Weaning premature baby

[shaylee]

My baby boy was born 6 weeks early, and is now 18 weeks old. He is very unsatisfied after his milk even though we upped his milk to 8oz! sometimes he wasnt even going 3 hours between feeds.
We have tried him on a rusk softened by milk at breakfast time and he seems much happier and more filled up. Im just worried because there seems to be so much conflicting advice on this with premature babies, can anyone shed any light?

[Jodie~73]

Have you tried hungrier baby milk?

[radiogaga]

hello shaylee
my little girl was 7 weks early too, i was told to brest feed on demand, sometimes this was every 2 -3 hours.
when she was 4 months we put her on formula and steadily worked our way up to the more filling one for hungrier babies.
i got into trouble once at the weaning class, babygaga was around 6 months and i had mentioned to the women who were taking the class id given my daughter a strawberry to sook - not eat just sook..the lecture i got from these two who were younger than me (and had no children betwen them)
made me feel very small indeed! i digress,
so the point being wee premature babies insides are not developed enough to cope with strawberry juice sooked or whatever or anything else rather than milk, id advise you to phone your health visitor. goog luck radio.xx

[radiogaga]

sorry mistake babygaga was only 2 months old at the time of lecture at weaning class not 6.

[ethanryan]

you know your baby best. if it wasnt agreeing her her she would be throwing up, have bad nappies be unsettled etc. if she seems happier to you then carry on . alot of people say dont wean till 6 months but both mine were on solids at 3 months as the milk wasnt enough

[pixie_woo]

Hi shaylee

My LO wasn't prem but from what I've read about prem weaning its a minefield! The most sensible thing I've heard is that prem babies can still be weaned at 18 weeks but take things VERY slowly and only introduce one food at a time to test for allergies. Due to being born prem his inherited iron levels will be diminishing so its important to get some iron into his diet, its up to you how you do it.

I'm sorry I can't be anymore specific. I hope it goes well x

[lnknprkbabe]

try milk for hungrier abies first, at the end of the day you know your baby though not the midwife she doesnt live with them so u no if it is time to start weaning

[victoriaw]

I gave my LO SMA hungrier baby mild on advice from three of my friends. Absolutely fine. x

[cbrown1980]

Hi, I'm abit late with this post sorry. My daughter was 6 weeks premature too.She had bad reflux which i'm sure you will know is very common in prems. The gaviscon wasn't working so i put her on thicker milk(hungrier baby milk), this done the trick but it wasn't enough for her. By 4 months she was looking for food and as her corrected age was 2 and a half months i was advised not to give food as her gut wasn't properly developed yet. I waited til she was 5months(3 1/2 mnths corrected)then i had to give her food. Best thing for her.I gave fruits and veg to start and made sure there was no allergen possibilities in her food e.g Gluten, wheat,dairy,celery etc and no citrus fruits. I have only just started giving rusks(Gluten free).Best to avoid sweet things as with all babies as they tend to like them better and don't take the good stuff lol. Prem babies are usually on vitamins until they are 1yr old but you still need to give a good mix of food so they don't become fussy eaters. No offence to anyone, but I would avoid taking advice from people who haven't had a premature baby as they have no idea what they are talking about or how different and how much more hard work they are.(unless they have taken the time to reseach it) At the end of the day, its upto you if you follow the professional advice, and you will know better than anyone if your baby needs food. Your baby is only 3months really(as in biological development) and the do say exclusive breastfeeding til 6months, i doubt many mums can do this though.Goodluck x

[cbrown1980]

Oh i forgot, even if you do give your baby food early and he seems to be ok with it(not throwing up etc) it doesn't mean its ok. As their guts aren't developed properly this can cause future problems such as irritable bowel which you won't know until baby is older. This is why the world health organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months for all babies, more so for premature babies. I hope this has been of some use to somebody x