From Tantrums to Dindins : Our Weaning Story
Hello! Fancy seeing you here :-) Welcome to our weaning story! I have been meaning to do this for a while but have either been too tired (main symptom of being a mum I'm afraid!) or too busy with my daughter Esme. So, here we go!
It all started on a rather chilly but sunny day, on the 30th of March 2012. I happened to be pushing out a large baby on this day, so I was probably even more tired than today (maybe just a million times more!). Anyway, Ezzie had trouble latching on, and really, I didn't know how to feed her. The midwives were quite helpful with this, but it doesn't stop it being a nervewracking experience. I was worried that she wouldn't get enough in her first few days, or whether she was actually taking in any milk at all. It took at least a week if not more to get the hang of breastfeeding, but a lot longer to get used to the frequency of it!
A couple of months later we went to the doctors for a check up, and as Esme was still not sleeping very well she recommended to supplement her boobie-filled diet with formula. Now I'm pretty sceptical of formula, but when you are super sleep deprived, you'll do whatever it takes. We used HiPP organic formula for a month or two, probably about one bottle a day, and the rest mummy milk. We found that actually it made Esme more awake, and a lot more sicky! In the end we decided to co-sleep, as it seemed to be the most effective way of getting Esme to sleep in the night.
We went back to the doctors at 5-6 months, Esme was still waking up a LOT but because of the co-sleeping it was much easier for her to get back to sleep, so less tired! The doctor recommended us to start weaning a little early, and try baby rice. Again I was quite sceptical, and I think next time I will not bother, as it had a similar effect to the formula! Esme was definitely more sick, as she was not used to baby rice, and really did not like the taste!
When she was 6 months, we tried her with puréed Avocado, Banana, butternut squash, and organic baby food. She was not impressed with any of it! We persisted anyway, but I think the mushy texture was just not to her liking. Also, Banana made her projectile vomit, poor thing! We managed to give her maybe 1/5th of a jar a day of puréed food, but it really was not going down very well (most of the time!). A lot of this seemed to be going up the walls!!
I tried cutting down a little on breastfeeding at this point, but she was having none of it! You get so much pressure from other people, not just mums and doctors, but everyone to wean as quickly as possible. I was hesitant to give it up so soon also, as I really think it has helped us bond so much more.
The real weaning started when Esme was able to feed herself. First just soft picky food, and when her teeth started to come in harder food. She loved carrots, cucumber, cheese, anything fruity or sweet! For the first year we tried to avoid sugar as much as possible, even having a sugar free cake for her first birthday.
By this time she still didn't eat a lot, just picked out what she liked from a meal and left the rest.
I tried several times in the next year to cut down breastfeeding, you do really start to worry sometimes that they aren't getting enough nutrients, but she seemed to be thriving anyway! We continued to give her every meal, in which she ate a little, then had her boobie milk. I think the only thing was, when she had a cold all she wanted to do was breastfeed, so it always put us a little behind.
Again, there is always lots of pressure to stop breastfeeding. You hear a lot of ''I know this and that person who breastfed their for 6000000 years, and they were teased forever!!'' Really though it's a bit of a load of rubbish,, and you should just ignore these things!!
Fast forward till Esme is 2, and she really was started to get extra fussy about having her milk. She was doing pretty well at eating her food, not great, but wayy better. She was only breastfeeding for comfort at this point, and apart from when she was ill I managed to reduce feedings to once or twice a day, usually in the afternoon of before bed. When I didn't have time to give her a feed, she would get so upset, crying for hours, and having a huge tantrum. It was really quite upsetting for both of us.
Although I would have liked to carry on feeding, I just hated to see her upset all the time, so decided it was now time to cut it all out. It took a few weeks, but she was surprisingly relaxed about it!
A couple of months later, she still asks for boobie occasionally, but doesn't get upset about it (thanks goodness!). I think I could have carried on for a while, but I do think it was probably her time.
Now she eats all sorts of foods! Her favourite of course is Pizza or chocolate! Anything unhealthy really! Kids these days! :-)
I think with our next child, I probably won't supplement, and hopefully worry less about weaning them so quick!
Thanks for reading! What are your opinions on weaning? Is 6 months too early or about the right time? Let me know in the comments below :-)
