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Is your baby ready to wean?

Please don’t pressurise yourself and your baby while introducing new foods to him. You should start the weaning process only when your baby is ready for it. How will you know that? You may have to watch out for these symptoms in your baby:

• Is he able to sit upright in his high chair with his back well-balanced?
• Can he hold his head steadily and move it from left to right?
• Is he showing excellent control while moving his hands, eyes, and mouth in a coordinated manner?
• Does he seem hungry after a milk-feed?
• Does he watch what you eat with interest and does he try to pick up foods from your plate and put them in his mouth?
• Is he able to swallow his food properly?

Please note that you have to start the weaning process only when you have answered “yes” to all or most of these questions. When your baby displays one or two of these symptoms, it is recommended that you wait for some more time before he shows more signs of balance and readiness.

Weaning foods – What to know?

Once you know that your baby is ready for weaning, you can start him on solids. In the initial stage (about 6 to 7 months), you have to give him foods that are very soft-textured and easy to digest. When introducing fruits and vegetables, you should always steam them well until they become soft and then blend them well. Mix the contents well so that you get a nice paste without any lumps. Here are some important points that you should keep in mind while weaning your baby:

• Please introduce new foods and textures only when your baby is calm and happy; when he is too hungry or restless, he may not be interested in trying the foods.
• Keep trying for at least 8 to 10 times even if your baby spits the foods that you give him on the first attempt; some babies do take some time in accepting new flavours.
• Please introduce healthy foods of all flavours and categories, as this will help your baby to grow up to be a non-fussy eater.
• When he completes 7 or 8 months, your baby will know to chew his food; this is the time you can introduce foods that have soft lumps in them. You can introduce minced meat, well-cooked eggs, fishes with soft lumps, mushrooms, aubergines and pineapples in this stage

In short, there is no rule-book to follow when you wean your baby. He will give you clues when he is ready. You can then give him the right foods in the right consistencies so that he can digest his food well.

She is hungry

While she has a small stomach and she may need little food, she may need it often. Crying is the best way she can explain to you that she needs more food. Offer her milk and you will know if hunger was the reason.

She needs to be loved

Babies need a lot of cuddling and love. They need to be understood and protected. Babies need to know that you are there for her. If you don’t attend to her, she will be insecure and scared and is crying because of that. Give her all the attention and love and make her feel comfortable.

She wants to burp

Babies tend to swallow air while being fed or crying. This air when in her tummy can give her trouble. Generally, she may have this kind of wind when she hasn’t burped after the feed. You can pat on her stomach or back and help her burp.

She needs a nappy change

Wet and soiled nappy irritates babies. They also tend to get rashes when their nappy change is missed. She is probably crying because she wants you to know that her nappy is irritating her soft skin. You should also try and give your baby some nappy free time.

She is not feeling well

If her cry is louder and unstoppable as compared to other days, she’s probably facing some health issues. You may want to visit a doctor soon for a regular check-up.

She’s either feeling too hot or cold

She might be crying because the room is too cold or hot. When you want to check your baby’s body temperature, instead of touching her arms and feet, you should check her back or tummy. It will help you understand how she is feeling. Don’t overdress your baby. It may make her feel hot and suffocating.

At the same time, make sure your room temperature is not too low that it is unbearable for her.

She is tired

There are many days when you don’t realize that you haven’t given her quiet time in the entire day. There have been visitors, you have been busy with household work, the house is bright all day and other such reasons can make your baby cranky. She is tired, she needs her space and wants to shut her eyes and relax. Crying can be as good as letting you know she is bored and tired of all the noise.

She has colic

If your baby is crying continuously but is otherwise healthy, she might have colic. With colic, she can become cranky, frustrated and may clench her fists.

If she is crying inconsolably, talk to your doctor to rule out any serious issues.

However, this is not entirely true, though! For example, if you or your partner is allergic to peanuts, or eggs or cow’s milk, your baby need not necessarily be allergic to the same item. Similarly, your baby could develop an allergy to eggs, even if you or your partner or his sibling don’t have any problem with eggs. So, genetics does play a role, but not always.

A common allergy that you may find in your baby is towards cow’s milk, but he will outgrow it in 2 years. You may want to protect your baby from allergies even when he is in your womb, but there is nothing you can do about it. It is highly recommended that you follow two things to reduce the risk of allergies in your baby at the time of birth. Firstly, you should eat a very healthy and balanced diet throughout your pregnancy. Secondly, you have to breastfeed your baby for the first 6 months exclusively. This is because breast milk contains a lot of nutrients and antibodies that help to develop the immunity of your baby.

