Weaning cures colic? Surely not?...

[bobsmum]

I posted a while ago about my nephew. He was 5 weeks prem. SIL was given crap "advice" re bf and ended up bottle feeding. I found out she'd introduced solids at 9 weeks (adjusted age = 4 weeks) and was very surprised. She and the whole of dh's family have various allergies (hayfever/pet allergies/mild asthma etc).

It turns out, she was actually advised by her GP to wean her ds at 8/9 weeks in order to cure his colic! Is this standard practice - surely this can't be right when the recommended age to introduce solids is now 6 months? Has she been ill-advised again?

[boyandgirl]

Was this in the UK? It seems very strange advice to me.

[lucy123]

I've heard of people being advised to wean from breast to bottle to cure colic - is it possible your SIL misunderstood (and the doc didn't know she was bottle feeding? )

[bobsmum]

This is in the UK. SIL was definitelt told to wean onto solids - ie start with baby rice, fruit puree - the usual.

Will see her this weekend and find out more. I can only think her GP must be a bit of a dinosaur?

[boyandgirl]

Prehistoric! How old is your dn now? And has your sil spoken to any other 'advisers'? I'm sure the NCT would be able to point her in a better direction - they're not just for breastfeeding mums.

There's so much that can help (if not necessarily cure) colic: routines, different teats, fennel tea, massage, cranial osteopathy, changing formula, changing feeding position, winding... Some people think that colic may be a result of an immature bowel, so challenging it with solids would be a dreadful thing to do, especially if there are already allergies in the family.

[bobthebaby]

Sounds like an excuse to me, saying the doctor told her so so she won't be judged.

[boyandgirl]

I wouldn't be so sure - who would want to get into the hassle of solids before they'd barely settled down with the newby? Some GPs do give strange advice: at my old surgery, the practice nurse and the GP both advised me to give ds brown sugar for his constipation at less than 3m old, but when I mentioned this to the HV she nearly went through the roof 'You mustn't do that! It's old-fashioned, prehistoric advice! I'll talk to the Dr myself!' Needless to say I didn't tell her that I'd already used an old-fashioned remedy and given him sugar water in a dummy as pain-rleief for his vaccinations.