to think this is rediculously early weaning?

[Fryib]

Someone I know has been telling people that she has started weaning her baby boy at the age of 2months!

He wad a big baby, 11pounds and some ounces, and has continued to grown so is now about 14 pounds.

She has been complaining he wasn't sleeping through the night and getting through 9oz bottles every few hours so someone suggested to give him baby rice.

This 2 month old is now having rusk for breakfast and milk, plus baby food for tea and finally a scoop of rice in his bedtime bottle.

Aibu to think this is damaging and far to early. She said she's going to start giving him lunches next week to.

Or am I a bit out of touch, my youngest is 16 months.

when my daughter was born in 98, the jars of fruit puree said from 3 months...

Hey ho, times change, research is conducted and we all do things a little differently!

YANBU

there is aways anecdotal evidence that "it didn't do me/my child/my aunty Mabel any harm"

60/70 years ago they told people to smoke to help with their asthma...

Medical advice changes, it changes based on expanding knowledge and clinical research not just hearsay and what your peers/parents did.

The reason the NHS guidelines include stuff about weaning from 4 months is you will have people who will wean because they think that solids = sleep. And because baby food companies put from 4 months because they legally can not put any younger

As another poster pointed out whilst we may have a cultural thing about babies sleeping through (which goes back to the vicotrian seen and not heard attitude) human babies are not normally sleeping for long stretches until after 1 year, and even then night waking for feeds is not unusua.

Filling a baby up with bulking agents be they rusks or baby rice to make them sleep is for the parents and has nothing to do with the needs of the child. And is also a choking hazard if given in a bottle.

99.9% babies gut flora will not be capable of fully digesting food before 4 months and often until 5 or 6, so yeah, they may eat it and shit it out but will not be getting anything from it.

AFAIK the weaning advice for premature babies is to wean at 6 months/when they reach 6 months as their adjusted age and not before.

It really boils my piss when you get poor advice from hcp's who continue to suggest that sleeping in a 12 hour stretch at 13/14 weeks is to be expected. IMO if you weren't prepared to do night feeds you shouldn't have had a bloody baby!

My DD was born in 1997 and the jars on them then had from 3 months and HV advice was between 12 and 16 weeks. My DD was a hungry baby and i started weaning at 11 weeks with her. My DS1 was born in 2004 and OMG the advice had changed then although tbh i never listened to any of it, i listened to me and my DS1, he was more than happy on milk and i didn't start weaning him until about 20/22 weeks. DS2 is now 19 months old and he was/is a right fussy eater I didn't start weaning him until 7 or 8 months he just wasn't ready for it and he's still more into his milk and bottle now than eating proper food.

Erm, I had a prem baby 8 months ago and was told to wean at 6mo, not early.
So I did, though it's not going well and everything upsets him, so I'm taking it very slow.
Also just wanted to say that I think Showaddy is spot on with some parents thinking it shows how well they are doing if their baby is doing if they wean early. Fwiw this is the first weaning thread where I've ever seen someone wean late, as I am ending up doing. Good to know it's not just me :)

My HV told me that something happens in their gut at 17 or 18 weeks, i forget which, that makes them ok to eat solids, so she said defo no solids before then and the advice is 6mo. I started him on a bit of baby rice at 5mo I think, cos he did seem to be a gannet.

DD was born in 1998, and my HV advised me to start weaning her at 12 weeks. DS1 was born in 2002, current advice at the time was 4-6 months, he was weaned at 4 months because by that point, he was sitting up, crawling and stealing food off everyone's plates! (He walked at just under 8 months!). DS2 was born in 2003, again advice was wean at 4-6 months - He wasn't weaned until nearly 9 months, as due to his muscle problems, he was not even able to suck effectively from a bottle until 6 months, he'd have only choked on proper food if given it too young. I'm currently 32 weeks pg with dc4, have found (through the power of MN) that I'm not meant to wean 'till at least 6 months, which I will try intend to follow, but I feel that is a guideline, and some babies will be ready sooner, some much later. But 2 months is ridiculously bloody early!

my hv did tell me she would never normally recomend weaning so early, to start with my daughter was wanting to be fed every 2 hours day and night after a month she was put on the stronger milk for older babies and was taking full bottles of milk.tried doing all the usual things like giving her cooled boiled water incase she was just thirsty etc nothing worked.
my second daughter was very different she fed every 2/3 hours but only took small amounts of milk, she was quite a worry and had me up all night for a long time.
my 3rd was your classic txt book baby fed every 4 hours to the dot but fed very well and by 2 months had his last feed 11 pm and slept right through to 7am.
every baby i have had has been different to wean my first baby early was the right thing to do, remember we are only talking a teaspoon of baby rice and weaning very very slowly.

I weaned my ds at 12 weeks on advice from the doctor. He was taking far too much milk and I was told it would affect his kidneys if he carried on.

tsc DD's four month growth spurt lasted for about 5-6 days. Thanks to Mumsnet I knew it was coming, so just put a DVD on, lined up the pint glasses of squash and biscuits, took root on the sofa and let her get on with it... Must be harder when you've got more than one.

BornAgainBokononist My friend had her baby at 28 weeks last year, she tried at 6mo, and it went very badly so she left it till his adjusted 6m date (a bit beyond actually) and it went really well second time round

Lots of people wean at 7/8/9 months, so it's not unusual - I don't really see what the hurry to get them eating is each child is difernent and in the long term weaning a few weeks/months later will do no harm

yawn indeed (I wonder if I've got rose tinted glasses about what that stage was actually like...)

