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

not sure anyone said it was sensible to wean at 3 months or not.

personally I was just saying that the advice when my older ones were little was to wean at 3 months so I did.

I do object to posters though who have read stats and refuse to listen to those if us who had babies in the late 80s and presume to tell me I am wrong, it didn't happen and medical advice dies not change.

that's both rude and ridiculous.

does not dies.

of course advice/fashions on parenting changes and one poster in particular stated that it doesn't. really pisses me off actually how arrogant some people are.

Of course you are right thebody. I was born in the 70s and i was weaned at 3mo with baby rice, but had rusk in milk earlier than that. All based on medical professionals advice to my mother. She was very shocked when i told her the recent advice to wait till 6months. She wouldn't have just made it up, she didn't raise me in a vacuum.

If you read my original post he was on 9 oz bottles every 15-30 minutes at 12 weeks. That is a lot. It lead to various issues (constipation, being sick etc) HV referred me to Doctor who said that was too much and that I should wean him. I just find it annoying when people make comments like that - implying that I have messed up my son's future. I did not think " I know I will wean my son so that he will have IBS as an adult" I did it because he was suffering at that moment in time, as every caring parent would.

Also it isn't like weaning makes life so much more convenient, so i don't know why anyone would do it if they didn't feel they had to or it was right to do so. I wished DS was still on milk for another 2 months. it was so much easier to flop a boob out/give a bottle.

Don't risks have wheat in them? I thought wheat was one of the things that wasn't supposed to be introduced until after 6 months due to allergy concerns.

9oz bottles every 15-30 mins, purple?
Did he go on to eat masses of solids? I'm just struggling to believe a baby could be that hungry!

From the link Twinklyfingers gave:

The UK Government infant feeding information leaflet for parents advises around 6 months exclusive breastfeeding. It also states that if a mother decides to introduce complementary foods before six months there are some foods that should be avoided as they may cause allergies including: ?wheat-based foods and other foods containing gluten (e.g. bread, rusks, some breakfast cereals), eggs, fish, shellfish, nuts (and) seeds.?

There is little evidence that this prevents allergy. Research studies that set out to find out if avoiding early introduction of allergenic foods reduces food allergy show conflicting results. Moreover, there is some emerging evidence that suggests that the early introduction of allergenic foods may actually protect against the development of food allergy, but this has yet to be confirmed. The theory is that repeated exposure of the immune system at an early age to an allergenic food via the oral route (in other words, eating the food), teaches the body to tolerate the food so it will not cause an allergy when the child grows older.

thanks MrsKoala and yes Purple can defiantly see that's upsetting.

really pisses me off when posters say things like 'well your child will develop IBS then hope you are happy' or some such crap to people who have followed medical advice at the time it was given. 😡

If a bfing mother ate peanuts/gluten, would this work in terms of desensitising a baby without the baby needing to eat them before 6 months?

Just thinking of severe cases of CMPI where the baby can sometimes react to dairy the mother has eaten through her breast milk.

😡 so angry can't do my angry face!!

I have a friend whose child has an extremely severe dairy allergy (not intolerance, allergy). She bf though and I know people talk about reacting to mum's milk but I can't help being doubtful as said friend bf and ate dairy.

The allergy thing is kind of: not too young, not too old (possibly). Said friend had a second child and they went to a non-UK specialist in allergies. They were given a long list of all sorts of things to avoid and introduce at certain ages: some as late as 3 years! I wonder how much of that sort of advice in evidence based .

I also had a milk guzzler my dh and I spent weeks with a screaming baby between 6pm and 8pm every evening - he had a 9iz bottle at 5 pm and we just didn't believe he could still be hungry then one night offered him another bottle at 6pm and he downed another 6oz .

He was having nearly double the recommended allowance by 17 weeks and was enormous ! But I was determined to wait.

Thankfully he lost the weight once crawling !

Those with IBS is there a family history because I really believe these things are more likely to be genetic (all friends children with allergies whether weaned early or not have a positive family history of allergy )

thebody please stop wheeling out tummy sleeping as an example of research / scientists changing advice.

It isn't at all. The research and the scientists have always ALWAYS said that back sleeping is safer. It has NEVER changed.

There was a 'common sense' based fad / burst of 'parenting advice' in favour of tummy sleeping but there was NEVER any EVIDENCE to back it up.

Research will of course change subtly and refine itself over time. In particular if the circumstances of our society change in some way then the research may well show that a change in best practice follows.

For instance it is currently beneficial to breast feed over formula feeding, but in 50 years time the formula will undoubtedly have significantly closed that gap. This means that women on various medications who are currently advised to BF, will probably in the future be advised FF. Not because the advice is wrong now, but because the circumstances will have actually changed......

In fact it is possible that weaning earlier in the 80s 90s was correct at the time due to lower grade formula etc.