Here are some of the common infant allergies that you should be aware of:

Food Allergies

You could wait for your baby to complete 1 year before you introduce foods such as cow’s milk, soy, wheat, shellfish, crab, eggs, and nuts in his diet. These are potential allergens that can upset the gut of your baby.

Seasonal allergies

During certain seasons, the pollen from the blooms of the trees and grasses can cause running nose, fever, skin rashes and cough in kids. You need to observe these symptoms and note their frequency so that you can confirm with your paediatrician about the same.

Indoor Allergies

When you have a baby inside the house, it is highly recommended that you don’t use very strong perfumes, room fresheners, strong detergents for washing clothes, etc. These can cause respiratory ailments in babies. You also need to ensure that your baby isn’t exposed to cigarette smoke at all, as this can cause severe allergies in him.

Pet Allergies

As much as your baby love your pets, it is very important that you clean your baby thoroughly after every cuddle session. Cat and dog hairs can cause your baby to sneeze and sniffle. If you notice these symptoms every time your baby goes near your pet, you can talk about it to your paediatrician and confirm if your baby is allergic to pets.

Important points to note

• Irrespective of the type of allergy your baby has, it is very important for you to maintain a journal and record the symptoms thoroughly so that you can help the paediatrician to diagnose the ailment correctly.
• You should ensure that your baby’s products (lotions, soaps, clothes, etc.) are stored in a clean place and cleaned with mild products.
• Exclusive breastfeeding is essential for the first 6 months.

1. Breast milk has relaxing properties

You might have already known that breast milk contains a lot of nutrients that keep your baby healthy and immune. However, did you know that it had relaxing properties, too? During the evenings, the hormonal changes which take place in your body throughout the day, impact your milk in such a way, that it contains sleep-encouraging hormones. When you nurse your baby in the evenings, you may notice him drifting off to a peaceful sleep after the feed.

2. Breast milk increases your bonding with your baby

When you hold your baby close to your skin and nurse him, it results in an unexplainable bond between you and your baby. As he latches on to your breast and sucks the milk, you will naturally feel an increase in your hormones. Breastfeeding, according to studies, improves the oxytocin levels in your body, as a result you will feel an overwhelming love for your child.

3. Your breast milk is unique

No two mothers will have the same composition of breast milk. To know that you are feeding your baby something that only you can create is an amazing feeling, isn’t it? According to studies, the composition of milk produced in a woman’s breast is impacted by many factors such as her genes, diet, hormones, environment, her as well as her baby’s needs. Therefore, this milk is different in different women. Your breast milk is a 100% characteristic representation of yourself and is unique to you.

4. The miracle of breast milk

It is indeed a miracle how your body starts producing breast milk as soon as you deliver your baby. It is even more magical to know the process of how your breasts produce just enough milk for your baby for each feed. Of all the wonders of breast milk, one fact that never ceases to surprise us is the composition of the milk. Did you know that your breast milk will vary in composition based on the gender of your baby?

The needs of a baby boy are different from the needs of a baby girl. Therefore, the composition of your breast milk varies accordingly. If you have a boy, your milk will have 25% more calories than it has when you have a girl.

5. Keeps you and your baby healthy

Breast milk keeps your baby healthy and safe. It is easy to digest and contains lots of antibodies that make your baby less prone to issues such as allergies, obesity, asthma and more as he grows up. However, that’s not all! Breast milk encourages you to stay healthy as well! When you nurse your baby, you are automatically motivated to eat healthy foods and live an active, healthy lifestyle.

Signs of weaning

As your baby grows, he will need more than your milk or formula milk to get his daily dose of energy. Please watch your baby carefully to check if he exhibits all of these symptoms. Some of these symptoms may be visible in your baby even before he completes 6 months. However, it is highly recommended that you don’t wean off your baby before 6 months.

Many mothers introduce solid foods even before the baby turns 6 months, only to get worried when their babies experience gut infections, stomach bloating and other gastrointestinal issues. Your baby’s gut is not fully developed until he turns 6 months; therefore, you have to breastfeed him during this phase exclusively.

