To say something to this mum re. early weaning?

[Greywalls12]

Was at a baby class today, when one mum mentioned that she'd started giving her 15 week old baby rice.
No one said anything, but their were quite a few disapproving looks.

AIBU to say it has no nutritional value and she could actually be doing her child harm by weaning before 17 weeks?

Or is that incredibly rude and should stop being miss judgy pants?

I don't actually think she would care as she ignores most guidelines e.g. has baby in own room and puts on front to sleep etc.

Gosh, lots of 'I weaned at 12/14/16 weeks and my child is find' justification comments. The guidelines changed 15 years ago, breastmilk (or formula) for the first 6 months, this was based on lots of studies and research, and has not been changed back to 4 months. It's called 'know better, do better' and just because you risked it and got away with it, doesn't mean it's ok.

(Lots of life-long bowel conditions are the results of early weaning and formula feeding, it's not scaremongering or clutching at straws)

So why is it generally only England that has these guidelines? Even Scotland is now back to sixteen weeks afaik....

Are we to assume the rest of the world is wrong and only the English are getting it right.

Allergies have increased hugely since new guidelines and as such there is much talk that they are liable to change back, just as the advice not to eat nuts during pregnancy has now changed to encouraging parents to eat nuts during pregnancy because there is a lot of research that suggests that delaying foods increases the risk not the other way around.

30 years ago, we weaned much earlier. My two DC started solids at 8 weeks and 9 weeks, and slept through the night from the same age. They’re both healthy adults.
As PPs have said, there’s some evidence now that late weaning at six months increases the risk of food allergies, especially in babies with eczema, as they are contacting the allergens via their skin and having an immune reaction, before they’re getting them in their gut and registering them as harmless foodstuffs.
Immunologists from countries with early weaning regard children with peanut allergy as rare and exotic- they scarcely ever come across a case - but it’s worryingly common in the U.K.
Far from advising this other mother, OP, I think you should let her advise you! (But not about the sleeping position!)

Eurgh, I’d rather deal without sleep than ever risk my baby dying from SIDS.
The poster that said this clearly has never had a non sleeping baby. Honestly, after a month of no sleep, because ds wouldn’t sleep, both dh and I were on our knees. Ds fell asleep on his tummy, on our bed, over my knees and slept like that for a couple of hours. I decided to let him sleep like that if that’s how he wanted to sleep. It didn’t get me 8 hours a night, but honestly waking every 2-3 hours was far better to getting 45 minutes that I’d been getting for the previous month.
The weaning thing. Guidelines do change and it’s honestly not worth making a fuss and risk an argument over this. In a couple of years you may well be in the position that she is judging you because your child will only eat chips and biscuits and her child eats every mouthful of vegetables put in front of them.

YABU.

My mum had 7 children and she told me that no baby is the same. My eldest sister would only sleep for 4 hours max until she was 4, me? I was so laid back I'd sleep for hours, even from a new born.

Also weaning each of us was completely different. Some of us had hollow legs and were weaned early, some of us weaned later. It all depended on the baby.

She once did a chart for me on each of us when I was doing Child Development just to show the teacher than guidelines are just guidelines and each birth, sleep pattern and weaning were different for each of us.

We all survived childhood! Even those that were weaned early.

'It happened to us and we all survived', is a moot point really, as unfortunately any babies who did die, aren't here to warn us of the dangers.

Interesting opinions nonetheless.

Oh and I won't be saying anything to her.

She did also say she put the rice in a bottle, I'm guessing she gets her advice from parents, grandparents etc.

I realise we all take risks with our children that we are happy with and all parent differently

Even Scotland is now back to sixteen weeks afaik....

Not that I’ve heard. Where did you hear that?

Sounds like a bunch of stuck up women looking down their noses...are you spokeswoman OP.

@Greywalls12

Unfortunately babies die, but they can die from hundreds of scenarios, not just from being weaned earlier than the NHS guidelines.