The guidelines about not weaning until 6 mo came in between DC1 and DC2 for me. I remember at the time reading some criticism of the new guidelines because they were apparently based on research by the World Health Organisation and intended to cover all babies all around the world. A baby in a developing country where the water supplies are less than clean is much more likely to survive a gut infection at 6 mo than at 4 mo so that is why exclusive bfing until 6 mo was fixed on.

This is based on a dim memory so I am sure there are people out there better informed than me. And my final child is now 4 so I thank God will never have to get involved with any of this ever again.

Just thought I would stick my oar in anyway!

The guidelines are based on the maturation of a baby's gut. This is basic human biology and the same wherever the baby is born. It's nothing to do with water supplies and developing countries. That's a myth. It's based on how a human baby develops.

And I will repeat again that the guidelines changed in 2003 to 6 months. Before that they were 4-6 months for 20 years. Some hcps may have given duff info but the guidelines were NOT 12 weeks in the 90s. And the jar manufacturers are no benchmark for good advice at all. They'll get away with whatever they can.

It seem so counterintuitive to me. If a baby is hungry it needs calories. And those calories are in milk, not in a spoonful of mushed up pear or rice.

When I was born in the mid 1980s advice was 4 months, so it hasn't changed that much.

It does no harm to wait til 6 months, but weaning before 17 weeks is ridiculous. I wonder if people just get competitive? If you have to put food in bottles or make it almost liquid to get your baby to eat it then they're not ready. What's wrong with looking for signs that a baby is ready - sitting up, loss of tongue thrust etc?

Ah, Showaddywaddy, I always was a sucker for a good myth. Months I spent, sitting by the gooseberry bush with my hopefully-prepared Moses basket. Then they told me.....

"The guidelines are based on the maturation of a baby's gut. This is basic human biology and the same wherever the baby is born. It's nothing to do with water supplies and developing countries. That's a myth. It's based on how a human baby develops."

Babys guts and kidneys are developed by 4 month and food actually encourages the maturation
If you read BDA position paper re developing countries

"From 1994 the age range of 4-6 months was considered ideal to begin weaning term infants onto solids (Department of Health 1994). However this was largely mis-interpreted by many Health Care Professional (HCPs) to mean that infants should all begin weaning at 16 weeks of age.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended in 2001 that exclusive breastfeeding should continue until 6 months of age to protect infants from morbidity and mortality that is associated with gastroenteritis.
Following the WHO recommendations in 2001 there has been considerable debate over the ideal age to begin weaning healthy term infants (Platt 2009, Agostoni et al 2008, Fewtrell et al 2007, Foote & Marriott 2003). Gastroenteritis is common in developing countries and is associated with the introduction of formula and complementary foods. Many have questioned whether the WHO recommendation applies to developed countries where the risks from episodes of gastroenteritis are minimal (Fewtrell et al 2007, Foote & Marriott 2003, Lanigan et al 2001). The debate remains over whether some infants who are not weaned until 6 months may be at risk of micronutrient deficiencies (Lanigan et al 2001, Butte et al 2002)."

Also the ESPHGAN postion paper for those who are interested.

Her choice, her baby, but I was weaned at 8 weeks (1974) onto baby rice and wider range of food at 12 weeks, I suffer from IBS so would want to avoid early weaning for my kids.... (waited until 5.5 months) I think 4 months probably ok though in most cases, just am a bit [hmmm] before 4 months.

I think there's some little argument that the changing of the guidelines allows for the fact that most babies are ready for solids between 4 and 6 months but you can't know which baby is which. Some won't be ready until 6 months or later.

But what happens is that people do this sort of justifying thing where they say 'well 15 weeks is nearly 4 months' and what happened (as evidenced above) is that many babies were weaned from 12 weeks or so when the guidelines were 4-6 months. 12 weeks doesn't seem too far from 4 months but is only halfway to 6 months. But with the 6 months guidelines people seem to be more likely to plump for something near 6 months, though usually shy of it and are probably nearer the mark for their actual baby anyway.

If that makes any sense...

Ds was weaned at 4 months. As he was weeks prem this was effectively at 9 weeks. He was tiny and had severe reflux (amongst other problems). Cons paed advised it. Ds wasn't 'damaged' by it.

When my DS was born weighing nearly 12lbs, loads of people told me I'd need to wean early. They also told me I'd need to give him formula but that's another issue! Tis all bollocks though - tried him at 5 months as he was showing a few signs but he didn't take to it, in the event he was happy with nowt but boob until almost exactly six months.

I weaned my prem baby at 6 months actual age, which was 19 weeks adjusted. He was ready for it and at 11mo is now the most fantastic eater.

I was the other day when I met a lady who told me she had been putting rusks in her 32 weeker's bottle from 3 months and feeding him porridge. Poor mite was only 4 weeks adjusted! They were chucking baby rice down his throat in a cafe and he was pushing it back out with his tongue.

My 'friend' put rusks in her dc's bottles from a very young age (6 weeks, 5 weeks and 3 weeks)

Sorry Mrs Moo, I am a HCP and I agree that some old schoolers do still promote early sleeping. However times are changing and I have just written an assignment for my masters on the evils of not co-sleeping while breastfeeding and 4 hourly feeding culture. I hope I can get it published