To think that some people are really up there own backsides over early weaning.

[annieee]

Of all the things to latch onto about parenting, why this? Who cares if your kid watched tv in the day, or doesnt eat 5 a day, every day, or hasnt had a bath for a week, or hasn't had enough one to one contact, or enough cuddles, or enough sleep, or enough alone time, or enough attention - you weaned at 6 months, that's whats important. Not like so -and -so's kid from down the road who weaned a few weeks early, He's obviously doomed to a life of allergies and street crime.
Seriously, I'm not the only person who thinks that in a few months/years you genuinely won't give a crap, and neither will anybody else.
I understand not weaning at 'mush' stage when baby can barely hold its own head up, but telling everybody that their baby is DEFINITELY not ready for food before the magic 6 month mark is ridiculous, IMHO.
maybe it's just me who think I'll look after my own not everyone elses...

Isn't the WHO's advice on the introduction of solids six months? Their advice is what's best on average globally

WHO advice is focussed on best outcomes thtroughout, so it is really aimed at developing countries where hygiene and sanitation are bigger risks.

I'm with LadyBealeEyes mine is 24 and I can't remember what age he did anything without digging his baby book out of the loft. And he was my most precious first and only born. It really does not matter. People just should enjoy having a DC and forget the small shit. In the great scheme of things it is so unimportant.

Unless of course someone fancies telling me that DS's brain tumour aged 8 was due to FF after 6 weeks cos my breast milk dried up or because he was weaned to 1987 guidelines. Not that I think anyone would be so stupid. But then again, nothng would surprise me.

Ditto psketti, I was weaned at 3 days (no, that's not a misprint - cereal in a bottle) and whilst I'm not dead I have had chronic IBS for years.

Yanbu - weaned at 17 weeks for both our DC .
Paediatric dietician advised us that the 6 month weaning mark was based up the WHO guidelines for developing countries .
If you leave it till it until 6 months you have to wean very quickly on to new foods to avoid fussiness later on .
According to out excellent paediatrician .
She also said that contrary to popular belief there are no ' official ' guidelines as to when is the best time to wean a FF baby.
Again because the guidelines are based on BF mothers in the developing countries .
Babies organs are able to cope with weaning from 17 weeks according to The British Dietetic Society .
We weaned with that in mind and also because our babies were showing the signs that they were ready for it.
And because they suffered dreadful reflux .

Hmm. DH was very early weaned (late 1960's) and is constipated a lot of the time. My mum was fed cow's milk and rusk/farex type stuff from birth and suffers IBS. Is there a link? These were acceptable practices at the time so no one is to be blamed but it does make you wonder. DS1 was weaned at 17 weeks as recommended then. DS2 when he nearly snatched my dinner off me at 5.5 mths!

Every child is dfifferent, I hate this (seems more prevalent now) wish to subscribe to some dogma or another to rear a child, rather than just use your judgement plus advice of concerned others (parent, friends, GP) when needed.

I weaned at 5 months but without a single jar...she still hasn't eaten jarred or pouched food. I don't eat ready made food, so she shan't either.

It always amuses me that people "defend" their choices by claiming HV advice - every thread about HV I've ever seen has the vast majority described as know-nothing busybodies.

Mine certainly knew SFA about weaning. Baby rice is rank. And completely unnecessary. HV pushing it for an average sized, EBF, perfectly happy 4 month old to get the holy grail of "sleeping through."

That was DD, I did start at 4 months, then stopped again because she got tonsilitis (in my PND addled state, OBVIOUSLY she got that because I mixed formula with the stupid baby rice.) We left it until 6 months, she was great, really easy and unfussy. DS1 was 6 months when he had first tastes, and over a year before he ate what you could call meals. DS2 was 5 months and a gorb. Seriously, I don't think he's stopped eating for more than about 5 minutes since. I've never seen anyone so delighted to see a bit of mashed carrot.

nannyplumb that is what strikes me from the weaning schedules I have seen. They are so fast! Well they look really fast to me because I am used to a fingertip of rice every other day for two weeks, a bit of apple puree for the next week and then introducing various fruits and veg on their own. Weaning for me takes months not a few weeks.

I used to take DS2 to the clinic a lot even though he was my 3rd. I was fostering him (in-family placement) and SS were doing sod all monitoring so I was keen to get him looked at weekly.

The HV told me off (yes, told off a 36 year old mother of three, all grown up and managing to run a house, work etc etc) for giving him fruit.
She said it wasnt good for him and he would never eat anything savoury if I didnt stop

FFS how many people did she put off giving their kids healthy food by doing this?

Mind you the HVs tended not to read DS's notes properly and just used to read 'neglect, child in care' and assume I was the one who neglected him.

That was a real eye opener I can tell you! (but for another thread I think)

crunchy I never expect my DCs to sleep through at 4mths.
Where does that come from?
Who started putting that rumour about?

