Couldn't believe this one - weaning a 7 DAY old baby!

[sweetkitty]

Have to tell someone about this one. At M&T's today and got talking to one of the other mum's who had a DD who was very premature anyway I said "what age is she now" she says 6 months so I'm like have you started solids yet? Oh yes she says, she was out hospital and was 7 days past her due date when I started her on solids. I was speechless. She went on to say that she was at hospital with the baby last night and they were asking her about milk intake and she sais she was getting 3 meals a day and they were like but she's only 3 months old corrected weight but the woman said but she is actually 6 months old so she's getting solids. She said the hospital were stupid and knew nothing and that her DD was ready for solids. She said she had weaned her other 2 early as they had milk allergies!

Another friend then went on to say that the baby has breathing problems yet the Mum smokes in the house in front of her so it doesn't surprise me.

Felt a bit when she asked when I had weaned DD2 and I said 6 months, DD2 is a big lump compared to this tiny wee thing.

[pucca]

I had a similar thing happen while i was at my grandparents house, their friend called round who's niece has a 3 week old baby girl, and she said "oh the baby isn't sleeping so they are giving her some baby rice tonight to see if that helps" WTF!!!!

Scary, very scary! obviously i said 6 month is the minimum age to wean but she just looked at me.

[kslatts]

When my dd1 was a couple of weeks old my nan sugested I gave her a yoghurt.

[BarbieLovesKen]

Oh my God, wtf!!! thats awful.. dps sil weaned their little boy at 9 weeks and I thought that that was absolutely absurd... til now!!! poor baby, is she aware that that can cause liver damage and stomach problems in later life I wonder...

[katieANDsmiler]

That really is shocking.

[CanSleepWontStarve]

Some people really should be sterilised.

[fizzylemonade]

I love stupid people who always think they know better than the experts.

It usually starts small with say leaving your hair dye on your head for 10 minutes longer than the packet suggests, adding more washing powder than recommended (over-riding the months and years of research)

Then it gets dangerous with someone thinking a baby of 3 weeks needs weaning. And more scary that they openly admit it

[fizzbuzz]

Sounds like child abuse to me, albeit unintentional.

Or am I being contentious?

[daisynut]

I know someone who did at 12 weeks - was on 3 meals come 14 weeks apparently mum didn't want to get baby into the habit of having milk in the evening so thought solids would fix the prob of baby waking up.

[Ceebee74]

How awful!!

My friend starting weaning her DS at 14 weeks cos he was a 'big lad' - he wasn't particularly showing any signs - but she was also advised by her HV to do it even nore

But she did also put him in a front-facing car seat at 4 months because he was a 'big lad' who had outgrown the car seat they had!

Amazing that the guidelines don't apply to 'big babies'

[daisynut]

sad thing is as well babies of that age don't even hold their heads up it's really sad I think. (least J never could at that age)

[melpomene]

The weight limit for most rear-facing car seats is 13kg. I find it very hard to believe that a four month old baby would be heavier than that. To put it in perspective, the 99th percentile for a four month old is about 8.5kg.

[Wallace]

I was chatting to someone whose baby is 6 weeks old but was 4 weeks early. She is breastfeeding and the baby is putting on weight very well. She was talking about him being a hungry baby and being sure he'll be on solids before 3 months Mentioned that the reccommended age for weaning is now 6 months, and she knew this To be fair I think the early weaning idea had come via her mum.

Re the car seat thing, you can get rearfacing carseats that go up to a heavier weight, usually they can be turned round and used forward facing when the baby is both heavy enough and old enough, so not really an extra expense.

[Miaou]

I once worked with a woman (in fact I covered her maternity leave) who, when she came in with her week-old baby for a visit, declared that she was putting rice in his bottle to get him to sleep through the night "because I like my sleep and don't want to be bothered getting up to feed him" . I spluttered and said "You know, weaning early can cause kidney damage", but she really wasn't interested! I often wonder if that child has problems as a result (she did loads of other "wrong" things too).

[lissielou]

as a lot of you know i weaned v early on the advice of my hv and wish that id held out a bit BUT do not necessarily think the 6m rule is always right (dont lets get into an srgument) but that is truly shocking.


i was in the town centre last week and chatting to a woman outside macdonalds, i asked how old her lo was she said nearly 3m then proceeded to spoon a mcflurry into her (V small) baby now as i said i weaned early but vvvvv slowly. ds had ice-cream for the 1st time at 22m! then her dp lit up.

[harpsichordcarrier]

I know we hear a lot on here about how this six month rule is all new fangled nonsense but I remember when I was a child my mum being shocked that her friend's daughter put cereal in her baby's bottle to help her sleep - the baby would have been 2 or 3 months old at the time. she mentioned it again the other day actually, it has obviously stuck with her that this was a strange thing to do

[Ceebee74]

Lissie - that is so shocking - mcflurry

Re the car seat - my friends DS is now 6 months and still doesn't weigh 9kg (the starting weight for front-facing ones) - it was length-wise he was growing out of it.

Personally, I would have accepted the extra expense and bought a bigger, more practical rear-facing one for 4-5 months till he was the right weight/age - or look into it more closely and perhaps find one like Wallace has described.

[lissielou]

i mean its soft ice-ceam (unpasteurised) full of crap and make with milk!!!!

[lulumama]

but not suitable for a 3 month old baby !!

[Themis]

Rember that a few years ago babies were being weaned at 16 weeks both mine started on solids around 14 1/2 weeks so dont be too shocked about weaning at 14 weeks. It was acceptable at one time ( ds age 6 & 4)

I do shake my head in despair about solids in bottles etc and some of the other things on this thread - Mcflurry !!

[nogoes]

How bizzare . How would you even get solids into such a small baby? I could not even get a nipple into ds's mouth at 7 days.

[Twinklemegan]

This makes the 4-6 months versus 6 months argument pale into insignificance I think. I'd love to say I can't believe people can be this stupid, but sadly I can - all too easily.

[Babyramone]

I posted recently about my friend who'd started weaning her DS at 5.5 weeks and I thought that was crazy. Luckly she'd only been doing for couple fo days and has reassured me has stopped, but this shows you it's more common than you'd think.
My pal claims she didn't know the new recommendations.

[hunkerdave]

It is abuse to feed food to a baby that young

As for a 3mo having a McFlurry - there's SO much wrong with that