to think baby weaning seems odd.

[ghostspirit]

baby weaning used to start at 3 months. would start of with very basic baby rice. then would start adding new flavours tectures etc could take time doing it all was good...now from what HV says its start at 6 months and they say to intruduce lumps/flavours rather fast its like theres a rush i would have thought it a bit odd to rush them.

I find the idea of spooning purée into a tiny baby odd, I remember looking at DS at 4 months and wondering why on earth you'd bother when it's been proven that it's better to wait, and definitely earlier for the parents.

But I also find it odd that people mash and purée older baby's food. We started with steamed veg sticks/toast/chunks of stuff as with blw but avoided super messy stuff and spooned things like porridge and yogurt. The result was that we moved straight onto normal food as hebsyaryed to eat more and chew and swallow food, and skipped the 'baby food' stage, although we didn't go for strictly blw as we did and do feed him meals.

I remember babysitting my friend's son when both boys were over 1, and she left me a bowl of mush to feed him, my DS had a sandwich and fruit. I know what made more sense to me.

Food isn't for fun under 1. Food provides iron for your baby which they don't get in high enough quantities from breast milk once the stores of iron they built up in the womb have run down, at around 6 months.

'Food is for fun under 1' makes my eyelids twitch.

You really do have to do what suits your child. I was really up for BLW with DD2 as it seems easier than spoon feeding. DD2 seemed up for it too and really wants to eat what we are eating. But she turns out to have a very sensitive gag reflex and throws up everything that's in her stomach if she gags. It is messier than any form of weaning if you have to clear up a pool of sick. Every finger food except baby crisps seem to make her throw up at the moment, so I am reluctantly doing a traditional mush approach. She really wants food and cries if she doesn't get enough, so slowing down on volume wouldn't cut it. We are gradually adding texture to the mush, but it isn't what I planned at all.

You do what suits your child, no one can tell when they are 4 and rushing into a playground. I BLW as that suited us as a family plus I decided not to give them anything I wouldn't eat and baby rice fell into that category. As long as your child is fed, who cares

It seems odd to me madrat that anyone would look at their 4 month old and think every other 4 month old had the same food requirements. Yours may well not have needed anything but milk. Mine did, which is why I bothered.

Ghost, just realise that feeding solids or formula may note the magic key to sleep. If it was, I'd be seriously tempted right now! Some babies just don't sleep fabulously at that age.

Thank goodness for common sense JadedAngel - they are all different and one way can't possibly suit all babies or be 'best' for all babies. Just do what suits you both. It has no bearing whatsoever on future relationships with food, picky eaters etc

It's not necessarily one way or another - see what works best for you and your child - I started at 4 months with dc1 and 2 and spoon fed at first - I hated it. Dc 3 and 4 were finger foods from the start at 6 months onwards. Both lots are happy healthy and eat well.

I have to say I prefer leaving them to feed themselves but I'm lazy and not a feeder!

DS didn't sit up until 9 months either but we did BLW from about 21 weeks because he was already grabbing food. It's a myth that they need to sit unsupported. It just means they need to be sitting upright because it's a choking risk to feed finger foods when they are reclined and laid back.

I think your HV is misinterpreting guidelines - there is a lot of confusion it seems. The thing is (as others have said) if you start at six months then there's actually no need to go slowly because they are able to do it all, whereas if you start earlier it's better to go slowly because they're not really ready. It doesn't mean you can't go slowly if you start later, just that it's not necessary to go slowly.

I think it's a bit like learning to read. We live in Germany and here they don't teach reading until kids are six or seven, but they get it very quickly and it's done in about three months and there are very few kids who actually have problems at this time. Whereas in British schools it's taught very slowly, beginning at four and taking a year or two to achieve fluency. Some children are okay and pick it up very fast, others go slowly but steadily and some really struggle. But again the majority of children can read well by six years old. Two different methods with mostly similar results in the long run.

Do what is right for you, as long as you don't start before 17 weeks.

"Whereas in British schools it's taught very slowly, beginning at four and taking a year or two to achieve fluency. Some children are okay and pick it up very fast, others go slowly but steadily and some really struggle."

