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

thebody - do you still work in paediatrics? Only I heard that babies in special care were/are put on their tummies to sleep. Does it still happen do you know?

More of a being interested post than having any particular point!

My DS's paediatrician advised we started at 4.5 months for bad reflux. 6 month guidelines are just that, as long as its not before 17 weeks and just fruit and veg very unlikely to cause damage.

My mum maintains her coeliac disease may have been caused by introduction of gluten before 6 months.

I can answer that roundtable (NOT HCP though): DS was prem and he was regularly put on belly to help digestion and because he liked it. THis was 2 years ago.

ICBINEG: spoon feeding by itself doesn't lead to obesity. How can it? Baby that doesn't want to eat doesn't eat. Unless force fed, but that's another topic. The hungry baby formula was linked to obesity (from memory) not FF per se. This was because it is so energy rich. I'm sure there's a link of FF with obesity only because of it's link to socio-economic class (richer, better educated people bf more). Studies control for this though.

Icb I'm highly sceptical re such research hence the way this "link" seems to ebb and flow.It's almost impossible to research properly.

Also those of us 60s babies like me on rusk in milk from near birth would be huge going by this logic,not so.My mother always instilled a very healthy lifestyle so I have always maintained a good healthy weight copying the diet she raised me on.

When you get to a certain age you get advice on changing eating habits to go with lifestyle eg slowing down(my non obese parents have been).The fact is activity and calorie intake go hand in hand and we no longer live in a society where we get enough exercise or the correct food naturally.We have to be sensible and not just eat what we see or fancy.Education and lifestyle and genes are true benchmarks of obesity.Just sitting back and expecting your body to take care of itself no longer works.

As I said you can bf or ff a child for months however what you wean it on is hugely important and actually more so long term when you look at the impact a crap diet has on long term health.A child weaned onto a fatty diet with limited exercise will very likely be overweight,bfing don't save him in the same way a child weaned off ff onto an uber healthy diet and lifestyle will more than likely be healthy.I honestly doubt a month here or there re weaning would make much difference either.

Yes I take guidelines into account but at the end of the day common sense re weaning,food and most things are what I look to re raising healthy kids.

round no I don't. I believe that the practice if putting ALL babies in their tummies, which was seen as good practise in the 80s did stem from premature babies doing well in this sleep position and was then taken as being beneficial for all babies. As far as I remember all paediatricians at the time endorsed it and all my friends as mums then did it.

I remember my dm being horrified and saying my pfb would choke.

that was my point re medical advice not only changing but reverting to older practise.

there was a massive 'back to sleep' campaign in the media fronted by Anne Diamond to stop tummy sleeping in the 90s along with other advice re not overheating babies etc.

I agree it would be interesting to hear if tummy sleeping is still advocated for prem babies, not sure it still is.

MrButtercat yes agree with your post.

Oh yes, to add to my post: socio-eco class also links with quality of food, smoking etc. All sorts of factors that correlates with obesity.

A lot of people don't have any common sense. Like the people putting rusks in bottles and feeding chocoltae eggs to 6 week olds.
Circular argument.

That's awful swanny :( I think the baby's welfare should take priority over the mother's choice.

some people see co sleeping and attached parenting as nonsensical( not saying that's me) but each to their own.

you have to he very careful Annabelle that YOUR strong held views on such matters are just that, your views and not necessarily others.

putting risks in bottles was a common place practise in my group of first time mothers in late 80s. advised by midwives and endorsed by health visitors.

now we feel that was wrong. but it's not stupid of mothers to follow advice from HCP is it? I thought you were all for that.

Agree with MrsButtercat

I dislike the way that spoon feeding is often associated with force feeding/over feeding.
Having weaned three out of my four children traditionally I found no difference in their ability to let me know they had had enough.

no, my strongly held views are based on many many years of scientific research, by very clever well trained people.
Yours are based on....your common sense and what your mammy did too.
not all opinion are equally valid.

HV's come out with all kinds of crap all the time. If a few told you to put rusks in bottles they were wrong then. That doesn't make any difference to the known best practice at the time.

Why are people so determined to cling on to their own way long after they have been proved wrong? Is it that you are so defensive and feel as if it is a personal criticism of yourself? Most of us do the best we can do with what we know at the time. If it turns out some of the stuff you did can now be done better, you move on. You don't purposefully tell others to be below par just because it makes you feel better about yourself.

thebody my point is that the advice, no matter who was giving it, was NOT EVIDENCE BASED.

The research has never given an answer other than back sleeping is safer.

Obviously until the research was done the hcp were also giving advice based on myth.

Do you see what I am saying?

I am certainly not accusing you of lying - hcp's were certainly saying to sleep on tummy...but the research has NEVER at any point backed that up.

It's impossible to spoon feed a baby that doesn't want to eat it, they jam heir mouths shut! I don't know where people get the idea from that it's possible to overfeed this way.

I was told by an allergy specialist I was chatting to at a conference that there is only weak evidence at best that weaning after six months decreases chances of developing allergies.

putting risks in bottles was a common place practise in my group of first time mothers in late 80s. advised by midwives and endorsed by health visitors.

Was it? DS was born in 1986 and I didn't know anyone who did this, nor hear any health visitor advising it. BF was very much promoted at the time, though not necessarily for the duration it is now. The advice I remember was that you could try introducing baby rice at around 3 months (not you must feed your baby with rice from 3 months). Presumably rice was advised because wheat products were not considered suitable for such young babies. The Heinz jars tended to say from 4 - 6 months and, as far as I am aware, they still do.

Advice used to be that dipping baby's dummy in brandy would help them sleep. Mums were routinely told to drink Guinness in pregnancy for the iron.

Just because it was kindly advice, well meant, and often given by health professionals, it doesn't mean that it was good, non-dangerous advice, and that we don't know better now.

I don't think the pendulum will ever swing back to giving alcohol to babies, however much 'advice changes'.

I was ready to say you are being judgey. But 3 weeks old. That is unbelievable. Of course that is bad parenting. IMO.

bigkid it is more subtle than jamming the spoon through clenched lips...it is 'oh just have one more spoonful, there's a good DC', or waiting till the lips unclench for a last go....

kids will do a lot for praise and a smile....

And of course doing the baby led weaning is certainly no guarantee of not doing this...I constantly catch myself worrying that DD isn't eating her dinner and even mid sentence on a 'aren't you going to have some more' and almost always my DH tells me she had tons of lunch so it's all balancing out....

Annabelle, I am so glad you are so clever, how nice for you.

I am also highly trained. was a ward sister and a district nursing sister. I ran my own successful child care business until my 3rd child was badly injured in a school trip coach crash.

I then saw the other side if the fence as a parent accessing help from HCP and its been a very l

Then you really should know better.

long journey.

I retrained again as a TA and now work FT in early years.

I have 4 kids.

so I don't just do what my 'mammy' whoever she is says.

I can honestly say I have mumsnetters for years and have never come across such an arrogant rude poster as you seem to be.

when you have been here longer you may glean that most of us have worked and qualified just like you and are quite able to keep up with your intellect, such as you say it is.

know better about what? that medical advice changes? that mums listen to medical advice? those were my points.

you are a bit of a twat really arnt you.

Then why on earth do you keep repeating this "advice changes all the time, science doesn't know everything" schtick? If you are all those things you so proudly boast of, you should be more familiar with how things actually work.
It really is very simple. Sure, do what YOU think is best. But if you are ignoring all sensible medical and scientific advice, what on earth makes you think you know best? Because you couldn't possibly.

Ouch. So wounded.