There is nothing better to do than follow the currently accepted evidence based guidelines. That they might be different in the future CANNOT change that fact.

I think families like to go on their own family history too.

I had raw egg and rusk in SMA at a very early age,from what DM said not long after birth(60s baby).

Dp who was bf until 2 had chocolate drops put on his tongue again at a very early age.

Now of course I listened to current advice and didn't do the same but I mixed it with family experience (we have no food allergies) and a huge dollop of my own common sense ie I aimed for 6 months(think I got there,wasn't too precious) but if I had had a ravenous miserable baby like I was I may well have brought weaning forward earlier.

They're your babies folks.

I've never been one for restricting anything and have found the research mentioned below re restriction not necessarily being a good thing interesting.

thebody..the thalidomide trials were proved to be extremely corrupt...research isn't perfect but there are a lot more stringent controls now than 50 years ago..and knowledge is constantly improving. I really don't think that's a good example to use. Back to sleep is a beautiful example of how research and medical advice has the power to save lives, as the tummy advice spiralled from one professionals opininon, which seemed very common sense, then when the research happened it was realised that back to sleep is much safer.

We do have a massive culture of early weaning in this country, among health professionals as well as the general public. and we are just starting to find out in the last ten years that there are risks associated with this...It will take generations for the information to fully filter through and become accepted. It's a very difficult area to research ethically but physiologically we now know the gut is best prepared for weaning at around 6 months (the reason the advice says around is because it isnt like overnight when all babies are 5months 29 days their digestive systems mature and on the morning they turn 6 months they are magically ready...it is a process that will be different for every baby.) At least we have evidence based guidelines now and so that we are all in the position to make an informed choice, whether we choose to wean our babies at 3 moths or 8 months old.

My mum weaned me at 12 weeks, I do have IBS but I may well have had this anyway, I don't blame her, it was the advice at the time.

an interesting debate :)

When i was in hospital with ds1, 11yrs ago, there was a lady in the next bed popping ground up rusk into her newborns bottles...amazing.

Both of mine had first tastes around 4.5months but weaning starting with earnest about 18wks.

i did get advised by the hv to give my Ds a rusk at 4 weeks due to him being on 9oz of milk already, just because the hungrier baby milk would "bung him up"!

at the newborn being given rusks! Did no one stop her?

Would the rusk not have bunged him up too?

How do people become health visitors? Do they not get some kind of training and have to keep up to date with current recommendations etc? Do some just choose to ignore it?

I do think weaning shouldn't be seen as a trivial thing. When I look at my morbidly obese inlaws and see their obese dc, all of whom eat no veg and very limited fruit, it makes me cross that there is not more push on the importance of weaning/feeding toddlers.

Their dc already has either chronic constipation or diarrhoea daily and spends most of the night in pain. The parents/grandparents just cannot see the link to the food they eat.

Incidently, my dh was adopted and didn't come to them until he was at school. He's not obese. I wonder if it's because his eating habits were already established? He does have terrible bowel issues though which I'm convinced is early weaning. As do I.

I hope thorough research is done in this area.

Obesity is due to prolonged eating habits,lack of exercise and I presume in some cases genes.

I personally can't see the link between early weaning and obesity as you could have a late weaned baby weaned onto pies and an inactive lifestyle or an early weaned child fed 10 fruit and veg a day with lots of exercise.

I think children do copy their parents though re eating ie if they see mum and dad eating crap all day and not exercising they'll do the same.

no bumble. She was "advised" it was against guidelines but she argued it was her choice and carried on, poor little thing screamed all the time!

buttercat There is evidence linking bottle feeding to obesity...it is to do with over supply of nutrition and the tendency of people to persuade babies/toddlers to finish the bottle.

Some people are obese because they have lost contact with the bit of their brain that tells them when they are hungry or full or have become used to over-ridding it.

Babies and toddlers have great systems in place to ensure they get the right calorie balance but you can break them by forcing food on them or by restricting them. If you leave your DC to decide when to eat and when to stop then they are less likely to be obese in adulthood.

So it isn't so much what you feed your baby/toddler that affect their chances of obesity but how you feed them...

Oh in case it isn't obvious, spoon feeding will also lead to the parent rather than the child determining when to stop. Hence weaning before the kid can handle the food themselves is going to cause problems the same way.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is also a difference in obesity outcomes for spoon fed and baby led weaning babies for the same reasons, but I haven't seen a study on that.

ICNIBEG, I was training as a nurse on a paediatric unit in 1987 and can absolutely assure you that to put a baby to sleep on its back was as hysterically frowned upon as covering the airway. it was a HUGE deal. this was from paediatric consultants so please don't keep saying it was a fad. it was not. I am not in the habit of lying.

I have absolutely no idea if early weaning causes IBS, that's wasn't my point my point was again that medical advice changes. that was it.

and not to be personal you were not the poster who pissed me off, I usually find your posts eminently sensible.