AIBU to tell them to piss off?!

[BabyMama212]

I've got a beautiful 3-month-old son, he was 9lb 4 at birth and is now a rather hefty 14lb 1lb. Today I gave him his first taste of baby rice and he loved it.

The reasons why I gave him baby rice today are as follows:

• He started sleeping through the night at seven weeks, but now he wakes for a feed again.
• Halfway through his feed he tries to physically push his bottle away, then complains because he is still hungry
• He chews his hands before and after each feed
• He is absolutely fascinated with our food and drink
• He tries to pick up our food
• God help us if we sit down to a meal and he isn't there. He'll even wake up from a nap if he realizes we're eating without him.
• He refuses to nap during the daytime when before he would sleep for two hours at a time and then be awake for 4-5. And if he DOES nap, he'll sleep for maybe half-an-hour, then get grumpy because he is very tired.

The trouble is that obviously, this incited the wrath of several mums I know who went ballistic on me for weaning before the 17-week mark. I've said that it's my decision, all of the signs are there and they've been there long enough for me to know that this isn't just a growth-spurt but a real thing, but of course they won't listen. One even borderline-accused me of child abuse.

I've told them to butt out and stop being so judgeypants, as I didn't judge them on deciding to start their child on pureéd food at the age of eight months, but they've really upset me.

I realize that the guidelines are there for a reason... but guidelines and just that - GUIDELINES! Aren't they? I'm prepared for abuse from other people on here, but I just want to know.... AIBU?!

YABU about telling them to mind their own business, my two were whoppers as well so sometimes I think the guidelines are just that, guidelines. How can a baby who weighs 9/10/11lb at birth not be hungrier earlier than a baby that only weighs 6lb? My two were both weaned at 16 weeks as that was the very maximum I could wait, I could have done it a few weeks earlier tbh and they were both overdue as well so probably about 17 weeks. But the advice at that point was no earlier than 6 months. You know best, just take it very slowly and def no meat till at least six months, their stomachs don't have the acid to digest this till then.

I really don't get this "oh he's a big baby, he needs more than just milk". Your baby as got that big on just milk alone so why would giving solids change that? It actually makes more sense for smaller than average babies to wean early.

Anyway: when it came to weaning my son's, I read all the studies and research I could first. Then I waited until 5.5months and 6.5months respectively because I found out the risks of early weaning from the research I did.

I did not want to risk my childrens health but if you want to risk your child's health after doing your research then that is totally up to you.

You Are Being Unreasonable. Really.

Exactly Sausage. If the argument is that a bigger baby needs more calories to sustain them, then milk has far more calories in it than anything else. Why early weaning would make a difference, I have no idea. I had a whopper. DD was 25lbs+ before she had any solids. She thrived on milk. It's not an argument that makes any scientific or logical sense.

yep mine were all over 18lb at 12wks and huge by 6mths and fine on milk till then! a large baby does NOT need solids and 14lb as the op's baby is isnt that large anyway!

Haha I am starting to wonder if some people on here actually have children or are just "know it alls" and got THE FACTS!!!

Chill out, people having a different view does not make you any less of a person do not start insulting them to make yourself feel abit more big.

If you want to wean your babies at 3 months you do that.
If you want to wean your babies at 6 months you do that. :)

Food does state 4-6 months sooooooo wide gap for a reason :)

o and letting your little one have a taste of baby rice at 3 months isnt weaning them its just a taste!

tiredmummy I am not sure of your number work there...4-6m is not 3m which is what the OPs baby is.

And yes she was talking about weaning. Lastly, if it was just a taste...then what would the point be? The op had been going on about how hungry/big her baby is, ergo needed more calories/food. Milk provides the most calories, much much more than baby rice.

Sausage Just out of interest can I just ask why you weaned one child at 5.5 month and one at 6.5 months then? Because all children are different and some are ready for weaning earlier than others?

