Weaning before 6 months

[zany]

My DD is 23 weeks old and has 5 formula feeds a day drinking between 25 to 30 ozs. She has started showing signs of being interested in what we eat and is munching on everything (probably teething). I really want to start weaning her this week as I will be going back to work at 6 months and I want to start the weaning process before my parents start looking after her. After reading some of the posts on other threads Im concerned about starting before 6 months especially as she seems happy and content. Would starting three weeks before she is 6 months old cause any major problems as I really want to be the one to start weaning her? I was intending to use Gina Ford's weaning book as a guideline as I havnt got a clue

[MamaHobgoblin]

As far as I know, the six month thing is to ensure that any baby's stomach lining is ready for food, which they all will be at 6 months. Some will have matured earlier, but there's no way of knowing. IMO, there can't be any harm in starting at 23 weeks, as opposed to the 24 weeks that a lot of people view as '6 months'.

(I am stupidly confused about all these weeks. If we count a baby's age in weeks, is 6 months 24 weeks, or should it be half of 52 weeks = 26? My HV says 26, my GP says 24...)

[Habbibu]

A week isn't exactly 4 months, so I'd say 26 weeks. zany, the only thing you can really do is read the research, and then make an informed decision. No idea about Gina Ford's book - am not a fan of her take on childrearing in general, so didn't look at it, but did babyled weaning, which was lots of fun...

[Habbibu]

Or a month isn't exactly 4 weeks, even. Bah.

[fleacircus]

Zany, I started DD on some solids at just past 24wks, for the same reason, I went back to work when she was 27wks and I wanted to get her confident on some solids before then. I'm really glad I did as she refused to take any milk from a bottle when I was gone (had been exclusively BF with occasional EBM from bottles before then, so I hadn't expected it to be a problem).

6mths = half a year, 26wks. So if you do decide to go before then take it carefully and avoid any potential allergens - DD just had pureed or mashed fruit or veg until she was 26wks, since then she's had a really wide range of stuff, mostly our normal food (we remove her portion before adding any salt or spices etc), sometimes mashed or whizzed in a blender but with some finger foods too. I found the NHS Birth to Five book really useful, you can download it if you don't have a copy (just search NHS Birth to Five and you should find it easily) or get one from your HV.

[zany]

Thanks for your advice. After some thought I started with baby rice yesterday. She takes the spoon into her mouth but then just spits everything out. I guess she needs to learn how to swallow