To be funding it hard to bite my tongue re weaning

[HugeFloweryPants]

I accepted a long time ago that a friend and I parent differently and am quite happy with that, horses for courses. I breastfeed and go with the flow and she's a routine queen with 4 hour bottles etc. BUT I'm finding it hard to bite my tongue now we're on our second babies regarding weaning, she's well informed/ educated but has a big baby that 'needs' early weaning...but it's taken to extremes...
7/8 weeks baby rice
8 weeks rusks at bed time (trying to keep 4 hrs between bottles)
now 10 weeks
morning: eg porridge powder stuff
dinner: eg powdered meal by heinz (not seen but described)
tea: rusk

...and today exclaiming he's dropped a few centiles

I know I lentil weave a tad...but give me perspecrive, surely this is outside the norm and not a good idea? Mine would have been unfeedable then due to tongue thrusting.Or am I just not used to this as I've never bought ready made baby food?

[BearFrills]

Anyway- you do what you want to do with your children and don't judge others for their choices. Weaning early does not make you a bad mother.

This.

The 'rules' are not one size fits all and, like adults, babies are all individuals with individual needs. What is right for one is not always right for another and when you boil parenting down to the bare bones we're all just doing the best we can, as well as we can.

DS was started on mush at 15wks. He was demand-fed but was pounding 8oz of milk and screaming for more however he couldn't physically hold more, he'd just sick up the excess. Around 4pm-ish was the worst time. He'd have a feed around 3:30pm, then want another one by 4pm, then another by 4:30pm. We tried splitting feeds, offering slightly less but more often, and so on. It was our GP suggested giving him food so we did, once a day at tea time a small amount of food after his milk. He was much happier for it. It had nothing to do with him sleeping through (he'd been doing that since 6wks) or wanting to rush ahead, it was what fit him.

DD was the complete opposite. She was BF but I very quickly lost my milk as she was sleeping through from birth and going 3-4 hours between feeds during the day then only feeding for a short time. She's a dinky little thing and just doesn't eat much. Even when we switched to FF at around 5-6wks she was only having 3oz every 3-5 hours (demand-fed also) and sleeping all night. We tried her with food at 5mo on the advice of the HV, to try get more calories into her, and she was having none of it. We tried again at 6mo and she had lots of choking issues as she refused to chew and just swallowed everything whole including an entire piece of broccoli! We tried again at 7mo with mush which she grudgingly accepted then at 9mo she decided table food was much more to her liking. It wasn't until she was around a year old that she actually started eating a full three meals a day and even now the equivalent of 2-3 tablespoons of food is enough to satisfy her.

They're all different and while YANBU to have your opinion, and to silently judge if that is your want, YABU to say anything. Her baby, her rules. She's breaking no laws.

[dollyindub]

I was a huge baby, 11lb 3oz. My mum was young when she had me and was breast feeding, but then my Irish granny swooped in and told my mum that I was crying because I was hungry and promptly fed me baby rice in a bottle.
At 2 weeks old

However my mum said I thrived on it, I was weaned early and thankfully I don't have any problems now.
I don't think YABU to be concerned, but it's her child and he/she will probably be fine. If there are any problems they will be picked up by healthcare professionals anyway.

[MoominmammasHandbag]

Just anecdotal but I was FF and weaned at 6 weeks. I have completely healthy guts, eat anything.
DD was EBF to 14 months, first tastes of food at 6 months. At 17 she has big IBS problems controlled by medication, is also lactose intolerent and often has reactions to other seemingly random foods.
I think a lot more research needs to be done.

[FryOneFatManic]

I was weaned at 4 months. My DCs were too.

However, milk was still the main food for quite a while afterwards, which seems to be the line taken by the advice to "introduce foods". DCs ate what DP and I ate, with obvious exceptions such as honey under the age of 1, etc.

DD disgustingly healthy. DS has a mild bowel issue which he is growing out of. Can't say his bowl problem is related to the weaning, as many of my family (both Dad's and Mum's) have been diagnosed with bowel disorders, and he may have developed this anyway regardless of when he weaned. I haven't developed any bowel disorders, I have mild hayfever, specific to oil seed rape, and an allergy to nickel, otherwise I am healthy.

I guess other factors may always have an influence.

[Yfronts]

She is obviously not well informed. She would know about the problems associated with early weaning if that was the case and would wait till 6 months.

[Yfronts]

Thank goodness people are starting to understand more about health and diet these days. There is such an obvious link.

[HugeFloweryPants]

I'm the op,

a lot of being who are saying they did it early did it at 4-5 months, fair enough, I don't have issue with that really (though it's not my choice) but this is a baby less that half that age! At 4 month they have reasonable head control and possibly no tongue thrust reflux. Looking at dd at 7/8 weeks her head is still unstable and I wonder how she'd swallow...

[Pigsmummy]

Leave her to it, baby is happy and fed. Don't say anything

[meddie]

both mine had mush at 3 months as was the current guidelines at the time, I have pictured of my DD at 6 months in her high chair munching a slice of pizza. Neither have bowel issues or eczema or asthma. Times change, guidelines change. In a few years the advice will probably change again. I really wouldnt get that worked up about it.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Why anyone would want to wean early is beyond me. I found it incredibly stressful (and still do, even though DD is 1 now) worrying about what to feed her, how much, was anything going in, what to do when she decides to eat nothing but yoghurt for a week, cleaning up the highchair after every meal, trying to get her to use a spoon and not feed the dog...the days when I just plugged her onto the boob were much easier!

[BearFrills]

As an aside, when DD was born in 2011 I got a letter from some university in London (can't remember the name) asking me if I'd like to take part in a research project about weaning. To take part I had to be willing to start weaning at 12wks and the project was going to last several years.

I'm guessing someone somewhere is conducting research into the weaning guidelines.

[BearFrills]

Yes! That's the one, thanks tiggy :)