To be a bit shocked that people are still weaning their babies really early?

[bumbleymummy]

I'm not talking about within a few weeks of 6 months and I know that some babies with reflux are weaned a bit earlier under the guidance of a paediatrician - I'm talking 3 week olds being given bottles of baby rice/rusks because they're big/hungry/whatever. I just can't believe that some people still think this is ok and will argue about how milk just wasn't enough for their baby at that age

good grief pumpkin!!! have you read the thread? take cover now!! 😆

All of my 3 have been weaned before 6 months, ds at 11 weeks on medical advice as he wasn't gaining and had huge issues with milk (cmpi I believe) and the gp refused to give me nutramigen and told me to wean instead, which I did, ds once on solids refused point blank to take a bottle of any sort or drink milk until he was 3.
Dd1 was weaned at 5.5 months as I was going back to work and I didn't want nursery to wean her, also she grabbed my spoon of chocolate cake and shoved it in her mouth and ate it so I guessed she was ready. Dd2 was weaned at 4.5mo as she has cmpi, reflux and also has ptt and her weight had started to drop through Centiles so I weaned rather than switch to bottle. She is now back on her Centile and thriving.
3 weeks is too young and I would cringe inwardly, like I cringed yesterday when I saw a woman strap her 3 month old baby into a ff high back booster with the seat belt, but its none of my business really what others do with their babies as long as they are feeding them and not beating or neglecting them.

Snoot, at 4 months the only thing suitable would be puréed fruit/veg and that's not going to fill them more than milk.

Re teeth. I was at a very interesting conference where an orthodontist was talking about a research paper he had published to do with bottle feeding and malformation of the soft palate (iirc).

about the chocolate milk and about a baby in a booster!!!!

chund the bottle! definitely the bottle!!! I know there is no formula connection outside of the fact is has to be bottle fed.

Oh dear I think I conflated a few things here.

The research I was thinking of is: this

but that doesn't draw any links to obesity in later life directly.

Having said that there is a lot of stuff on lack of self-regulation of food intake in infancy being linked to obesity in children and then adults....

I would be very interested in help unpicking all this as I am in an apparently lifelong battle with obesity and would like for my DD to not have the same issue.

I have really bought into the self-regulation thing because something I read convinced me...but if you have information to the contrary then I would definitely like to hear about it!

Well, my teeth are fine and I still suck my thumb at 25. Conversely I know a few people who did have to have braces due to front teeth sticking out and they never did.

I had a theory that both are common enough that it looks like there is a correlation, enabling dentists to say "Ah, I bet he sucks/sucked his thumb!" and be right most of the time, because most children suck thumb or fingers or had a dummy at some point. I have no idea if it's true, but I've never seen any research that says long term thumb sucking or dummy use really affects teeth, just lots of anecdotal evidence from dentists!

DS ate a breadstick at 4 months (19 weeks) because XP gave it to him in a pub when I was in the toilet. His argument? His friend's 7 month old was eating one! I mean, fair enough he was sitting in a highchair, holding it and waving it towards his mouth himself but I wouldn't have gone for that as a first food.

I had to dive across the room to stop my 2.5yo giving my 6 week old a haribo yesterday so god knows what his first food will be

we didnt get past 4 months - never would have made 6 but yet 3 weeks yikes! 6 months is after all a guidelines most importantly you should not wean a baby that cannot hold its own head up or sit up straight

my eldest sucked his dummy till five. Perfectly aligned teeth at 14!

ICBING: you remind me of my sister. She has weight issues and thus did bf and BLW in part to encourage healthy eating. I feel she makes such an issue to provide healthy food at any time of the day (in addition to providing meals) in attempt to let them self-regulate that I think it will have the opposite effect.

I just can't believe that bottle or boob on demand can't possibly lead to obesity. I can believe that adding stuff to formula, using hungry-baby formula and early weaning may lead to obesity. But I think, just as importantly, probably even more so, is the example parents set wrt food. If you eat sensibly, broadly healthily, eating veg and fruit regularly, I can't believe you will have obese kids.

second 'can't' should read can

leBFG I think I am going to need more than your personal belief that self-regulation isn't a key issue in obesity before I discard out of hand the research I have read. Other research counter indicating will be very welcome...but your personal beliefs aren't really weighing much in the balance...

On another thread, the food snobs one, someone linked to an (awful) article where a mother was bemoaning one of her children being fat. Her other children were a normal weight, and she was saying that the overweight child just couldn't seem to help himself when eating, would eat all the biscuits, five yogurts if they were in the fridge instead of one etc. In that situation where the parents eat well and the other children are not overweight, something else is going on - and she pointed to a lack of self-regulation.

The research shows a clear link of hungry baby formula to obesity if that is helpful.

I think, however, that the information you want isn't available. Adult obesity is a wide-ranging, poorly understood phenomenon. I don't think you'll find easy answers of the sort: children allowed to self-regulate = not obese as adults. The reality is much more compex (I'm sure you already know).

As a general point, I sometimes thinnk people want science to tell them everything. Or blame science/scientists for not responding to their specific questions with simple answers. Even on this thread there is one or two posts along that sort of line.

If papers are your thing, I've been doing a quick google and found this one which shows what we already know about the bf:lower BMI link. They also interestingly say 'The timing of introduction of solid foods, cow's milk, or infant formula neither predicted the outcomes nor confounded the observed associations (data not shown).' Actually, this paper is in full and makes quite an interesting read wrt self-regulation and insulin production in bf infants (comments section).

bigkids I always claim ds's first food was baby rice. I have a sneaking suspicion though that it may have been a chocolate button courtesy of dd...

My friend nursed a severely disabled child a few years back. Said child was a perfectly health baby who was spoon fed baby rice at 3 weeks old, chocked then aspirated (inhaled into lungs) the mixture, resulting in a lack of oxygen to the brain before medical help was available. Now I'm sure this mother was trusting her instincts, perhaps even following advice from experienced elders in the family? Sadly she is not one of the posters here stating how her child is a strapping healthy 14 year old.

I think the debate here is not 4 months v 6 month weaning, but that weaning very early, pre 4 months is bloody dangerous and that it shocks me too OP that people still do it and refuse to accept that hey, the guildlines have changed for good reason. It seems people refuse to accept that the what was common practice 10, 20, 30 years ago may just, perhaps not be safest thing to do now. I doubt the few (100+) scientists involved in producing current guidlines are not all taking backhanders from farley's.

Mine were all weaned before 6 months, in fact when I took my third child to the paediatrician at 5 months (due to reflux) and he asked me what food she was eating, I told him I was not very patiently waiting until 6 months and he went a bit irate, claiming that that advice was rubbish and was only for babies in Africa. He was consultant too!

I rememeber one mother telling me how she cracked a raw egg into babies bottle everyday for extra protein. He was 6 weeks old!

thanks lebfg that looks interesting! I will take a peek!

fuzzy I have no words

Hasn't there been links with diet in pregnancy and obesity.Personally I would have thought that would be more likely to be a link as a baby used to an overeating mother during pg would be more than likely to be less satisfied after birth hence the use of hungry baby formula and more likelihood of early weaning.After weaning an over eating mother is more likely to over feed her child resulting in obesity.