Help.. too much solids too soon.. what to do?

Hi all,
I started DD on a little bit of solids at about 5 months (previously exclusively breastfed). She wasn't very interested in rice cereal, but loved pureed cooked pears, so I quickly moved onto this instead. I must admit I got a bit excited and tried her with lots of new things more quickly than all the advice suggests. She loved eating solids so much that I kept giving it to her. She's 6 1/2 months old now and I've been giving her three meals of solids per day (as well as breasfeeding) for about two weeks. But I have noticed that she is now taking less breast milk (ouch!) and more solids, but her poos have become harder and the other day she actually cried while doing a poo. So I think I've given her too much too soon.

I'm trying to cut it down by going back to single foods (pear or pumpkin), offering a bit less and offering the breast first. Her poos are still a bit too firm I think, and she seems grizzly and is not sleeping very well all of a sudden (waking every sleep cycle and needing help getting back to sleep, last two nights)

I've read some advice suggesting giving her a little bit of brown sugar in warm water as this can have a mild laxative effect.

I worry that she's uncomfortable and I really want to help her feel better. If my digestive system was giving me trouble I'd drink peppermint tea, but am not giving this to her because I can't find any info about this anywhere.

I'm really upset that I've caused her to feel this way and worried that now that we've gone too far we wont be able to go back.

Has anyone got any advice? Sorry for the rant, I'm stressing!

:hug: FWIW I don't think it's because you gave her 'too much too soon'. DD was like that for a while, she's been through a couple of stages of crying everytime she did a poo because it was hurting her, and probably just the different sensation of a more formed poo rather than runny milk poos (sorry..TMI. Lol). Her poos will get harder and more like 'normal' poo as she has more solids, there isn't any way to avoid it. She will get used to it. In the meantime a warm bath might help her to move things along (DD seems to like doing #2's in the bath lately :rolleyes: ), and there are quite a few other threads on helping them to poo a little bit easier.
Don't beat yourself up hun :hug:

TBH I found starting solids to be an extremely stressful time. I was constantly worried about what, when, how much, how often etc. I think you are doing well and you are certainly not doing anything 'wrong'. your baby has given you some signs that things might need to ease and you have listened so my take on your situation is that you are doing really well. I actually think that I didn't progress quick enough with my DS, and going slow he still had little tummy aches and restless nights. I think your thoughts of BF first, cut down quantity and back to single foods sound good for the time being. Then maybe in a month or so you can step things up a little. From memory I started giving DS small amounts of boiled water after his solid food too. Not sure about that tho as have heard the first flow from BF can fulfill water requirements at that age.

Cutting back a bit and trying to get more breastmilk into her may also help. At this age they are generally still having a lot more milk than anything else - there are no hard and fast rules of course.

I would also give her a few doses of coloxyl to get her constipation under control, this is what our gp suggested when we were having issues with solids :)

What everyone else said! Definitely make sure she is having a breastfeed first, even if it means that lunch isn't strictly at "lunchtime" if that makes sense. Later on when it doesn't matter so much about the milk feeds you can go to b'fast, lunch and dinner times and work the milk around that, but because her milk feeds are still so important I would just be focusing on giving her the milk feed first then solids. If she loves pears stick with those as the fibre should help with her bowel movements. Good luck!

Hun, you are doing a great job. :hug: With a new baby everything is a learning experience and starting solids is particularly a time of trial and error. No two babies are the same so it takes us all a while to find the balance between food and breastmilk, and between caution and experimentation.

From what you have described, it probably is a bit too much solids at this age, but don't feel bad. It's easy to cut back a bit - 1 or 2 smallish meals of solids a day is usually enough at that age, and it is fine to introduce a large variety of foods early. It is now recommended that earlier exposure to a multitude of foods can reduce the risk of allergies, and exposure to as many different tastes and textures as possible early on has been shown to lead to less fussy eating down the track. Also, meat is now recognised as one of the most important early foods due to the iron and zinc content. You can give large chunks of boiled steak for her to chew/suck on, safe bones, or scrape meat into a pulp and mix with something. Pasta bolognaise is also a favourite early food, especially if you are comfortable with the idea of baby led solids (which in part means introducing finger foods from 6 months).

As for the possible constipation, breastmilk has a laxative effect so giving her plenty of breastfeeds is the best way to get things moving and reduce the discomfort. Once she back to drinking more breastmilk it should all work itself out.

All the best hun.

Thanks for all your supportive replies. DD had a much better sleep last night, so I'm hoping that means she feels better. She was SO exhausted after the last couple of nights being so restless.

If I'm honest I was probably rushing with the solids because I'm looking forward to when breast feeding isn't a 5 - 6 times a day thing because DD wont take breastmilk (or anything else for that matter) from a bottle, so I can never be away from her for more than a couple of hours. Mostly this is fine, and I love that I am able to give her breast milk, but I would also love to be able to leave her with my husband or mum occasionally and do something for myself.

I've started introducing a sippy cup and she does like it, but tends to spit out most of what she gets out of it. After posting last night, having a good sleep and reading all your replies this morning I have a new burst of energy to get her onto the sippy cup with EBM, and getting the solids back to basics for a while.

I just love her to bits and hate to see her suffering. Its so hard sometimes, just when I start feeling a bit confident about things, everything changes, or something goes wrong. Mummyhood is the biggest challenge of my life!

It is hard when they rely so heavily on you so often :hug: Some foods I have to restrict with DS is banana cause it can cause some problems and even the kids weetbix cause of the extra iron in it. Now your LO is getting older you can have the occasional morning or afternoon off and miss one feed without it being too much of an issure or effecting your supply too much (and by this I mean say once a week or fortnight) often they might make up the feed but you get that much needed sanity time.

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... Now your LO is getting older you can have the occasional morning or afternoon off and miss one feed without it being too much of an issure or effecting your supply too much (and by this I mean say once a week or fortnight) often they might make up the feed but you get that much needed sanity time.

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Do you mean I could miss a breastfeed and have someone else give her solids instead occasionally? This would be great, even just once a week or fortnight. I have to admit I'm starting to wonder how much longer I'll breastfeed for, but I hate the idea of weaning her when she's not ready. This would give me a break and makes me feel that I could continue BF longer

Hun, over the next few months, she will probably start to reduce the number of feeds she has, and certainly the feeds will get shorter. However it is also fine for her to have solids and water instead of breastmilk on occassion when you want/need to. Another option is to express some breastmilk and have that in the freezer for someone else to give her while you go out.

You are doing a great job. It is normal to feel tired and restricted at times. In the next little while your little girl is going to start becoming more and more independent. This will give you some more space, but you will be facing a whole new set of challenges ;) It's all good though :)

Hang in there :hug: