To think that our 13 week old ds, who is long for his age and weighs 15lbs would need...

[mameulah]

...weaned before the rest of the majority of his peer group?

Or do I not understand the whole weaning thing?

It really feels like everyone thinks I should be feeding him porridge and baby rice. I am interested in the baby led weaning thing but I can't imagine how I am going to keep him going only on milk for the next three months.

What do you think?

Depends what you mean by "all the time" It changed once 20 years ago (to 4-6 months) and then once 10 years ago (to 6 months) but the way some people talk you'd think every couple of years it went from 12 weeks to 26 weeks then back again...

I think the risks of early weaning are vastly exaggerated. Most cases the worse which happens is that the solid food passes through the baby compeletely undiagested. My eleven son's friends seem to have about the same prevalence of allergies as my three year old daughter's friends.

"I'm not fussed about the perfect 6 month target, but I can also say with ample experience (old guidelines!) that weaning before 6 months did nothing to improve how well DC slept or what weight gain curve they were on. "

Completely agree.

The risks of weaning before 17 weeks is more to do with increased infections, gut damage, gluten intolerance, coeliacs/ibs as an adult than allergies (other than gluten).

I think all the evidence on harm associated with early weaning is in regard to weaning before before 3 to 4 months. These days very few people do that, but when weaning guidelines encouraged waiting until only 16 weeks, mysteriously vastly more mums found their 11 week olds 'needed' solids.

nearly everyone says that weaning too early causes digestive problems which won't show up until later life.
Does anyone actually have proper evidence for this? have there been studies done on 50 year olds who were bf / ff? What exactly are these digestive problems?
I'd love a link to some hard facts.
btw, all of mine have been ebf for at least 5 moths, I'm just genuinely curious as I have never seen the data which corroborates the widely held belief that it is " bad for the baby's guts"

My 12 week old DS is 15lb 3oz and long too. So far, he's satisfied with his milk and I personally don't want to start weaning until he's older. However, I'm not opposed to some baby rice when he's 4 months, as its suitable from then.

If I find he's needing more sooner, I'd speak to my HV first. I suggest you do the same as all babies are different.

HTH

Re the guidelines changing all the time: My mother, who was a GP when I was born 39 years ago - so knew the NHS guidelines at the time - said that then, 39 years ago - it was wait until at least 4 months.

I was weaned at 20 weeks, my elder brother at 19.

It changed slightly more recently to 4-6 months, then the emphasis changed to say more like the 6 than the 4.

So it was at least 4 months, then 4-6, now 6 - over 40 years. Thats hardly changing all the time

moogy - when early weaning and adding cereals to bottles became popular in the 1960s, there was an increased number of children under 5 diagnosed with coeliacs disease. When the Department of Health first made recommendations that weaning should be delayed until 4 months (1974) there was a reduction seen in the number of children diagnosed between 1974 and 1979.

I was weaned at 4 months and I'm fine. Perfectly healthy. Oh, apart from the life threatening allergies. But as long as your kids are fine, feel free to present your anecdotes as conclusive evidence.

Moog1a

you might find this interesting. European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition commentary on complimentary feeding

"The available data suggest that both renal
function and gastrointestinal function are sufficiently
mature to metabolise nutrients from complementary
foods by the age of 4 months (12). With respect to
gastrointestinal function, it is known that exposure
to solids and the transition from a high-fat to a
high-carbohydrate diet is associated with hormonal
responses (eg, insulin, adrenal hormones) that result
in adaptation of digestive functions to the nature of the
ingested foods, by increasing the maturation rate of
some enzymatic functions and/or activities (13,14).
Thus, to a large degree gastrointestinal maturation is driven by food ingested"

TryDrawing - I don't think there is any evidence that weaning from 4 months increases risk of allergies is there?

Apparently my DM started weaning me at 3 weeks

My DC (both were small at birth, DD particularly so) were weaned at 4 months because that was the advice then.

DD1 was 8lb 1oz and was literally stuffing food into her mouth at 5 months old.

DD2 was 9lb 11oz, is rapidly approaching 5 months, and shows no interest whatsoever in food.

Weight is no indicator. Go by your baby.

I'll just add that, luckily, none of us have any allergies and we are all normal weight and height.

My children's paediatrician recommends 5 months, by the way.

Even the experts don't really understand allergies and what causes them but one leading theory is (and I?m paraphrasing my consultant in very broad terms here) that the introduction of food before the gut walls have closed allows the immune system to become sensitised to the amino acids in certain foods. The gut walls are generally thought to close between 4 and 6 months. Weaning at 4 months could therefore be a factor.

I?m not saying that early weaning definitely caused my allergy, I?m saying that it is unhelpful to assert that ?I weaned my child at 3/10/15/20 weeks and they are as healthy as a fine strapping horse?. It isn?t evidence.

Just answering your last question OP about BLW since I see you have been convinced by everyone else about the waiting until 6 months :)

Don't get bogged down in BLW vs puree. Weaning onto solids is just giving food to your baby. If you wait until 6 months you can just give food as it is , same meals as the family without mushing them up. It probably makes sense to start gradually, just let him have fruit or the veg from your meal at first and build up. My ds1 we sort of decided one day to start but dd and ds2 just helped themselves to food off someone's plate one day when they were approaching 6 months. Well, actually they nicked food a lot once they had the ability to grab it but I nicked it back, once they got to around 6 months I stopped taking it off them and let them experiment.

Just go with the flow and use common sense. If eating a roast dinner then let them pick up and eat pieces of potato and veg and a lump of meat. If eating soup then dunk some bread in for them to eat but maybe help them to spoon some too. Pasta and sauce they can pick up and eat the pasta and you can help them spoon some sauce. Just look at it as eating with you rather than labeling everything.

just be careful with salt - don't add salt to cooking, and be sparing with high salt foods such as marmite, cheese, baked beans etc

DD was enormous (started off little but gained 1lb a week on normal weeks and 2lb during growth spurts). I did blw with her and she didn't actually eat a noticeable amount of food until she was 9 months old. Her skinnier brother was ready for solids at 24 weeks, although I held him off for another fortnight.

As far as blw went, I stopped putting salt in my food and ate with the baby on my lap and let him/her help himself to bits of my meal. Once they were eating reasonable amounts rather than paying with my food, they would get their own plate and dit in a high chair. Eating is pretty much like walking and talking - as ling as you don't stop them from doing it, they will do it all by themselves in their own time.