To think this may be dangerous

[Armadilloboss]

Just went on social media and a girl I know who has given birth 10 weeks ago has uploaded a video of her feeding the baby smashed avocado!

I always thought the guideline was nothing Til 4 months, which has not been changed to 6. Surely 10 weeks is far too early!!

I think what we were getting at was it's probably nothing to worry yourself sick over. Advice has changed and different generations were told that different things were 'right'. And kids still thrived and most coped with whatever was fed to them. In different countries even now the guidance differs. It is guidance, not the law !

The health visitor put DS on solids at 10 weeks old as he was a huge baby and needed more calories.

Then she wasn't a very good Health Visitor.

@Imsureitsasugaredpoo It’s common sense to follow the advice of those with greater knowledge and understanding.

I'm not sure you've ever heard of the Odone's. Augusto Odone was an Economist. With his wife (who I believe also had no medical training), they did a better job of looking after their son than the "professionals".

The moment we all realise when common sense isn't very common.

The NHS recommendations currently follow those of the WHO which are designed to take into account babies in developing countries.
There is a push now using the evidence from the EAT study to tailor weaning guidelines to personal circumstances including country of residence, bottle or breast feeding. This is partly due the fact that in the developed world the dramatic rise in allergies seems to be linked to leaving weaning till after 6 months of age.
We are highly likely to see a shift back to between 4 to 6 months when the five signs of readiness are present interest in food, able to sit up, can reach and grab food, wants to chew and is hungry after a milk feed.
15 years ago I reviewed the current science at that point ( this was before the EAT study) after my 17 week old stole another child's toast at nursery and decided that my own child was ready to wean. Finally within three weeks my baby who had dropped from the 50th centile at birth to the 2nd centile returned to the 50th centile.
Whilst I agree 10 weeks is too young, this one size fits all is outdated and is going to change.

apparently the adult would chew food to a pulp and transfer it to the infant's mouth. Other primates like chimps do this

When both mine were babies I had a huge urge to chew up food and put it into their mouths from my mouth. It was almost over-whelming really. I didn't do it.

Since then I have seen mother's doing this on a documentary. I can't remember their tribe/country but I totally get it.

Back in the day I believe we all cleaned/sucked our newly born babies mouths to clear them of fluids and transferred chewed up food using our mouths - when they were the 'right' age. I also believe this is where showing affection by kissing originated from.

Well it’s not ideal is it not recommended BUT I have three dc and the guidelines for weaning were as follows- and when we actually started feeding them:
Ds1 (now 20)- 3 months (we started him at 10 weeks- he was huge and always ravenous)

Ds2 (now 16)- 4 months (we started at 16 weeks)

Dd (now 14)-6 months (we started at 24 weeks)

Dd was 16 weeks when we started weaning. She had colic and would scream from 4pm right through till 7pm. Started giving her yoghurt and colic was gone! Completely changed baby. She’s 6 now and loves food. Willing to try anything and everything, and eats well.

Ds, I didn’t wean until 7 months. He wouldn’t entertain food so I had to wait until he was ready. He is 4 now but is fussy around certain foods. Eats well on things he likes though

My mum used to put a tot of whisky in my bottle on the advice of the doctor as I didn't sleep. I'm 52 and seem to have survived.

I had many a battle with my children's Scottish grandpa over him wanting to soak their dummies or rub their gums in whisky when they were teething etc.He thought I was an over protective soft southerner and I thought he was a fucking crazy fool. We still loved each other though

@Kenworthington thank you for that because I had begun to think that I had dreamt that the recommendations had changed more often than what has been portrayed on here.
I have 5 children ranging from 17 and 25 and all were breastfed then weaned between 3 and 4 months of age and none thus far have any allergies or any other problems,but hey maybe I've just been lucky

My DM has told me numerous times that when I was a baby it was the norm to put risk or baby rice in with milk in a bottle at anything from 4 weeks onwards. It's how my brother and I were weaned - we are mid 40's and both survived.

Avocado is an odd choice - does she think she's a foodie or something? On a serious note it worries me, my one friend was putting sugar and weetabix in her baby's bottle at 3/4 months because she thought he was hungry and her mum told her to, he ended up in hospital at risk of organ failure because his organs couldn't process it. So yes the guidelines are there for a reason.