After the desired time limit, if your baby shows all of these symptoms, you could slowly wean off your baby and start him on solids:

• Showing signs of rolling over and sitting up independently by supporting their backs well
• Ability to hold their head in a straight position and move it from side to side without any wobbling
• Great coordination between hands, mouth, and eyes (ability to pick up a teether from the ground and put it inside his mouth and grasping objects by holding them tightly with their fingers)
• Showing great interest in picking your food and putting it in their mouths or closely observing what you eat and how you eat
• When you realise that your baby is able to swallow his food completely and doesn’t spit up any of
• Showing signs of hunger, even when you have just nursed him or fed him formula milk ( this symptom alone is not enough to wean your baby; it has to be accompanied by the other symptoms too, for you to take the weaning decision)

When you wean, you should introduce him to first-weaning foods that include a lot of textures and tastes. Mashed potatoes or carrots, well-cooked rice, mashed fruits such as apples, bananas and pears are great choices of foods that you can start your baby on when he is ready for weaning.

What to note?

Sometimes, your baby might wake up in the middle of the night for milk, or he may chew his fist. If you spot only these symptoms in your baby, you should never consider them as weaning signs. Feeding him more of your milk or formula milk should satisfy him, in this case.

Expressing your breast milk

You may want to return to work within 6 months of delivery or may be your baby is having problems sucking breastmilk. In such cases, the best solution for you would be to express your breast milk and store it to be fed later to your baby. When you express your breastmilk, you don’t have to be near your baby to breastfeed him. There are three ways in which you can express your breast milk.

The three ways are hand expression, manual pump, and electric breast pump. Hand expression is the most traditional method of expressing breast milk. Here, you use your hand to squeeze your breast well and express milk from it.

The manual pump is an affordable unit through which you can easily pump milk with a hand-held device. The electric breast pump runs on battery and is very effective in helping you extract a large amount of breast milk in a very short time.

Storing breast milk

You can store breast milk in four different formats – room temperature, refrigerator, freezer and cooler packs. Let us look at each of them in detail here.

• Under room temperature, you can store your breast milk in clean bottles and use it within 4 hours of expression . The maximum room temperature that you can store your milk here is around 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
• When you plan to store your breast milk in the refrigerator, you can keep it for up to 4 days from the day of expression. If you are storing more than a bottle at a time, you have to ensure that you label the bottles neatly, so that you can feed your baby according to the time of expression.
• you want to freeze your milk, you have to ensure that you use clean bottles for the purpose. Freshly expressed breastmilk stays good in the freezer for up to 6 months from the date of expression. Labelling the bottles with the date and time of expression is very important in this process as well. When you are using coolers or insulated cooling packs for storing breast milk, you should remember to use the pumped milk within 24 hours of expression. If you don’t use the milk within 24 hours, ensure that you refrigerate it or freeze it right away.

For storing breast milk, it is very important to use specialised human milk storage bags available in the supermarket. If you are using bottles, please remember to use BPA-free plastic only, so that the chemicals in the bottles don’t get mixed with your milk. Following these, will ensure that your baby gets the best quality of your breast milk, even when you aren’t near him.

Sterilizing bottles

Sterilizing is the process of killing harmful bacteria, if any, present on the rim of the bottle or anywhere else. Sterilizing bottles is an important step before you feed your baby with the bottle. This should be kept in mind when you formula feed your baby or feed her your expressed breastmilk.

How to sterilize the bottles?

There are different ways to sterilize your baby’s bottles:

Before using any of the below methods, you need to rinse the bottle, nipple, and lid in soapy water and clean them.

Boiling – Boiling baby bottles is the most common way to sterilize the bottle all across the world.

• Place all the feeding equipment in a large vessel filled with enough water and immerse all the equipment in the water.
• Let the water boil for 5-7 minutes. Turn off the gas and let the water cool off naturally.
• Clean your hands and the kitchen surface where you will place the feeding equipment. If you are feeding right away, avoid using a cloth to wipe the bottle, instead shake the bottle and let the water drip out.
• If you are not feeding right away, put the feeding equipment in a dry container and keep the container in the refrigerator.
• Do not leave the boiling water within the reach of children.

Steaming/Microwave

• This method is as good as boiling. These are electrical equipment’s that heat the temperature and in turn, kill all the bacteria
• Leave the bottles in the sterilizer for as much time required
• The bottles should be kept in this sterilizer with its mouth facing downwards
• When using the microwave, make sure your microwave is completely cleaned.

