To start weaning my baby at 4 months old???

[bubbsy]

I started weaning my baby and he will eat a rusk with his milk for breakfast, but wont eat lunch or dinner, but will eat pudding. Can someone tell me why he maybe doing this or if i have maybe started to early.

Good question to ask on the weaning board, bubbsy.

Current evidence-based guidance is that four months is too soon for most babies. If you do start as soon as this, going slowly is better....maybe YRBU if you are expecting him to have more than that rusk : )

Current advice is six months according to the Department of Health - however, their weaning leaflet also says "not before 17 weeks" so when to wean is anyone's guess.

Your little one likes the rusk because it's sweet and he is programmed to like the sweet taste of his milk for example. Worth watching the amount of sugar in the rusks as they can contain quite alot.

Your baby will adjust to try different tastes as they are introduced, although be prepared for him to spit them all out at first - takes a few goes before they'll accept savoury to start with.

i weaned ds very early but took it very very slowly. the reason he will only eat pudding is that pudding is nicer. simple as that. at this stage babies dont understand the concept of breakfast/lunch/dinner so it might be best (if you do continue weaning) to stick to one rusk a day until he starts wanting more.

There have been lots of long discussions on this, people can get heated!

I'd say if he won't eat vegetables/ fruit then he's not ready. You don't want him to be in a pattern of only eating sweet things by the time he's 6 months old. It could be hard to break out of.

tbh if he's really hungry and you know he needs the extra how about hungry milk formula (if FF or more BF's if BF'ing?) we weaned at about 21ish weeks (or there abouts might well ahve been a bit later on actually 24) but try starting on veg. if your DS likes the sweeter things try a little sweet potatoe with some of his usual milk in.

at 4 months imo babies only need milk. they'll eat more as and when they're ready. DS only had 1 meal for about a month before progressing onto 2.

how much of the rusk does he eat? I agree witht he other girls thou, rusks ideally are not the best foods to give a LO when weaning.

Too early imo.

Rusks are like biscuits really. Not ideal as a first food. Too sweet and processed. Better to start on pureed veg, and then fruit. But can cause upset tummies - I weaned dd at 4 months (guidelines of the day) and carrot, for example, used to make her have tummy ache/sickness. Potato made her gag.
Best of all, why not wait until 6 months and forget the pureeing stage and go straight into baby led weaning. Do a search on it. With ds he was 6 months when I started to give him solids, and by that I mean solids - straight into broccoli florets, melon, slightly mashed versions of what we were eating (cauli cheese, shepherd's pie, cooked baby corn and so on). Bits of banana, chopped grapes, cucumber, slices of pear and so on.

It is fun when baby starts on real food but it is more work and you may wish you hda waited a bit. 6 months is soon enough.

agree BLW is the way forward - no 2 will ahve this way from day 1 - wish we'd done it with DS from day 1 instead of 8.5 months.

I'm not going to venture into the 'too early' debate, but I would advise caution on weaning with rusks. Wheat should be avoided for the first six months; my MIL is convinced my dh's wheat intolerance stems from the early introduction of wheat. On the other hand, we took it uber-cautiously with ds and he's still ended up wheat intolerant

I did start giving him veg,but he doesnt seem to want it, so i thought i would try the jarred food, cos i thought the veg was to plain for him, but he doesnt want that either.

Maybe you should follow his cues - he doesn't fancy solids yet (unless they are very sweet - in which case better to wait until he is more keen to develop a broader range of tastes).

Maybe he is trying to tell you something. He hasn't rejected the veg because he knows there is something else to choose from.

i think go back to just milk
at around 4 months don't they have a massive growth spurt anyway and they want to eat all the time and then it settles down?
if you think he is hungry how about a split feed before bath and bed (feed, bath, feed and bed)
you can also try a dream feed at 10.30 pm (ish)

iirc a baby needs to try something 10 times before deciding if they like it. it's up to you how you choose to wean your child, but are you sure he's ready to be weaned yet? will he have the baby rice or the jars of fruit? if you're decided on the puree routes. fwiw - DS prefered a mix of veg - ie carrots and sweede than just each on their own. might be worht a try?

havent read whole post but my 2 ds's were both weaned at 12-14 weeks this was 17 and 15 years ago when this was the advised weaning age.
it all depends on the baby and do what you are happy with.

so it seems he doesn't want food yet.
begs the question, why give it to him at all?

offer him more milk, and save your effort / money till he's interested.

He doesnt drink much milk either, should he be having more than 6 oz every feed??

milk is the rpimary nutrional source upt ot aged 1. If you give him rusk he may well cut back on milk sooner. It isn't the amount per feed but overall that matters.

why did you start weaning him? it is sooo much easier to leave it until they're older.

i started weaning cos he was interested in our food and would take from a spoon so i thought he was ready

have to say, it sounds more and more that he's just not ready for solids. at 4m very few babies actually need food.

I think the milk content varys to each child as well - how much does he have over the day - ie 4 bottles of 6oz is the same as 3 at 8oz iycwim. DS was always one who liked to have less - now he has 2 bottles at 9oz instead of 3 smaller ones.

some of that can be argued as development (the whole reaching etc) have to spoken to your H/V at all?