English is much harder to learn to read than German due to our chaotic spelling system. There is a reason why English speaking countries generally start reading instruction at 4-5, the Germans and French at about 6, and the Finns not until 7. The easier the system, the later you can get away with starting!

There is a logic to weaning slowly one food at a time if your child has allergies as it makes it much easier to tell what's causing the problem if there is one.

Otherwise I think the timing and method of weaning matters less than most people think it does (as long as you don't wean before 16 weeks where there is some evidence that it may be damaging). The 6 month advice makes sense in parts of the world where solid food may be less safe than breastmilk but there is less evidence for it in the developed world.

I like the idea of BLW but it doesn't always work in practice. My second took a long time to get the hang of chewing food so we reverted to purses for a time. But he is probably the exception as even now (he's 12!) he has some weird taste and texture aversions.

*purses? Purees!

I've never puréed anything or made special baby meals. DD went straight into whatever we were having from about 5.5 when when she started grabbing it from my plate. At 4 her favourite food is broccoli.

The first year is about the milk, the food is just to get them used to textures and flavours more than anything. They will be getting their nutrition from the milk not the food.

I personally have avoided baby rice for reasons others have said (it's bloody disgusting).

I won't be stating mine on solids until six months plus and will be doing BLW. That's my preference. You should do what you think is right, but please just make sure you're baby absolutely is ready (has lost the tongue-thrust reflex, can sit up unaided etc). I see so many Facebook videos of people feeding their babies when it's obvious they aren't ready (pushing food out of their mouths only for the mum to force it back in etc). There's really no rush!

Mine wouldn't eat finger food and didn't put anything into his mouth till he was18 months old so blw wouldn't have worked. He did move onto spoonfed lumpy food quickly.

I did purée with ds1 and it was a faff. Did blw with ds2 and it's brilliant, he eats anything I put in front of him, although he's now at the stage of flinging food on the floor. Love blw, so easy compared to the hours I spent pureeing. Ds1 didn't really like blw which is why I didn't do it. I don't get the rush to wean at all. Milk is so much easier than thinking about meals.

Baby's iron stores haven't run out at six months, reluctant - they begin to decline. There's plenty of time and breastmilk should still be their main source of nutrition.

Realistically most babies are on formula by 6 months, so can get iron from formula.

Whilst breastmilk is lower in iron than formula, it is higher in bioavailable iron. A breastfed baby is unlikely to be anaemic.

emus for some babies it may well be all about the milk. It wasn't for mine, even by 6 months. Other end of the scale I know a healthy ds who was getting everything from bf up till 2 with food being just about taste and texture. Both him and my dd would have done extremely badly following each other's diets, or indeed sticking to 6mnths to introduce and 12 months for food to be a main source of nutrition.

With babies it's best not to talk in absolutes, they're all very different. And it puts off people who's babies don't suit the norm to treat them as the individuals they are. Watch any mammal but a human weaning their young, you'll notice they don't stick to an exact age or exact rules. Just an average one that comes about because some are earlier and some later. Especially within a litter, or a herd with numerous young. Although that applies to most aspects of development, only us humans are stupid enough to think average age for any milestone translates as 'everyone at that age'.

At 17 weeks there's a growth spurt so BF babies will feed more frequently to stimulate milk production. There's a lot of physical and developmental development between 4 and 6 months that affects a baby's feeding routines, and that's not necessarily a sign of a need to bulk them up on solids.

Both of mine decided to start raiding our plates at about 23 weeks so that's when we began weaning. With DS1, I wasted a lot of time and money on making purees. I quickly found that most family meals were suitable and after 8 months he didn't touch the purees. A lot of lovingly frozen cubes of food ended up being ditched into the bin. With Ds2 I bought some purees to fill gaps when family meals weren't suitable, but again we very quickly moved on to the whole family eating the same food.

I've found the traditional weaning advice way more complicated with phasing in different food types and textures at certain times.

What I found with jars is that many of them contain allergens in foods marketed as appropriate for under 6 months which goes against current advice. I took that seriously due to Ds1's allergies. His first obvious reaction was at 25 weeks to baby porridge. The ingredients list on that was rather long and complicated.