Blimey I get an undisturbed night before 1yr old I consider myself a lucky woman!

The problem is that what's healthy is not a matter of personal opinion, it's a matter of science.

So it doesn't matter what your PERSONAL opinion (in all caps why?) is.

If it was your PERSONAL opinion that large doses of vitamin D were adequate protection against malaria people might advise you against taking your children to malarial regions.

mrsdevere I know, the HV was a crazy FOOL. DD slept through by 7 months. DS1 is 6yo and hasn't yet. DS2 was over a year. I don't actually think it's related to weaning at all. Yet you are told (and told and told) that FF/ HBM/ pies will force them to sleep.

Mind you, this is the same HV who told me if I didn't have The Sex with then DH, he'd leave me. Which was nice.

I may just have had a good baby, or a good routine, but my DS has been sleeping through the night since he was seven weeks old. And I certainly wasn't weaning him to "make" him!

He's 6m and we've been giving him one meal a day for about a month, and we've been giving him breakfast and lunch for about a week. He absolutely loves it. We tried him with mashed up banana and pureed carrot first, and then started blending our own lunch. We've also stocked up on baby jars because he loves them - especially the Sunday Lunch and Fishermans Pie.

My HV suggested I wean him at 3 months but I was loathe to do that, so I waited until he was just under 5 months old and then started him off with a small amount.

I consider "early" weaning to be anything before the 4m mark. My grandmother kept pushing for him to have spaghetti and porridge at 9 weeks and only stopped when my mother told her off for it!

My dc began crying due to hunger just after a full bottle at 19 weeks.(I weaned at 21wks)I started using baby porridge, and continued giving 3or4 bottles a day and gradually introduced other things into the diet. My dc was 11lb when born and was 2 weeks late, I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.
I think it should be down to the parents when they wean (after they've at least taken the time to read up and listen to the professionals), they know their child, but completely agree with SecretM that it should always be in the best interests of the child and not done by the parents' calendar.

IME the pressure is more towards early weaning.. I've already been asked about weaning dd2 and she is only 6 weeks.

DD1 was weaned at 18 weeks. Between 14 and 16 weeks she had significantlt increased her feeds. At about 17 weeks she would finish a feed, cry for more food but refuse milk and continue with her hungry cry.

I got a lecture from my HV when I admitted starting weaning at
5 months. I was told I was endangering his health. Official guidelines changed about a week later.

Is is likely op that people are going to do all the things you say in your op but be sticklers for the six month weaning rule? Really?

I agree there is significant pressure to wean early. My in laws are constantly asking me when I am going to start dd on solids. She is 24 weeks but they've been asking since she was about eight weeks.

I think the baby period is such an intense period of parenting but there are only really two areas in which decisions need to be made: sleep and food. So they become much more fraught than they should be, because all that angst is poured onto fairly unimportant questions.

When I went to parenting classes after having ds 5 years ago, the nurse told us that the guidelines said not to wean until 6 months and made us feel that if we introduced food earlier we would be responsible for terrible things hapenning to our babies' stomaches. I made some flippant remark about how the guidelines changed all the time and that they would probably be back to four months in a few years. 'Oh no', said the nurse, 'we'll never go back again'. Anyway, five years later the advice is to wean at 4 months again (this is in Australia). As far as I understand, the research that has been coming out suggests that the risk of allergies increases with later weaning.

Weaned both of mine at 6 months when they could sit up and self feed.

Seems nuts to me to wean a baby who can't yet sit up properly or needs help getting food into their mouths. If they can't pick up and eat it, then how on earth can they be ready for weaning, whether they are a big baby, a small baby, a girl or a boy (have heard somebody saying boys need weaning earlier). Ofcourse all babies develop at differnt rates, and some babies will be able to sit up and self feed at 5 months, some babies not till 7 months maybe. By the time they can pick it up, put food in mouth, chew it and swallow it, their gut is definitely mature enough to deal with solids. Isn't that common sense?

The avice was 4 months when i weaned mine and the eldest with reflux was very ready for solids and his vomiting and crying stopped within a week of starting them. I agree the delay to 6 months is mainly to benefit babies in the third world where hygeine is poor and breast milk is better for them than many of the weaning actions. If your baby is growing fine and content on milk then waiting until 6 months is fine. I don't really care when other people wean their babies between 4 and 6 months. The very early weaners are a strange bunch though, and wheat before 6 months is a definite no from guidelines and research as introducing it earlier may cause more allergies, so no biscuits and rusks.

I was lucky that both of mine were happy and content on milk till 6 months, so I never had the dilemma or when to wean.

Follow the guidelines as they stand at the time. So 6 months at the mo, but don't beat yourself up if you weaned 'early' when the guidelines were different.

Should have said weaning "options"