The problem is that there is a culture within some families to think that some babies need to be weaned earlier. Talking to them is unlikely to change their minds.

I weaned my second at about 12 weeks baby rice etc as she would not feed from breast or bottle very well . Turned out she had undiagnosed tongue tie. But she was fine .

Mine all had weetabix in their bottles from about 6 weeks, then things like Sunshine Orange porridge at 12 weeks.

They were all 9lb + at birth and the HV said to feed them if they showed signs of being extra hungry. The teets of the bottle were even called extra hungry ones.

They're all grand and grown now.

The danger with putting solids in a baby’s bottle isn’t early weaning early per se but because a baby can aspirate the solids which can cause lung infections and/or death. It was recommended many many years ago but then babies started dying, so the medical advice changed. Probably a good thing no?

The date of weaning has changed, at one point 6 weeks for baby rice was common. 3-4 months was normal for many years before more recently they said 6 months. It's early but if it's just avocado and the baby is still getting lots of milk it's ok. On many parts of the world they still wean early

I know a woman (in her late sixties) whose older brother failed to thrive and died in infancy. This women has two adult children diagnosed with coeliac disease so she is pretty sure that's what her brother died of. There were not fewer allergies in these days - there were fewer DIAGNOSED allergies in those days. As our knowledge of these things have changed, so has the NHS advice.

NB I know coeliac is not an allergy, it's an autoimmune disease.

My eldest two children are only 2 years 3 months apart and the recommendations changed between them. For eggs and chicken I waited a few weeks longer than suggested and so far all have no intolerances though my middle child is wondering if she is gluten intolerant. It's nothing to do with when they were weaned ime.

I don't really get why people try to wean early.

Mind, fairly sure I am a bit bitter as FIL gave DD icecream and banana long before I knew she was eating. Only found out as had messaged saying was looking foward to her trying her first food later that day and he said 'what?! Shes been eating for a fair few weeks now!' which pissed me off massively.

YANBU to identify this as a potential problem. YABU for saying it stopped you sleeping, thats just..OTT

I do think that's a bit too early for actual food.

My own dc were given baby food (rice and rusks) from around 10/12 weeks on the advice of my HV- all 3 were born whoppers and I could not get enough milk into them to keep them satisfied for long. That was BF'ing and supplementing with formula (that in itself was more controversial than introducing baby foods back then)
So my 3 had a little rice for breakfast and lunch and some rusk at supper time along with their bottles. It made a huge difference!
I introduced 'real' foods (mushed fruits, veg, meat etc) around the 6 month mark.
No issues with digestion, allergies etc... with any of them whatsoever. They all grew to be 6ft plus, healthy strapping men.

www.food.gov.uk/research/food-allergy-and-intolerance-research/eat-study-early-introduction-of-allergenic-foods-to-induce-tolerance

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1514210

EAT study, which concludes that there is a statistically significant decrease in risk of peanut and egg allergies when babies are weaned early onto these foods.

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321904.php

And this demonstrates there are some researchers who also believe that ultra sterile environments increase the risk of childhood leukaemia.

Babies don't have fully developed immune systems when they're born, and their immune systems need to be challenged adequately to be able to work out self from non-self. This modern approach of abject terror if a baby even so much as puts a finger on the floor if it hasn't been wiped down with disinfectant or even looks at a peanut is so so unhealthy. There's a huge difference between not exposing children to known at risk bacteria, like raw chicken for salmonella, and not exposing them to any bacteria whatsoever even completely normal and non-virulent bacteria, of which every human has an extensive completely normal flora of on all of their skin and in their guts

Asthma (a respiratory allergy) has risen 2 to 3 fold since 1955. Cases of eczema have risen 42% both of these stats are taken from paper published in the BMJ.
Allergies are absolutely on the rise, this was why the EAT study was initiated.

Mine (all early to mid 20s now) had baby rice at quite an early age. My youngest was a beast of a baby and fed continuously. He had small amounts of baby rice from maybe under 12 weeks as I was utterly desperate. Helped to settle him for at least 90 minutes at a time. Hes now 6 foot 4, and still eats like an elephant.

I think it’s really odd that there are people who would passive aggressively message this girl to point out her mistake. It’s her baby.