To be confused about weaning.

[thefirstmrsDeVere]

OK OK I can hear the collective groan as another weaning thread hoves into view.

I am NOT going to slag off the WHO guidelines or call people who give their babies a bit of porridge when they are 5mths old, abusers.

Now is that all clear

I am not daft, I listen to advice and I am not one to stick to something just because I have been doing it that way for years. I am holding my hands up and admitting I am finding the new rules a bit hard to follow.

I cant be the only one who is struggling a bit with the 6mths thing.
Background - just had DC5. DD weaned at 12 weeks, DS1 16 weeks , DS2 16 weeks, DS3 I stuck it out till about 5 mths. Older children weaned as per guidelines at the time.

DC5 is only 16 weeks so I wont be giving him a sausage anytime soon but he really does seem to be getting hungry.

I look at him and think 'blimey your sister was on 3 (teeny) meals a day at your age'

I dont want to be told I am a twat, I dont want to be told I should go ahead and give him a jar of heinz chocolate pudding, I WOULD like a bit of balanced advice and some thoughts on weaning.

Is it really vital to wait until 6 mths?

He is EBF if that is relevant.

Please bear in mind that there are probably millions of older mums like me out there fretting a bit about this.

Ta

The guidelines are (as far as I was told) set at 6 months because at that age babies' digestive systems have fully matured.
They mature sooner for some babies but not all so the 6 months limit is the 'safe' limit so to speak.

I guess it's not vital to wait till then but to be on the safe side it's recommended. Waiting till then could possibly prevent any food intolerances that the baby might develop.

I wouldn't freak out about it. I was given meat at 3 months and from what I understand so were most babies of my generation.
If you feel your DC is hungry you could always try mashed banana or something- he will get all his nutrition from BM anyway, it might be curiosity rather than hunger.

Well the guidelines are around 6 months when your child is showing the signs of readiness. Those signs being sitting up unsupported, development of pincer grip, ability to pick up food, chew, swallow, loss of tongue thrust reflex etc. It's easier to follow your baby's development than to focus on an arbitrary day.

Think of it this way. Hunger is satisfied by calories and milk is where those calories are in the first 12 months. Starting solids is a developmental thing alongside the gut's readiness for food other than milk. So you keep feeding to demand with the milk and when they show the signs/ability for more then they have more but not to satisfy hunger but to introduce a new experience. This will probably happen around 26 weeks.

I took a rather laissez faire attitude tbh. Kept ebf to demand and then allowed dd to help herself when ready.

The doh leaflet's quite good if you google it.

I waited til 6 months, in fact nearer 7 as DS was ill for a couple of weeks at 6mo. But everyone around me was saying oh you shouldnt wait - give him baby rice/mashed potatoes/porridge blah blah blah.

I just carried on with the bf - bear in mind they have the 16wk growth spurt and are extra hungry then - can you feed him more bm?

DS was fine and took to food ok - i didnt have to watch what i gave him (dreaded list of no no foods before 6 mo was not relevant) or feed him pureed apples etc for weeks on end.

WELL my friend was on a medical trial and weaned her baby at 3 months for an allergy trial , he seems fine !!!! this is in 2010 BTW

we all take as bible what we read/are told

you go by your instincts, you have raised a fair few after all

According to the paediatrician we saw when my daughter suffered with reflux, the 6 months things is NOT to do with the digestive system. It's to encourage breastfeeding as long as possible. So, my daughter was weaned starting from 4 months, and she's fine...in fact, I was just marvelling today that she'll be three next month, and that paeditrician visit at 4 months was the last time she went to a doctor...she's healthy as can be!

MrsDV - this is just my experience, for what it's worth...

I had DS1 in 2007, when the advice was still 4 mths. I waited til 6 mths as I was/am too lazy for steaming/mashing/pureeing . We went straight to finger foods.

DS2 has just turned 6 mths, and I have been giving him odd bits of food to munch on, although not as full meals - just bits whenever it has been do-able for us to eat together.

I have held onto the following bits of advice when I have been driving myself up the wall wrt weaning:

• keep the milk intake up at the same level as now,
• up to 1, food's for fun; don't think about 'meals'

Erm, not really sure I have answered your question. My boys have both been 50th centile kids (not that I officially know that, as I haven't been back to clinic since week 3 ), so I don't recall thinking to myself they seemed hungry and needed to eat.

