To be terrified of weaning?

[BeverleyGoldbergInc]

DS is almost 17 weeks and showing signs he’s ready for something more substantial than milk. He was a huge baby (over 11lbs born) and is still off the charts in height and weight. Milk is just not satisfying him anymore - he has 8oz every two hours during the day. He does sleep through from 7-7 though.

Anyway, I am absolutely terrified of weaning - he’s my pfb and I don’t know what to do . There is so much contradicting advice online and I’m in a constant state of panic about it.

Was considering starting him on porridge for breakfast and a meal of the evening.

What did you do? And were any of you scared of this too?

I will add, I realise it’s irrational but what can you do?

Don't read online, well do, but don't look too much into it. I got myself worked up at first, I had anxiety thinking about it, but I did things my own way, and found what worked etc.
My baby's weaning routine goes like this.. bottle, porridge, fruit pouch after porridge, bottle, snacky bits, main meal, pudding, bottle. The bottles are: 1 at morning when he wakes up, 1 Mid afternoon at around 3, and the last one just before bed. All 8oz bottles.

I have a big baby, she takes 6oz every 2 hours at 6 weeks old. She will be weaned at 6 months like my other 2 were. The size of your baby makes NO difference, an extra oz or 2 of milk is far more filling than a few spoonfuls of puréed veg!
Don’t rush to wean your baby, wait until 6 months, then you barely need to think about it, they can just have whatever you’re having and you don’t need to purée at all.

I weaned my LB at around 18 weeks, with the advice from my HV.

Health visitors aren't trained to advise early weaning.

OP, wait until 6 months and bs aware most "signs" aren't hunger signs but developmental.
Don't worry about milk consumption, just feed as much as he wants as long as he's gaining weight.

Another one saying it’s too early. Surprisingly, health visitors aren’t actually trained to give advice on early weaning and unless you’ve had advice from a dietician advising it for health reasons (severe reflux for example) its best to stick to the 6 month guidelines. I appreciate he’s a big baby but if he is sleeping and gaining weight well there’s no reason he needs anything other than milk right now. As others have said, there’s a lot less nutrients in puréed veg than milk so if anything he’d end up hungrier if he wasn’t ready for food.

In terms of the actual weaning though, have a google and see what you think will work for you. We never used purées and went straight down the baby led weaning route. It worked really well for us and means DD eats the same dinner as we do each night, and I never really have to worry about being out and about with her as I can always find something for her to eat. Equally though it doesn’t work for all babies so just see what you want to try. Weaning is lots of fun I’ve found :)

He is too young, he needs more milk if you think he is hungry. The 6 month guideline is for good reason, baby's digestive system isn't fully developed until then. Of course there are babies weaned earlier that are fine, but NHS guidelines aren't changed without good evidence. Try and wait a bit longer.

,The 6 month guideline is for good reason, baby's digestive system isn't fully developed until then
Again nonsense. ESPGHAN society of gasterentologists say the gut is ready by 4 months. The EAT study was introducing food at 3 months which they would not have got permission to do if there was any evidence it was harmful

ESPGHAN complementary feeding position paper

EAT study

There has never ever been evidence that the gut will be damaged by food before 6 months , im not sure why it is continually quoted on MN