And what if i want to wean at four weeks onto mcdonalds fries and cheesy wotsits? Should I go ahead because u no ur bubz hun?

but 5.5 mths and 6.5mths are within that window of 4-6mths, so generally seen as ok, by 5.5mths if a baby is sitting up unaided and has lost the tongue thrust reflext is grabbing and trying to put food into their mouth, then they would seem to be ready for weaning.

a 3mth old baby canNOT sit up and will have the tongue thrust reflex and wont have the co-ordination to pick things up and put them in its mouth and try to eat. big difference!

Why give them 'just a taste' at 3 months? You either need to wean (or think you need to wean) or you don't.

How is giving them 'just a taste' anything other than playing with your baby's health just because you can?

I can understand why people might reach the conclusion that they need to wean early - I might not agree with it but I can understand how it happens. But I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would just randomly decide to see what the baby thought of food at such a young age. Surely that is just treating your baby like a toy?

I also disagree that big babies are automatically hungrier than small ones. I had a small baby who drank astounding amounts - he was notorious amongst our HVs for the quantities he could put away.

Rebecca Both my boys sat in their highchairs at the table with us at every meal from about 4months old. It was at 5.5months that ds1 picked up food from my plate & ate it. Ds2 I had been offering food to from the same age but it wasn't until a month later that any of it went in his mouth, and even then he ate tiny tiny amounts until he was about 9months where he started eating me out of house & home.

Oh and to answer the point of your question, yes some babies are ready earlier than others but I don't think anyone will be able to convince me that a 3 month old is ready for anything but milk (unless for medical reasons & the parent had been advised to wean) Usually if a parent thinks their child needs weaning at 3 months then they are misreading the signs.

You are an idiot. You have asked a question and have - surprise surprise - received answers you don't like.

Stop wasting our time. Hun.

LOL - I think a couple of spoons of baby rice will do a lot less harm than a lot of things we've seen - fruit juice in a bottle, sugary biscuits to "chew" on because they are teething etc...

But if seriously thinking of weaning, try going for the pureed veg (you can mix it with your usual breast or bottle milk) rather than "empty" calories of baby rice.

Right. To address the elephant in the room.

There are two reasons, and two reasons only why people wean early.( apart from a very few where there is a medical reason, obviously.

1. Because they thinking shows how advanced their baby is. I have a friend who did this.

1. And this is the main one. Because they think it will make the baby sleep for longer. They can't be arsed to get up in the night and give the baby the milk it needs, so they try stuffing it with baby rice, all the while saying "oh, milk doesn't any more". That's because you are not giving him enough. Because giving him enough would mean giving him some in the night

Both reasons are stupid. And doubly stupid because it doesn't work. It doesn't make your baby look advanced, it makes you look like an idiot, and doesn't make the baby sleep better. It might even make it sleep worse because it's trying to digest so thing it's ready for.

What is supposed to be wrong with baby rice? I thought it was just powdered rice? As far as I know rice is a basic carbohydrate, not a poison..? Just curious.

Baby rice is fine. At 6 months.

Baby rice has no nutritional benefit. Babies need the calories from milk, not stuffing them full of gloop.

? I thought rice was quite nutritional. After all millions of people live on it!

I've got a 16 week old who was 7lb 9oz at birth and now weighs 16lb 5oz, she does all the same sorts of things, waking crazy hours, hand chewing, watching us eat but I just put it down to developmental changes, I havent even thought about trying her with food yet, if she is hungry then I just feed her more, but each to their own.

At 3 months ds3 was 12 lb7 not bad saying he was only 4lb at birth . He woke regularly in the night but I didn't reach for the baby rice even though he seemed to be drinking an awful lot

he also showed signs of wanting food but I used my commen sense and just gave him more milk if he was hungry , sometimes he wanted feeding every 2 hours. He wasn't weaned until 5.5 months and is fine, yes sometimes you have to feed more often even during the night.

Come to think of it, DS had doubled his 6 1/2 lb birth weight by just over 2 months so he couldn't have been far off 14lbs by 3 months. And he was, and still is, skinny as anything. So is 14lbs big?

silly statements are just not worth answering :)