Late weaning - anyone got any experience?

[BubsMaw]

Hi all,

I have a baby DS 5.5 m.o. with a very strong family background of allergies and atopic conditions. My elder DD has multiple allergies, we had a terrible time weaning her with her growing from 25th to 91st centile weight on breast milk, then dropping right back down to 5th centile and failing to thrive, after introducing solids. (she's OK now though, fairly stable aged 4.5 ) I also have multiple allergies, DH has hayfever and environmental allergies, plus the whole extended family all seem to have asthma, eczema etc.

DS is currently EBF, I'm on an elimination diet and all is well so far, he has mild eczema and occasional mucousy poo (poss from mishaps with my food elimination) but he is otherwise fine. He's growing like a trooper, on 91st centile, chubby with weight to spare at the mo.

I'm hugely anxious about weaning him, have spoken to HV and my DD's paed, though not at length. I'm considering doing delayed weaning, like waiting til at least 7 months or possibly longer before trying any solids. Health professionals so far have not been helpful, don't seem to have any answers, though I've not pushed them.

Has anyone any experience with this, or any help or advice generally? Thank you

www.laleche.org.uk/

La leche are the experts on all things weaning etc and I found them really useful when I needed to make choices about to wean/not to wean etc. They have a helpline. Good luck

I wouldn't necessarily delay weaning, I don't think it has been proven to be helpful in avoiding allergies. I think the current research seems to be focusing on the earlier introduction the better from what I've read.

I can only give you my personal experience really, ds is nearly 4 and has multiple allergies and dreadful eczema problems. The eczema started at 6 weeks and it's only really come under control in the last few months. He is severely allergic to dairy, egg, nuts, sesame. We've also had issues with soya that thankfully we now have the all clear on. Luckily we were diagnosed very quickly with the allergies so we avoided the problems you seem to have had with weight gain/illness. My husband and I are also pretty atopic although not with food allergies.

DD arrived two years ago and like yourself I was very worried about the whole weaning process. However to date she has no signs of any allergies, the only things I've not tried are nuts (as advised by hosp).

Hopefully you may have the same experience, just take it steady and introduce foods with a few days gap in between so you can spot potential problems. When I spoke to DS's consultant he made the point that if dd was going to have allergies there was no way of avoiding it and we'd have to find out sooner or later which kind of makes sense. Good luck and I hope things work out well