to trust advice from MN more than the advice from DM and DMIL?

[CreamOfTomatoSoup]

Loads of the info on MN about weaning advocated the BLW approach. ie wait until 6 months and then give them some chunks of stuff and watch them chuck it on the floor see what happens. MN also seems to be anti purees and baby rice. I was thinking of trying out the BLW approach as well as poking some sweet potato and milk mush into his mouth. I've told both my DM and DMIL about this.

DM weaned us at 4 months on HV advice. Last week she took me to the waitrose baby food aisle to show me what baby rice is . DS is 5.5mths and she thinks I need to crack on with it! She's also stewed me 500 metric tons of bramley apples.

DMIL is very risk averse and said DS would choke if I gave him some bits of sweet potato alongside some potato/milk mush. She weaned her DC at 6 months.

Who should I listen to? You guys or the grannies!

[pictish]

Why not use elements of both?

That's what I did. I did some purees abnd a lot of 'here hold this and give it a nibble' as well.

There's no rule you have to follow - it doesn't have to be one way or the other. Just do what YOU feel like doing.

[ZombTEE]

MN as a whole isn't anti anything. There are too many of us with too many different opinions.

Do what you feel is right. I did as pictish did, some purees, some chunks, some handing loaded spoons, some spoons flicked into my hair himself.

[JamieandtheMagicTorch]

FWIW, blw isn't a complete departure. People have been giving their babies bits of banana or toast to chew for decades, whilst also giving a baby a spoon to hold and shovelling some in themselves.

Some of us even used jars

[IneedAsockamnesty]

i had this from a ggp about banana the other day, in her defense her last baby was 60 years ago and apparently the done thing was start weaning at birth or something.

do your own thing.

i would be very cross at being taken to a baby food section by someone who thought i needed showing. but i would also pity them a bit for not being inteligent enough to know that baby rice has no nutritional value at all and that starting a baby off on processed bland mass produced mainly water mush is not the best idea in the world.

[IneedAsockamnesty]

ought to add, that jars do have there place and im not anti them at all,im just anti the way they are marketed as being so wonderful and better than you could make at home due to all there big ticks on the lables.

[JamieandtheMagicTorch]

Sock

I have a degree and an MA. I weaned my last baby 9 years ago. I had no idea baby rice had no nutritional value. So it's not about lack of intelligence

[JamieandtheMagicTorch]

[OpheliasWeepingWillow]

Ignore! Do whatever you want to do and don't let them make it an issue. What nonsense. Baby does not need a trillion spoonfuls of apple for cognitive or digestive health.

FWIW my dd has purees / lumpy food at breakfast on a spoon or off my finger (long story), feeds herself lunch (tries to - noms on bread, veg sticks, baby puffs, pasta) and then spoon / finger at dinner. She is 8 months.

My method is to basically surround baby with food and hope for the best

[OpheliasWeepingWillow]

Oh, and you should obviously listen to us

[Trills]

Listen to everyone, then use your own judgement to decide who you think is most trustworthy, and who you agree with.

And listen to Tee and remember that "MN" is not a person and does not have just one opinion.

[naturalbaby]

do what's right for you and your baby.
I was determined ds2 would wait till 6months but at 5.5months he was flapping madly at a rice cake so I gave it to him....he devoured the whole thing, a big adult sized one (plain organic version). And so began BLW. Ds1 wouldn't have been very happy with blw and ds3 did a mixture of both depending on what was available!

[Fairylea]

I weaned dd now aged 9 at 4 months on jars of organic baby food... she hated baby rice and seemed to enjoy carrot puree for breakfast !!?

I now have ds aged 4 months and I'm planning to wait a bit longer as all the evidence says to wait but I do let him have a lick of things that we eat as he seems interested. He is sleeping 12 hour's a night though so milk is currently doing him fine !

