To ask what age you weaned your children?

[buncakes]

I have a DS, 19 weeks and am a FTM. I am conflicted about when to wean. NHS says 6 months. But my family and friends think I'm mad for waiting and they think he needs food now. He is FF and does cry for milk a lot more than he used to and I find it hard to fill him. I am not sure if weaning would help this - everything I've read online says no but everyone I know says yes.

Would be interested to hear experiences and opinions. I just want to do what's best for my baby.

6 months for both of mine. I don't get the eagerness to wean DC early....the guidance is there for a reason.

My son was 5.5 months and was only a teaspoon of baby rice twice a day.

I know people who have weaned at 14 weeks and some who have left it until their child showed an interest at 7 months.

Everyone is different.

formerbabe it's not eagerness. Its about knowing that your baby is raging hungry and needs more than milk. It's fortunate that your child/children's needs were spot on with the guidelines, but please tell me your suggestions for babies where this isn't the case.

I'm genuinely curious how you know your baby is hungry for something other than milk? Developmentally ready yes. Hungry yes. But "no longer satisfied by milk" is often quoted as a reason for early weaning. We know that milk provides far more calories and balanced nutrition than a spoonful of rice so it has no logical basis as an assertion. I think we have to be careful about what we mean by it.

6 months. He didn't want or need it any earlier

We know that milk provides far more calories and balanced nutrition than a spoonful of rice so it has no logical basis as an assertion.

This. It beggars belief that people are still trotting out the "but he/she was hungry^" line - how many calories do you suppose a bit of puree or baby rice actually contains?!

We tried at 5.5 months on the advice of a paediatrician because of silent reflux. DD wasn't the least bit interested so I stopped and tried again a few weeks later. She didn't really eat anything until she was about 7 months!

If there are no signs of being ready, it's just baby seems hungry then I'd just give as much milk as is needed rather than food. They don't get filled up by the teeny amount they eat that young anyway. They get their nutrition and calories from milk. I'd ignore well meaning relatives, my DM thought I should be giving baby rice (never gave that muck anyway) at 12 weeks. Outdated advice.

I've not read the whole thread but the latest research suggests there's a window between 4 - 6 months where babies are more open to trying new foods and foods are actually LESS likely to provoke an allergic reaction. I've also heard that based on this the NHS are likely to change the advice back to 4-6 months sometime soon.

We started at 5 months but DS got very constipated then got bad diarrhoea. The latter may have been a bug, but to be safe we stopped and delayed till 6 months.

If you think your baby is ready, give it a go. You can always stop and revert to milk only if it doesn't work out.

Most people are talking utter shit when they say they weaned early because their baby was very hungry. They usually just can't wait and are in a desperate rush to start. Stupid really.

If they are genuinely hungrier than a typical baby they will be draining full bottles and immediately wanting more with every feed. If that's not happening, they are just normal. Hungry baby milk is an option when they are constantly not satisfied.

Weaning onto food before 6 months when a HCP hasn't advised to is daft. There is plenty of research and advice explaining why.

I certainly don't take the NHS guidelines on nutritional matters as gospel, as they're generally miles behind current thinking on nutrition.
I looked at what other western countries were doing.

I started DS at about 20/21 weeks. Slowly with just fruit and veg and built gradually. It worked a treat. I do think readiness differs dramatically between children though. My friend's little girl didn't really take to food until she was about a year. Both kids are good eaters now at 3.

7 months with DD.. started with broccoli. That was her first Christmas dinner!

We did baby led weaning. Best thing ever.

If I listened to some of my friends and family I'd have been giving my son mince and tatties at 9 weeks seriously listen to nhs advice. Milk has all the nutrition your baby needs until 6 months if he is hungry give him more bottles.

I bf so I don't really know if their is a hungry baby formula that has more fat in it to satiate their appetite?

I let my wee one swipe some cheese off my plate he was a week away from 6 months it was the start of a really long journey to get him to eat solids (did baby led weaning) he mostly struggled with consistencies at the beginning but a great wee eater most of the time now he still preferred milk well past his first birthday though.