Scotland hasn’t ‘gone back’ to 16 weeks, NHS Scotland produced this this year, which clearly suggests weaning at 6 months. www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/303-Fun%20first%20foods-May2019-English.pdf

Also it was baby rice, not like she was giving her child a whole roast dinner to knaw on :)

There is a strong likelihood that the NHS recommendations will revert to 4 months as more and more research is showing that the delay in introducing solid food is contributing to the rise in food allergies:

www.newscientist.com/article/dn28366-should-babies-be-given-solids-earlier-to-prevent-food-allergies/

Putting a baby in a car may be a risk, but we mitigate the risk by putting the baby in a car seat first. Just because things carry a risk we may still need to do them. Putting a child to sleep on its front is an unnecessary risk! IMHO

saraclara there are people in the UK who do not have access to safe food too. I expect there will be mums and dads in the UK who cannot access good food etc, the use of food banks is on the rise.

The NHS also recommends weaning from around 6 months old.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/solid-foods-weaning/

I'm happy to read evidence that 6 months is too late to start weaning but personally, I am not ready to doubt the NHS website just yet.

Luckily, I don't have a little baby to wean so it's not a biggie for me.

I personally think making judgments on other people's behaviour is actually quite normal! We all do it. And sometimes we keep quiet about it. When we think it will help others, we tell them. Knowing a family who lost a baby to cot death means the sleeping on front thing worries me more than the weaning.

@HappyLoneParentDay that’s not true. You are substituting nutritionally rich milk (breast or formula) when you give a baby baby rice or other cereals. They are losing out on nutrients. You also don’t need to “fill up” a hungry baby on nutrient poor food. If they really are hungry they just need more milk.

People often trot out the 'advice changes every 5 minutes' thing. The advice on weaning at 6 months has not changed in 17 years!

It’s not about substandard food in the world it’s about access to uncontaminated drinking water which is why the advice is also to exclusively breastfeed until six months as third world countries often do not have access to adequate means of sterilisation.

And frankly to compare the UK to the third world is ridiculous. Even if people are using food banks in this country, it is not remotely comparable to how some live in the third world.

None of your business. End of

All the "disapproving looks" from other mothers. Sigh. This is why I avoided baby groups.

I weaned DS at 4 and a half months on the advice of my HV. This was 2013 so not decades ago. I only gave him baby rice and baby porridge until 6 months. I'd do it again.

I'd be more concerned with the sleeping on front but honestly I'd just mind your own business.

@Booboo66, the NHS always lags behind, it’s still recommending a low fat, high carb diet for health. Weaning earlier than six months is recommended in just about every other European country to avoid allergies. Doubtless most of the advice new mothers follow now will be ridiculed by their daughters.

30 years ago, we weaned much earlier. My two DC started solids at 8 weeks and 9 weeks, and slept through the night from the same age.

Yet even in the 80’s baby rice said ‘from 3 months’ on the packet. There was no weaning product with a recommended start date before 3 months.

@Booboo66, the NHS always lags behind, it’s still recommending a low fat, high carb diet for health.

Well introducing baby rice into a baby’s diet instead of just milk is definitely going to increase their carb intake and reduce their intake of fat and protein (and all the other good stuff in milk) yet, strangely, the NHS does not recommend this.

My DC were born in another European country. They also follow the WHO and advise weaning at 6 months

It’s not about substandard food in the world it’s about access to uncontaminated drinking water which is why the advice is also to exclusively breastfeed until six months

Yes, my bad. I was almost asleep when I posted about safe food.

The problem with the WHO advice is that it's global. And what applies in one part of the world doesn't apply in another.

Here my daughter doesn't have to worry about unsafe water for her baby, but she will be concerned about allergies as she comes from a family prone to them. So when she's making decisions about the baby she's expecting, I imagine she'll research further than generalised WHO advice. And if she weans earlier than six months I hope she'll tell any judgy random to sling their hook.