

One thing I have heard that sometimes works is to use a breast shield when breast feeding your baby so that she becomes used to the silicone feel of a teat, which may ease her towards the bottle.

I, too, highly recommend the Gina Ford book but agree with Sherwes, take from it the main points, adapt it to your baby and ignore the rest, you would become very obsessive, compulsive if you followed her regime religiously.

Finally with regards to formula, I use S26 by Wyeth and my baby loves it, but it is not sold in the US as it is slightly higher in calories (as per the Wyeth representative).
 
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