To consider introducing solids at 4months?

[Azaeli]

He's showing all the signs of being ready (grabs things with both hands and puts them in mouth, watches us eat, is more than double his birth-weight, sits well with support etc).

I know current advice is wait until 6months but don't babies develop at different rates?

Also he suffers with reflux and I've heard introducing solids early can help that. He guzzles milk but rarely seems satisfied (EBF) and has lots of green slimy nappies (8-10 a day).

Anyone else ignored the guidelines and started weaning early?

Because, hotchoc, some people just can't admit that what they did is no longer valid.

For example - when I had my first DC and told my mother that guidelines had changed, she said 'oh how interesting,' read the relevant research and commented on how good the Internet/science is.
When I told MIL, she was incredibly uppity, said that her children were just fine thank you, and what do scientists know anyway? She knew her babies better than them!

No hotchoc, I didn't say that. What exactly are you reading?

My point is simply that current official guidelines are edicts from God and are not infallible. Read the research yourself, compare/contrast with other countries, use your common sense. And make your decisions accordingly.

For example, read the article Katarina just posted. It's really interesting and gets to the complexity that lies behind the debate.

OP you've got your answer. You've offered him carrot and cucumber and he can't eat it. My DD is 10m now and has no teeth- she took to food like a dream at 6m. They don't need teeth. If he's not eating it he's not ready

The BLW logic is strange. We help our babies with everything else, yet if they're not eating completely unaided they're not ready

DS can't dress himself. He's obviously not ready for clothes!

Which European organisations contradict the NHS, WHO and the AAP? I just can't understand why people would ignore expert advice and make their baby bear the risk of doing so for the sake of a few weeks. Just wait!

Laurie you're putting words into my mouth to suit your argument. I didn't say traditional weaning was about forcing mush down. I said giving them finger food to see whether they could/ would eat is a better indicator of readiness than forcing mush Down. At no point did I say this is what everyone who doesn't BLW does. It wasn't even related to an opinion on traditional weaning.

And I would say traditional weaning is purée, then move into mush. That's how is set out in the annabel karmel Book inherited which is widely used.

Mashed food isn't mush

Yes, YABU. There is no need for food before six months, unless it is under medical supervision. The 'signs' you've listed in your OP have nothing to do with being ready for solid food.

If you say so cat

Well do you refer to people eating mashed potatoes as eating mush

I'm not putting words in your mouth Walking, because you typed 'forcing mush down' in your earlier post. I think those loads are loaded and judgmental. You obviously disagree - and that's fine - but i think our issue is around the interpretation of those words, not misappropriating what you said.

BLW = allowing your child to self-feed, starting once the baby is at least 6 months and offering finger foods. Why is this such an issue? That is what the whole BLW ethos refers to. It is not about offering purées. If you wish to offer purées with finger food etc then that is what is referred to as traditional weaning. It just annoys me when people say oh I did a mix of purées and BLW - no you didn't, you did traditional weaning. Why can't people just say they did traditional weaning?

All three of my children began weaning at 4 to 5 months. My health visitor said the WHO advice of 6 months is because of concerns about poor sanitation in developing countries.

Oh ffs. You can't tell me I meant something I didn't. You are not actually, the boss. I have not commented at all on traditional weaning, criticism or otherwise. Don't tell me I have.

Coconut- I know where are a lot of pedantics On this thread but there is not a BLW police enforcing some strict definition of BLW which is only important in selling books. I BLW'd my children, they have eaten ie yogurt or mushed potato from a spoon.

Your HV is wrong Lauren. The advice to wait to six months is given by the government and NHS in the UK for babies living here

I do love a good weaning thread.

Walking, all I'm telling you is how I interpreted what you said. I appreciate that there's a difference between how I see those words and how you do.

I did BLW - I weaned before 6mths - my HV was happy enough with that :)

Talk to your HV and get advice but I am also of the opinion that 6 mths was a world wide guideline for sanitation reasons

So stop telling me I used the wrong language and accept that I am
telling you you have misread and are using my post to fight some invisible battle you've obviously had a million times before. I am NOT having it with you.

Your health visitor is wrong. Well she's a qualified and experienced health visitor and you're not.

How do you know who is and isn't a HV?

The health visitor is wrong to say the 6m weaning guidelines relate to countries with poor sanitation. That is WRONG. No question there.

Want to pick at any more of my posts? Go on give it a go.

Sorry, posted too soon...

Weaning is actually a lot of hard work, and is not always a magic wand which solves reflux and sleep issues. If a baby is not ready, it is hugely frustrating, so don't rush in thinking it will make things easier, because it probably won't.

Saying that, I weaned ds1 at 4 months, just before they changed the guidelines. When I say I weaned him, he was actually snatching food from anyone he could reach. I ended up having to keep him out of sight of people eating, because he would get hysterical. His "first taste" was a sausage he grabbed off a plate when sitting on someone's lap at 3 and a half months, and which had to be wrestled off him.

DS2 didn't even notice or care about food until 7 months.

Why do you need an "ethos"?

Babies need food.

Baby gets hungry.

Give baby food.

The end.

more like baby led throwing in this house anyway

YABU a baby's gut matures between 4 and 6 months you have no way of telling when, it may or may not affect your baby in later life.

Also weaning is messy and requires organisation; for me that was reason enough to wait

My DS is nearly 7 months old, we started weaning at 6 months as per regs. He'd been off his food, green, slimy, stinky nappies, crying for hours, eczema and so on for months beforehand. After much fighting discussion at the GP's, where they accused me of overfeeding him despite him dropping a centile and then fobbed me off with colic and reflux, we got him onto Pepti formula for suspected CMPA when he was 5.5 months old. He's so much happier now he's on solids, but that could be either, or a combination of, the Pepti milk and solid food. We won't know until we do the dairy challenge. Despite all the very strong opinions on the 6 month thing here, I'm almost wishing I'd weaned him a bit earlier. Down to 2 (much nicer) poos a day from 8, no screaming for ages, a much happier little chappie.

I'd see if you can get anywhere with CMPA (affects 5-7% of babies, not that rare). Diarrhoea is most definitely a symptom! But IME, some GPs are not very well up on it, unfortunately.

And we're doing mush AND finger food