I weaned dd1 at 17 weeks on GP advice due to the fact that she was refusing milk feeds, wasn't gaining weight and dropping down the centiles. She thrived. With dd2, bfing was much more sucessful so I waited to wean as per the guidelines. At 22 weeks she reached forward and took a piece of toast from dd1's plate and ate half of it before I realised. We started weaning from then as she was ready. The guidelines are guidelines, all HV start the weaning talk at 17 weeks because it is expected that babies will be ready for food at some point over the following 8 weeks. The recommendation is that you wait as long as possible and there are foods you shouldn't introduce before 6 months (like meat). I always found the Annabel Karmel book helpful. I much preferred purees to begin with - its simple and for first tastes the Ella's kitchen pouches are quite cost effective. With dd2, I introduced finger foods much more quickly than with dd1, at about 6 months. She never had an issue with textured foods. I think dd1 was 10 months before she had a sandwich as I was frightened she'd choke. Dd1 was my pfb though. Making your own food is easy too. Once every couple of weeks I'd cook chicken, fish, potatos, sweet potatos, carrots, broccoli, roasted peppers etc. Then I'd just divide them in to seperate tubs. Chicken and roasted veg, chicken potato and broccoli, chicken sweet potato and carrots etc. Add a little bit of stock made with a baby stock cube and blitz them with a stick blender (less than £10 from tesco), portion into freezer bags, label.and freeze. It was easy, cheap and the dds both loved them. With dd2, I was braver so introduced lunch as a sandwich meal almost straight away. I blitzed natural yoghurt with fruit (or mixed an EK fruit pouch in if I was feeling lazy) as her 'pudding'. Because I started earlier with dd1, I stuck to smooth fruit and veg purees for much longer than with dd2 who was closer to 6 months. I'd try and get him as close to 20 weeks as you can as those few weeks do make a difference to how easy and simple the whole process is. Dd1 was in danger of failure to thrive so we didn't have a choice when we weaned at 17.

And bruffin is right- her gut wasn't damaged due to weaning at 17 weeks. The guidelines of 6 months are due to other factors too - such as people feeding their babies the wrong type of foods as a first food, risking choking or too much salt etc. Babies over 6 months cope with whole foods and chunky textures better than a 4 month old baby.

bloody hell baby pressed my phone! Yes, my point was to do your own research and see if you think your baby is actually ready rather than being hungry. It’s not as clear as 6 months good, 5 months bad!

Ok I give in, I wrote a long comment baby pressed phone and it submitted and now it’s disappeared, any idea how I can delete a post?

Your 7-7 baby sounds awesome! To put it in perspective my babies were about 11 pounds at 6 months! With tiny tummies. I worried continually that they were goihg to die because they ate so little. They are totally normal proportion now, just tiny like me! Please don’t worry. No wonder your gorgeous baby is hungry, he’s just a bigger unit that needs more fuel!

Pls don’t take advice from th internet though. Call your maid wife/health visitor team and just ask. Do you get him weighed? Ask there.

Ella’s kitchen do a lovely strawberry porridge that you mix with formula

That might help?

I think the theory is that the gut lining tightens up over time, so say when they're born it's like fishnet tights (on a molecular level) and then turns into 100 denier over time. When it's loose and open food particles can get through and irritate the gut and lead to allergies.

Obviously this doesn't happen on the stroke of midnight when they turn 6mo but the earlier, the higher the risk.

Also OP lots of people with small babies will be thinking they need to wean earlier to beef them up - the same argument for weaning big babies early would also work for small ones!

I'd use your instinct, wait til he can properly support himself sitting in a high chair and bear in mind that very little will actually be eaten for the first few months. Most of it will be smeared on face/walls/furniture!

Honestly, OP, don't stress about it. It will be fine. I'd hold off for a little bit, especially if it's making you anxious. But, additional needs aside, everyone learns to eat in the end! And, really, they're almost all fussy little blighters by the time they're three, anyway! I know plenty of parents who were evangelical about their weaning method being the One True Weaning Method, and their kids still ended up going through extended phases of rejecting anything that isn't beige.

I think the theory is that the gut lining tightens up over time, so say when they're born it's like fishnet tights (on a molecular level) and then turns into 100 denier over time. When it's loose and open food particles can get through and irritate the gut and lead to allergies.
Except this is only a theory on places on Mumsnet.
You can see from the ESPGHAN position paper there is not mention of this to quote
The available data suggest that both renal function and gastrointestinal function are sufficiently mature to metabolize nutrients from CF by the age of 4 months and that, to a large degree, gastrointestinal maturation is driven by the foods ingested.

One of the really good things about late weaning is that the older and stronger they are the less stressful it is. My ds’s first solid food was a roast potato she grabbed off my plate one Sunday lunch at PIls. FIL used it for the rest of his life as proof positive that his roast potatoes were the best in the world.

The NHS say around 6 months. Mine weaned about a month early, also big babies. By that point they were grabbing food off me, or if it was in reach. I couldn't have made it to 6 months no matter how hard I tried, they were intent on eating.