• Safety & Hygiene
• Preparation & Measurements
• Feeding & Storage

Let’s know more about these points below:

Safety & hygiene

Before you prepare a bottle feed for your baby, you have to remember the following points:

• Ensure that you sterilize the bottle, cap, nipple and the ring well before you use it for the first time.
• Wash your hands well with soap and water before you start the process of preparing the bottle feed.
• Boil one litre of water that you have freshly drawn from the tap and allow it to cool down for 30 minutes at least before you use it for formula feeds. This will ensure that the water is hot enough to remove the bacteria that may be found in the formula feeds and cold enough to ensure that the nutrients of the formula aren’t affected.
• After the first use, you don’t have to sterilise the bottles; it is enough if you wash them well with soap water and allow them to dry completely.

Preparation & Measurements

• You have to check for the manufacturer’s instructions carefully to know the exact measurement of formula and water that needs to be used per feed.
• Pour the boiled water (that has been cooled down) to the exact level as per the marking in the bottle. For measuring the formula, you need to use the scoop that is provided along with the package.
• Mix the formula into the water in the bottle and shake the bottle vigorously for about 10 seconds until the contents are mixed well.
• Ensure that you use the exact measurement of water and formula for mixing. Taking too little of formula may not give your baby his daily recommended nutrients level, whereas taking too much of formula can result in indigestion issues, vomiting and diarrhoea in him.
• Show the closed bottle under cold running water, so that the formula is not too hot for the baby. You can also squeeze a few drops of the feed into your palm to check the temperature before you feed your baby.

Feeding & Storage

• Ensure that you feed the formula to your baby immediately upon preparation. If there is leftover formula in the bottle within 2 hours of preparation, you have to throw it away without fail.
• You should always prepare fresh bottle feeds for your baby and it is not recommended for you to store pre-prepared feeds in the refrigerator.
• However, if you have to prepare your baby’s formula feeds in advance, ensure that you use clean bottles for the same and store the feeds in the refrigerator at a temperature of at least 5 degrees Celsius. You can store these feeds only for 24 hours.

In a nutshell, it is very important to use clean bottles, use the right measurement of formula & water and follow the rules related to storage perfectly, to prepare the best bottle feeds for your baby.

Time your exit from the house

Until your baby turns 1 year old, it is highly recommended that you step out of the house with him only when he is calm and in a relaxed state of mind. We would suggest you plan your take him out immediately after his feed and nappy change, as he would get less cranky that way.

Dressing up your baby

You have to dress up your baby in layers so that you can remove one or two layers when it is not necessary. In the winters, your baby will need one extra layer than you. After you enter into a warm place, please make sure that you remove the extra layers, so that your baby doesn’t feel overheated. In the summers, you can cover your baby completely in light and breathable fabric, so that he isn’t exposed to the sun’s rays.

Items to carry

Here are some of the items that you should carry in your bag containing your baby’s essentials@

• A packet of wet baby wipes
• Diapers (carry as many as you want, depending on the duration of your travel) and diaper bags
• At least three sets of clothing
• All accessories (gloves, hats, socks, blankets, etc. depending on the climate)
• Formula foods, bottles and all necessary equipment needed for preparing the feed (if you are bottle feeding him)
• Plastic cover (to hold the soiled clothes of the baby)
• Hand Sanitiser (so that you can clean your hands well before you feed him)
• A long shawl or coat for yourself (may come in handy when you have to breastfeed him in public places)

While going for a stroll

You should invest in a high-quality pram to hold your baby securely. Place your baby properly in the pram and secure him well with the safety straps so that you can enjoy your walk with him, without having any second thoughts in your mind. Your baby will love the fresh air that he gets to breathe during this time. If you use a sling to carry your baby, please remember not to overuse it during summers, as your baby can get overheated because of the sling’s fabric.

Ensuring his safety at all times

You should know if a particular place is safe or not, before taking your baby there. Polluted parks and places filled with pest infestations are not right for your baby, because his immune system is not well-developed to handle these external toxic substances. Please ensure that you take him to the paediatrician as per the immunisation schedule chart, so that he stays safe from very serious ailments.

After he completes 1 year, his mood and diet habits will become easier to manage for you. Therefore, you will not face as many challenges as you faced during the first year while taking him out.