The advice is to bf until at least 2 from WHO so you are wrong even in that penny.

4 months for all of them.

4 months is typical where my DH is from, and was okayed by the doctor where we live. All of them were ready (if they push the food back out of their mouth with their tongues, it's a sign they're not ready).

We started a week before DD turned 6 months (she was already six months based on her due date). To be honest, I rushed it a bit and could have held on for a few more weeks. She tried lots of things but didn't really get into eating until she was at least 8mo.

Now at 10mo, she eats three meals a day (and the odd snack) and has three bottles (averaging 210ml each).

The next big step is removing formula and moving-on to cow's milk when she's a year old.

For me, and I know all babies are different, and I was weaned at 4mo (1980), and several of my friends weaned at 4mo (largely on medical advice), I just tend to stick to the NHS guidelines, because I trust them more than I trust anecdotal evidence from friends and family whose children have been 'fine'.

ShowOfHands Mon 18-Sep-17 09:09:37
"I'm genuinely curious how you know your baby is hungry for something other than milk?"

In my case, dd had extremely poor suckling strength so getting enough milk was quite difficult until she was big enough to drink effectively out of a cup (which was also something she struggled with). She was breastfed on demand but ended up with malnutrition because she wasn't taking enough. It was quite simply easier to get enough food into her if it was the right consistency to go on a spoon. And getting more food in helped her to get stronger- also easier to suckle. General improvement overall.

I started taster portions at 4 months which is still within recommended range in many parts of Europe. But carried on breastfeeding until 11 months.

My first I weaned at 4 months, I look back now and wish I had waited, not because he has suffered any ill effects but because I did it because I was excited to wean and really he was so little to be on solid food.

I waited until 6 months with my other two.

We started at four months. Was losing weight hand over fist and wouldn't drink formula.

Haven't read all the answers above but;

1. They need to have lost the tongue thrust reflex, be able to sit and have good head control before you start

1. Milk has more calories than the kind of thing you start them on normally so you may not see a huge difference immediately. It didn't make mine sleep any better.

1. Recent research is showing that earlier weaning may actually protect against various intolerances and allergies. By early I mean 4-5m, not a few weeks

1. What your family are pressuring you to do should be secondary to what you as a parent does. If you feel he's ready and if you feel you want to, then go for it.

1. At that age make sure what he has is mushy. Introduce a finger dipped in something as a taste, then go for mushed up stuff, then lightly mushed before you give finger food.

1. All babies are different. Guidelines are just that.

Dc1 was about 5 months - by this point was being breast fed 6/8 times a day and topped up with 3/4 bottles formula. From the first taste it was a go, no issues at all loves food. Dc1 was also very early for lots of things and was fully able to sit and bum shuffle at this point.

Dc2 was weaned earlier (I think about 16/17 weeks will have to check the red book) on the advice of doctors due to severe reflux, it was the first time I got 4 hour uninterrupted sleep that night after that first taste of baby rice.

Some friends waited till 6 months, some waited till 7/8 months a few went before the 6 months. Some of us did purée some did BLW. Each baby is different.

YABU and could permanently damage your child's bowels and stomach. There is no NEED for solids before 6 months unless severe reflux is an issue. Milk has way more calories than most food a 6 month would eat anyway (vegetables and fruit etc). Just wait.

Or alternatively crazy waiting til 6 months puts your child at increased risk of contracting allergies and anemia

www.bbc.com/news/health-12180052

Started weaning my DS at just under 22 weeks old on the advice of 2 different health visitors it states 17 weeks is the earliest I also think it depends how your DC is and if they are showing the correct signs to start to be weaned best thing to do is speak to health visitor

5 months for Ds1, 6 months for dd and ds2.

@LaurieMarlow that article is over 6 years old.

crazy and your point is what exactly? Current NHS guidelines were implemented in 2003.