Weaning Q&A With Lucy Upton - Part 2

Welcome to week two of our mini Q&A clinic with Specialist Paediatric Dietitian Lucy Children. Lucy regularly consults in the public and private sectors and has extensive experience supporting families through weaning in her specialist feeding clinics. Over the next five weeks, she’ll answer some of the most common questions parents ask as they begin weaning, along with a few surprising ones! If you missed last week’s Q&A session, you can catch up here.  

This week among other things, we’re talking about P Fruits for Poo, the truth behind tongue-thrusting and whether to wake or not wake a sleeping baby for mealtimes! Let’s dive in.

What do I do if my baby is constipated?

Constipation describes when your baby poos less and passes hard stools (which may be large or droppings). The NHS qualifies it as pooing fewer than three times a week, poos that are difficult to push out or larger than usual, or dry, hard or lump ‘rabbit-dropping’ poo. You might see associated straining and pain. Occasionally children can also have very loose poo in between these episodes, called overflow diarrhoea.

Don’t panic. This is really common. Lots of parents struggle with constipation at the beginning of weaning as the gut gets used to digesting lots of new foods!

Here are some tips you can take to help ease constipation:

Check in on your baby’s fluids. Make sure you offer water with meals. You can also make sure that you include fluid-rich foods, like yoghurt and fruit, in their diet.

Think about powerful fruit like kiwi. It’s a great source of vitamin C and has been found in some scientific studies to relieve constipation. 

You can also try the P fruits—think prunes, pears, peaches, and plums. They’re a good source of fibre, and they’re also high in sorbitol, a natural fruit sugar that acts like a laxative by bringing fluid into your baby’s bowel and helping them have a poo. 

You can also try other practical options to ease constipation, like gently cycling their legs or giving them a warm bath and a gentle tummy massage.

Most cases will settle, but it’s essential to seek professional help if things don’t improve, just in case they need a little additional support, such as laxatives.

Will my baby sleep better once they start solids?

Sadly, this is a bit of a myth. A full tummy may help them go to bed more content, but there are many reasons why children wake up overnight. It’s biologically and physiologically very normal. In fact, some weaning babies will go through a period where they’re waking a little bit more as their gut is beginning to get used to digesting a wide range of new and different foods. I would advise not to set your heart on ‘more solids equals better sleep’. Weaning definitely isn’t a magic sleep wand. 

Should I wake my baby up for mealtimes?

Now here’s a curious one. As parents, we spend half our time searching for sleep strategies to help us navigate those early months and years, yet we’re obsessed with waking them up for routine tasks.

My advice is that it’s unnecessary to wake a sleeping baby for food - unless there are any delays with development or weight gain, in which case you should seek advice from a specialist. 

While routine is good, it’s helpful to accept a degree of flexibility in feeding schedules. Let’s face it, babies love to throw us a curveball. Think unpredictability in the form of longer-than-expected naps, shorter naps, teething, and sickness bugs. All manner of things will upset the best-laid routines and schedules. Have a rough schedule and routine for mealtimes, but don’t be a slave to the clock. Trust your baby in the same way you did when they were breast or formula-fed. It’s unlikely, unless they have a medical issue, that they will not want to eat  - but remember to begin with during weaning, not eating much anyway can be normal!

My 6.5-month-old baby is pushing food out of his mouth with his tongue. Does this mean he’s not ready for weaning? 

It’s also a bit of a myth that the tongue-thrust reflex has to be gone completely when your baby starts weaning. Whilst we do want it to begin diminishing and be almost gone when you’re getting going with solids, the reality is that lots of babies will still push a little bit of food out of their mouths to begin with. As a rough guide, you’d ideally be looking for your little one to keep in and swallow 50% of every mouthful at the start of weaning. 

As your baby learns to eat and gains experience with different textures and finger foods, I, as a dietitian and feeding specialist, would expect the tongue thrust to diminish and eventually disappear altogether. At this point, baby will be able to move more food from the front to the back of their mouth and swallow.

Pushing food out does not mean they don’t like it. Remember, they need multiple exposures (sometimes up to 10-15, or more) to accept a new food. The likelihood is that their tongue thrust is still diminishing.

How long should mealtimes be?

I’m afraid this one is a bit of a how long is a piece of string? It may or may not surprise you that, as a dietitian, my own daughter at 2.5 years old, currently tends to eat for around 5 minutes at each mealtime.

Try to be less concerned with the mealtime length; it’s about the experience your little one gets during each sitting. Attention time in the early years is often much less than we think. Children, even young babies, are generally very good at letting us know when they’ve had enough, so watching out for and recognising the cues is essential. 

Work through this checklist and aim to tick as many as you can:

Are you present and able to share the mealtime with them? Connection and role-modelling are everything (plus it’s crucial for safety)

Are they getting a balanced and varied plate of food types and textures?

Are they interacting with their meal in various ways? Touching, squishing, licking, tasting, and swallowing are all up there when it comes to celebrating an exposure to food. 

At mealtimes, focus on your child, not the clock. There is no perfect amount of time for each mealtime. Sometimes, they’ll dwell for much longer, and if you can let them soak up this vital learning experience, it's brilliant. Other times, they may be less interested, and it’s okay to call time and let them know that the mealtime is coming to a close.