Sorry, this probably doesn't help

The advice has been 6 months since 2003. Here is the leaflet I mentioned.

It's because babies guts aren't fully matured till approx six months. This coincides with them starting to be able to sit up on their own, getting teeth, being able to bring food to their mouths - in other words them telling you when they are ready for food.

Just listen to them, and go with what they are doing and you won't go far wrong.

Total X-posts....

Thank you for your non rabid comments everyone

I feed on demand. We dont have any feeding routine. He is a very contented little chap but is quite a bigun.

I have just had to buy him size 4 nappies the big fatty!

So I know he is getting enough calories.

He has started to follow us when we are eating and is grabbing things and putting them to his mouth.
He can sit up with minimal support (He CAN!).

Doubt if he is up to chewing anything just yet though

I intend to keep bf for ages yet. He will be mixed fed when I go back to work two days a week.

I think my slight anxiety is a LOT down to me having weaned so early with the others. I can see why its proving difficult for HCP to persuade parents to wait until 6 mths.

Although the parents who were feeding their 7 week old mashed up fish and chips from the chippy were going a bit far HV told me that recently!

purple good point about the growth spurt. I forgot about that.

Thanks anon show eve porc and passme for sharing your experiences. It does help.

And everyone else who posted while I was composing that.

Recent research suggests that waiting till 6 months doesn't reduce the likelihood of allergies - though waiting until after 4 months does. My son was seeming v. interested in food and hungry at 19 weeks and I had a look through the research for myself, rather than NHS guidelines, and I'm confident I did the right thing by weaning at 19 weeks.

Lots of other countries have different guidelines, and I would definitely agree with looking for readiness rather than dates.

My view on it is that if you are going to do it early, do everything you can not to do it before 17 weeks, and if from 17 weeks, stick to the guidelines for early weaning, which in a nutshell are no dairy, wheat, protein (meat or vegetable protein), eggs, citrus etc - so baby rice, cooked vegetable purees and cooked fruit purees.

So whilst it is ideal to wait till 6 months, if you "cant" (and really only you can decide that) then at least do it "properly" and be aware of the risks of doing so and make an informed choice on behalf of your child. And it seems to me, from my research on the matter, that if you stick to the guidelines for early weaning, then the risk is pretty damn low.

Aw, he sounds lovely. DD was fairly squishy and also ebf to demand. Lovely.

A friend of mines baby suffered dreadfully with reflux and she was told by the consultant to wean him onto baby rice at 11 weeks. She was very taken back by this and challenged him, to which he replied guidelines are exactly that, each child is different and has different needs.
My eldest was weaned onto roast dinners at 12 weeks and is as fit as a butchers dog.

SOH/Lady - good to know our clinic was up to date then ha ha!
[I knew I was right not to go back there]

I am very careful when I wean. I have always done it very slowly and all home made, organic stuff (well, ok not organic for DD and DS1 but it wasnt invented then )

I certainly wouldnt wean before 17 weeks and am aiming to wait a bit longer if poss. Because DS is EBF and refuses to take a dummy I dont have to carry anything about with me or sterilize. I am not in a hurry to complicate my life.

It has been very interesting and helpful to read your views. I promise I am listening.

Thank you.

PassMeTheKleenex, sounds like my old hv trained at the same clinic. Did you know bfing past 6 months is dangerous and should be avoided?

Fit as a butcher's dog? Is that the same as fit as a human child?

My take on it is that 17 weeks is the absolute earliest you should consider weaning, but different babies are going to be ready at different points between 17 and 26 weeks.

Best thing to do is to look for signs of readiness in your individual baby, like losing the tongue thrust reflex, sitting up, grabbing things etc.

Isn't 16-17 weeks classic growth spurt time? I'd be tempted to at least ride out a few weeks more to see if the rabid hunger bit settles down anyway.

This is a good report from the British Dietetic Association.

^In practice the developmental signs that suggest that an infant is ready to accept solid foods are:*

Putting toys and other objects in the mouth

Chewing fists

Watching others with interest when they are eating

Seeming hungry between milk feeds or demanding feeds more often even though larger milk feeds have been offered.

The report makes the point that there is a 5 week range in which "term" babies being born (i.e. 37 - 42 weeks).

It was easy for me to wait to 6 months as DS was absolutely fine with just milk and didn't seem hungry or anything. I would not begin to judge someone else weaning before 6m if I knew they had considered the guidelines etc and looked at signs of readiness.