to not really understand why people are weaning already?!

[nightowlmostly]

Hi, my DS is 4 months old. My nct group were round the other day and are all talking weaning already! The babies are all around the same age, some a little younger. They mentioned baby rice, and the usual pureed carrots and stuff.

I'm a bit confused, as I thought it was 6 months that you should wait until, and didn't realise that so many people started so early. I have read a few things on here about how early weaning can lead to long term health issues, and specifically about baby rice being nutritionally worthless.

I just wanted to ask for your opinions on this issue, and was wondering whether the anti-baby rice thing was possibly one of those things that people get all worked up about on here but nobody cares in RL? Is it the norm to wean at 17 weeks still, regardless of the guidelines, or am I just in a weird bubble where people do this?

Not trying to start a bunfight, as I've seen this debate end there before, just honest opinions. We will be weaning in a couple of months anyway and have no real plans yet, so any advice generally would be great too!

There's some evidence, from the EAT study that tiggy mentioned, that weaning at 6 months may increase the likelihood of the baby developing allergies. The government's take on it is here [http://blogs.food.gov.uk/science/entry/what_s_behind_the_development]. The study suggests weaning between 17 and 26 weeks may be best.

I don't think it's just as simple as "weaning before 26 weeks is wrong", although some health professionals really push the government line and make out there aren't any grey areas.

We're not at 4 months yet so I'm just going to wait until then and see how DS is getting on - if he doesn't seem ready, we'll wait. My DM and family seem to think that waiting until 17 weeks is abnormal though!

Oh bums. Sorry, that link didn't work.

I always swore I'd never feed my baby something I wouldn't eat myself. I don't like wallpaper paste so I don't feed them baby rice.

I weaned at 18 weeks on gp and hv advice.
The OP could changed to read the same, but a out waiting until 6 months.
I know plenty of people who wait until 6 months regardless of their baby, because the guidelines say so.
Imo there is not set age that suits all children. I hate the judgy tone of these threads and 'don't they know what they are doing slant'.

I weaned at 27 weeks. At 26 weeks dc started sleeping through the night, so I believe sleeping through is developmental and not food related. I didn't feel the need to wean early, too many risks.

It doesn't matter what others do as such, I'm just a little confused that so many people seem to be ignoring the official advice to wait until 6 months. I read somewhere that it is to do with the development of their gut, and how any parent can know that their baby's gut is ready for solid food is beyond me.

Surely if they're still hungry you give them more milk? Any food you give them will not give them more nutrition than milk can, it will just fill their tummy up, especially baby rice.

I'm not comparing my baby to theirs at all, thinking should I be doing what they're doing, I just don't get why they're doing it at all!

i dont eat food without salt...i feed her that. I dont eat ready brek or all bran, she eats that. I dont think a week of ground rice did her any harm. The judgy tones on here make me laugh.

OP you clearly do have an opinion on this and are not as innocent and unsure as your op makes out.
I baby led weaned as from 18 weeks. He eats the amount he wants.
Its actually very easy not to be critical. You want to wait until 6 months, that's fine. Others don't or feel their babies are ready.
How would you feel if you were told you were leaving it too late and your baby was ready, by these mums?

The official advice is Up to 6 months not wait 6 months

mine was born in 2003, and he was weaned at 4 months. He was a 10lbs baby at birth, who kept on putting on weight at a massive rate while breastfeeding. By 4 months, I couldn't keep him happy just with milk any more. He was ravenous.

You don't understand because you have your baby and they have theirs

And their baby (shock! Horror!) is different to your baby! Someone call the bloody press, revelation!

As long as its after 17 weeks I think just get on with your own business. People aren't doing to race, they do what's right for their own

Hth

OP a gastro consultant advised me not to wean before six months. Apparently until then, babies stomachs and guts are like tea bags, i.e. full of tiny holes. He suggested the only thing that is healthy for babies until six months is breastmilk.

I don't mind what others do either, I couldn't understand the rush that some parents seemed to be in to start solids.

Good luck with whatever you decide :)

I know I have an opinion, that's why in my OP I express confusion about why people are ignoring the accepted advice, based on scientific research. I was just asking if anyone could explain to me why people would do this.

The other part of my OP was asking for advice on weaning at 6 months, as obviously I'm not an expert, I just know that the advice is to wait that long.

danteV if they said that to me I'd laugh, because they would have no idea if my baby was physically ready inside to deal with solid food, just as they have no idea about their own baby's gut.

If you're genuinely interested in why the people in your NCT group are weaning earlier than you, surely the easiest thing is to ask them!

The advice of waiting til 6 months is led, imo, from the rate of adults with IBS and other bowel related illnesses. Therefore while a lot / most babies appear to "take" to early weaning or fit into the "it never did them any ahrm" category, IBS and other bowel illnesses don't start appearing til adulthood anyway, so therefore babies will seem unaffected by early weaning.

I held off weaning. I don't judge others who wean earlier (but after 17 weeks) however I had to de-friend a friend from FB who kept talking about her 4 week old being fed mush. Even after she was given advice from em and others about the guidelines, she continued to wean stupidly early. I cannot and will not accept that this is good for her baby, even though I agrea that all babies are different.

'the only thing suitable for a baby's tomach before 6 months is breast milk'

Someone actually said that?! what about formula?! Jeez

ACCEPTED ADVICE / SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE ON WEANING

At one point women were told to avoid peanuts during pregnancy - like my sisters friend. This was because they wanted to see if the advice would change the amount of babies being born in the UK with peanut allergies. It did - they increased and they have changed the advice again.

She avoided nuts and her baby has a severe nut allergy. I'm not obviously saying this wouldn't have happened either way but if we were to listen to every guideline we are told to follow for our children then what is the point in us raising them?

There has to be a compromise doesn't there? It's called common sense. weighing practical scientific advice against your instincts as a mum.

I wasn't feeding my DS bowls & bowls of rice etc at 4 1/2 months. He was having the odd spoonful and the other 90% of food was milk.

I would of course judge a mum feeding her 4 week old food! This is pure idiocy. Hold your judgement for those morons.

yeah formula is poison kayano, surely you know that

I used to just say to my early weaning friends, when asked, that I was waiting til DS was ready as I didn't see the point in rushing him (by early weaning I mean 12 weeks! - we waited til nearly 6 months). I used baby rice for both mine but only for first 2 meals just to get them in mindset of eating off a spoon. It's rank and in no way represents the kind of meal they'll be eating in future! Raising a child isn't a race, even though some people think it is...

I didn't wean till 6 months 3 years ago I went to one of those baby clinic weaning parties where they were pushing towards as close to 6 months as possible 'health visitors'.

A lot of people I know have started as four months as their babies seemed to be getting very hungry...

Why do YOU need to understand why OTHERS do things differently, OP? Can you not just accept that they do? Anything else is all about your need to get a 'pat on the back' from others. Why do you need that? I'd like to understand, really I would, but in the interests of not being judgey - I just don't care why you need it and accept that you just do...

Why do people assume that if someone does something slightly differently, it must be because they think parenting is some kind of competitive race? Maybe they just focus on their own child rather than fretting about everyone elses.

I still don't understand why the op doesnt just ask her NCT friends if she is genuinely interested. I suspect this is more about judging them though

I started at 5 months cos ds showed he was ready ie by grabbing out for food and watching our every move while eating. This showed me he was ready so I started but I did baby led weaning anyhow. Just wait until your baby is ready. Trust your instincts, you will know.