If we had no weaning rules and guidelines, how would we do it, instinctively?

[AndOutComeTheBoobs]

No books, no internet, no mother in law giving you tips.

Just a baby and parents. How does weaning occur naturally?

Is it when the baby starts to put things in their mouth (but this happens every young - 3 months?) is it when they start to crawl and grab at things (this can be much later, if at all if you're my second son).
Is it when the baby reaches out for the parents food?

How would a parent wean a baby before all science and knowledge?

Before the Victorian era of the into of basic formulas and 'paps', supposedly most babies were naturally introduced to food somewhere between 7-9 months. With most naturally weaned off breastmilk fully by 18 months.
Of course Im sure as nobody recorded who did what, many would have done way earlier or later.

I assume the 7-9 month age is because that is when most babies could naturally be able to start joining in eating whatever the family meal was ie porridge, bread, stews or whatever people many ate back then.

I doubt we will ever know what humans would do naturally/instinctively, as we are all so heavily influenced by culture and have been for thousands of years.

Guidelines for weaning change so much, when I had my DD(30), weaning was suggested to start around 3/4 months, which I did. When my DS(21) was born guidelines said do not wean until 6 months. I ignored this and started weaning at 3 months.

It's hard to know when parents would consider weaning a child, with no outside influences. However, IMO I think that parental instinct would come into play.

Interestingly chimpanzees and gorillas tend to introduce solid food around 4-6 months and continue to nurse until 3-4 years.
Orangutans don't introduce solids until 12-18 months and can continue nursing until 8 years.

*AbbyHammond that's a huge difference!

I'd imagine we'd naturally pass babies bits of our own food, perhaps a soft bit squished between our fingers, or a tougher bit pre chewed to make it soft. I can't imagine many mums years ago having the inclination to cook seperate meals for babies. Blending things to a smooth puree felt like quite a bit of effort even with a blender and dishwasher! Without bumbos and highchairs your probably going to need babies to be sitting up, 5 -8 months?

With that image I'd have thought it would be quite a while before babies were getting enough solids to take the place of milk.

I remember reading a piece when mine were small about the natural weaning (as in stopping breastfeeding as opposed to starting solids) age, based on comparison with other mammals. In terms of teeth, immune system and other things I think it was somewhere between 3 and 6.

No one knows without the 'mother in law giving you tips' bit, ie without a surrounding culture. We do know that different cultures do it incredibly differently. I have noticed, though, that often people describe as 'weaning' in traditional cultures something that I think is actually quite different to what we mean when we talk about weaning in the UK - e.g., giving pap/flour porridge or similar. This isn't attempting to introduce babies to the taste, texture or indeed nutrients of food - it's a way of filling them up. It's more like a milk substitute.

Greggs sausage rolls washed down with a fruit shoot by 6 months old.

My babies were around 10lbs at birth (at 37 and 38 weeks) and by four months they were both eating mush (bananas, sweet potatoes etc). They were hungrier for more than what I could provide, so I just gave it to them. My daughter never had a bottle and on the eve of her first birthday she just looked at my breast and turned her head away and stuck her thumb in her mouth. She had basically weaned herself.
I’ve also felt that getting teeth was mother nature’s way of telling you bf was over (ouch!).

I never read up on weaning and started when I thought my baby still seemed hungry after being breastfed. It just felt like the right time.

There are far more calories in milk than any other food you would give at four months so hunger is not a good reason to wean. You just give more milk. My eldest was 23lbs when weaned and got that way on milk alone.

I think naturally we would likely wean according to ability. So able to sit up, pick up food, chew, swallow etc. So probably between 6 and 8 months. Who knows though.

Dd was sitting on my lap aged 5.5 months and grabbed her brother's chocolate birthday cake off my plate and into her mouth. At that moment i considered her weaned. She was never spoon fed and never ate "baby food".

It would probably have been very similar to baby led weaning without the angst.

I think mother-in-laws and their tips have been around since the dawn of time though (along with mothers and other relatives )

It would probably have been very similar to baby led weaning without the angst.

😂 I’ve had to leave the BLW Facebook groups because of ‘the angst’. If I have to hear about sodding pinwheels ever again, I will scream.

What's a pinwheel??

I've just googled it.

They look really nice.
For me though. Into my mouth.

My son's first food was steak in garlic butter. My daughter's a strawberry. Both taken whilst they were sitting on a lap during a meal time.

I think baby led weaning but without the angst is absolutely spot on.

I reckon you'd give them bits as and when from whenever they started showing interest in holding things and tasting them, so probably somewhere between 4-6 months. But I don't think you'd be rushing to get them onto food as their main source of nutrition by a year as we seem to be in a hurry to do. I think it would be pretty sporadic until they are walking, then they become much more of a pain to breastfeed, so you'd probably start to rely on food more and only breastfeed them when they are sleepy.

I have to say I have NO idea where all the BLW angst has come from :o In 2009 with DS1 it was the laid back/slightly neglectful approach - you chuck some brocolli at the baby and call it weaned. The only "rule" was not putting stuff in their mouth unless they could pick it up for themselves (and a bit about round choking risks, salt levels, and honey.) Now it all seems to be so complicated, with facebook groups where the admins seem to have let the power go to their heads a bit and appointed themselves the "BLW police" obsessing over rules that they have made up by themselves :o

As someone above said, when they can sit up, reach and grab it off your plate before you do, that's a pretty good sign even if you had no one else's parenting behaviour to mirror.

Oh but that's assuming you didn't want to stop breastfeeding - if you did then yeah of course you'd be giving them other foods from whatever age they were, trying to fill up their tummies rather than worrying overly about nutritional content.

Also without guidance we wouldn't necessarily know what was a choking risk and what wasn't so it's probably not a bad thing we have it, if it saves babies from being weaned onto something unsuitable at 6 weeks or choking to death on grapes because they looked a nice baby bite size.

This is quite an interesting read. I was immensely reassured by the idea that small children get iron from eating dirt and insects :o Not that I can quite bring myself to let DS2 eat whatever he finds, just in case, but it does make me relax a bit about it.

www.pinterandmartin.com/complementary-feeding.html

You wouid do it when the infant started reaching out for food.

And you wouid give them stuff from the family table, possibly mashed if difficult to tackle otherwise.

Babies were sometimes weaned very early, and gin was a popular early item. Beer often safer than water too.

You might not have a MIL but you would definitely have an entire village of mothers and grandmothers giving you advice. In fact, I believe (?) that everyone would breastfeed each others babies initially as well which makes so much sense.

I think you’d start to give them little tastes of your own foods around 4 months when they start to look interested and try to grab it. I’m sure b/feeding would continue for longer than ‘normal’ nowadays due to lack of a clean alternative drink? To be honest, this is the probably the best way to wean. They get lost of different tastes and introducing lots of different foods early (plus breastfeeding alongside introduction) reduces allergies, which may one of the reasons why they were an unknown phenomenon in days gone by.

I love baby led weaning without the angst too! Dc1 was completely baby led (and newborn will be too) but also had to leave the awful Facebook groups and just stop with the rules, other than being aware of choking.
From a breastfeeding point of view the general research that has been done supports 2.5-7 years with I think 4 as a sort of average.
I’ve been trying very much to follow my instincts there - not wean or say no to a feed just because it’s not normal in our society but at the same time as DC1 has got older there have been changed and boundaries I’ve put in place just because instinctively something has stopped feeling right with me or because the older the child gets the more I feel l have an equal day.