I don't know what to think of it all really. I'm very scared of choking as dd had a nasty miss with an apple piece at about 8 months (cooked apple too). But then I guess that could have happened regardless and they do say blw means they learn to chew earlier when their gag reflex is higher so they choke less...

[Mrsjay]

DO whatever you are comfy with back in ye olde days you just weaned your baby and that was that , nothing wrong with doing some puree stuff and also some of the BLW you don't need to be rigid and follow anything to the letter, and a baby will Gag it is normal reflex to food and texture, your mums have experience of feeding babies mumsnetters have experience of feeding babies just take from the advice what you want, there is no right or wrong with it,

[HoneyDragon]

Mash a sausage roll up with some fruit shoot and serve in a bottle, tis the Mumsnet way.

[JollyJackOLantern]

My dad was fed egg before he was 6 weeks.

Thankfully now we have scientific research to show weaning before 17 weeks is pretty damaging.

Do whatever feels right for you. But if you're going to feed your dc baby rice I recommend you taste it first. It's gross.

[IneedAsockamnesty]

jamie, im guessing that should you have a 6 ish month old baby now then you would know this?

im also guessing that if you had a relative with a 6ish month old baby now then you wouldnt frog march them to a supermarket and intentionally stear them away from perfectly good fruit and veg to jars of the same fruit and veg just mushed and watered down?.

please dont be defensive you really dont need to its not a dig at you at all its more a dig at the marketing companies.

fwiw my eldest (now a adult) was a jar weaned baby because at the time i was very young and relied on hv who on seeing me making my own baby mush (something like carrot swede and apple) made a judgy cats bum face gave me a lecture on gluton and salt(obviously i hadnt used any) and other such nastys and how i needed to be very careful about these things they were so dangerious that i could poisen my baby and that i should rely on jars as they had been made by specialists who knew better than me,and i was so concerned about how other people viewed my parenting (being young and fairly judged lots) that i listened and in about a month blew about £60 on fecking jars. untill a different hv gave me some very good advice and that being 'read the fecking lables,you know what she can have and what she cant your cooking it yourself idea is one we try to encourage,if you had have been older last hv wouldnt have said a word she was just trying to justify her time when she didnt even need to be seeing you'

her advice gave me confidence in my own abilities iykwim?

[Mrsjay]

TBH baby rice is just a bulker isn't it ? i never gave mine it well I did with dd1 for a few weeks but that was 19 yrs ago and My mum said oh put it in her bottle,

[Hopeforever]

Never understood baby rice, but that's just me

You do what you want to, you are the mum.

[EdgarAllanPond]

"
Thankfully now we have scientific research to show weaning before 17 weeks is pretty damaging."

not that damaging actually - statistical significant uplift in diahorreah prior to 12 weeks, some other potential harms - as ever research outcomes are debatable due to the confounding factors etc.

baby rice is about 85% carbs (so, plenty of calories there), and yes, it tastes like pap if not mixed with babys milk.

[Littlebluetoo]

A long time ago, when my DD was at the weaning stage, I had a facinating conversation with one of the top research doctors who helps design the baby milks to supplement feeding to premature babies. I was really upset that I hadn't been able to BF her for more than a couple of months and wanted someone to tell me Im not a bad mother! Anyway the conversation turned to weaning and he made the point that as breast milk was mainly protein and fat, baby rice was a waste of time. Pureed chicken (thigh best as it has a higher fat content) was his suggestion. Never actually did it as I was an awful mother and went back to work at 6 months but always wondered how DD would have reacted to it!

[Hopeforever]

Interesting that breast milk has no carbohydrates, so even abates are are on a low carb diet

[Hopeforever]

Abates should read babies

[ZombTEE]

There certainly are carbs in breast milk. About 40% of it is lactose, which is a sugar therefore a carb.

[EdgarAllanPond]

bm is 7.5 % carbs so not no carb, but low-ish carb

[JamieandtheMagicTorch]

Sock - you are probably right about the baby food companies..