AIBU to wean at 5 months

[2weanornot2wean]

Shameless post here for traffic.

My baby turned 5 months old last week. The guidelines in the UK AFAIK are to wait until 6 months.
However my baby seems ready. He is making chewing motions, I'm 90% sure his tongue thrust reflex is gone, he can sit unaided (albeit tripod stance but he sits well in a highchair) and tries to grab food from our hands.

I'm in a big mummy community IRL and anyone who deviates from guidance or does anything "risky" like cosleeping or formula feeding or screen time is looked down upon a bit.

Just interested in opinions and wondered when others weaned their DC. In my opinion it isn't like babies are magically ready for food the very day they turn 6 months, but I don't want to rush things unnecessarily either.

I weaned before 6 months, dd was showing all the signs, I had a family member involved in the research of whether later weaning increases risk of allergies and a high risk of allergies. It was the right decision for us.

5 months with first and 4.5 months with second. Second child had bad reflux and it was life changing! Honestly go with your gut. If you think your child is ready, probably is. I actually don’t know many mums who waited bang on 6 months. The ones who did wait later (say 7 months!) seem to struggle to get baby to eat solids. My second child eats anything and is healthy.

Why do you care what others think?

The UK guidelines are not at least 6 months old and are actually ‘around 6 months old’. So 5 months+ is by my interpretation within the guidelines. I’m also concerned about the new research linking allergies to later weaning so 5 months seems the best compromise to me so long as all the physical signs of readiness are being met- can hold their head steady when sitting, can swallow food and decent hand eye coordination.

Dd made it to 5.5 months.

As a compromise, could you cook something until very soft, mash it and spread it into his high chair tray to play with like a mud pie? Pear, carrot, sweet potato? Then he will have something to do with his hands and new flavours to try without going the whole, official weaning thing.

Can the baby sit up unsupported? That's the main tell to see if they're 'ready'. Not recommended at all if not. Very dangerous, in fact!

Babies will always be 'interested' in what parents are doing, if that's holding a hairbrush or eating a steak.

In a tripod sitting position he can but I agree I want to wait until he can sit properly unsupported.

Although not to be antagonistic, but some babies (or so I've read) don't sit unsupported until much later - 8/9 even 10 months on some Mumsnet threads. I can't believe they wouldn't introduce solids until 9 months personally

I am from the uk but live in a country that says 4 months so compromised with 5 months and it was all good , baby was ready and enjoyed it

I'm in a big mummy community IRL and anyone who deviates from guidance or does anything "risky" like cosleeping or formula feeding or screen time is looked down upon a bit.

This community sounds crap.

I weaned at 5 months. Just introduced very smooth things like pureed veg, and baby porridge (which is completely smooth). This continued for a while alongside normal feeding.
If I did baby led weaning then I'd wait until 6 months.

As for sitting up unsupported - my DD prioritised learning to crawl before learning to sit. Much more fun for her it seems. She could crawl by 6 months but wasn't sitting unaided until around 8/9 months, which would have been very late to start introducing any sort of more solid food. As long as baby is well supported in an appropriate high chair and you have eyes on them whilst they are eating, it's alright.

My 4 all weaned at 4 months and are v healthy teenagers, but that was the advice at the time.

I just did a google scholar search and this study popped up

At four to six months of age, the infant is developmentally ready to accept solid foods. Sucking and chewing are complex behaviours, having both reflex and learned components. The learned component is conditioned by oral stimulation. If a stimulus is not applied when the neural development is taking place, then the infant may become a poor eater. There is a relationship between prolonged sucking without solids and poor eating (3).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720507/

Clearly its complicated and baby specific, so I would suggest you do some research and then trust your instincts, as you know your baby better than anyone else.

I was so excited to start weaning but tbh the constant cleaning of them & the highchair gets tiring quickly as does figuring out the timing of meals between milk & naps etc. I’d personally wait till 6 months but that’s partly out of laziness 🤣 It’s natural for them to be curious about your food but doesn’t mean you have to start yet x

One of the advantages of weaning later is that you don't have to bother with messy purees for very long and can just mush down most food with a fork or potato masher.

I weaned at 6 months and only did a couple of weeks of purees before LO was OK with scrambled egg/mashed food (but not fillet steak obviously 😂). Much less cleaning/washing up.

I did that with mine and he really thrived. In no time at all was eating really well.

There are 'fashions' when it comes to weaning but babies are individuals. You can but try, op.

Weaning is a pita. Never understand the rush. All babies shove their hands in their mouths. And chomp. And grab food. Simply because they can. Not because they want food earlier than the professional guidelines..

We started at four months corrected as allergies in the birth family meant weaning earlier was beneficial, as it has shown to reduce the chance of allergies developing.

Do some people think those who grow up in countries where weaning at four months all have digestive issues, despite medical literature saying otherwise?

Like the poster earlier said the guidance is not 6 months. It's when baby is showing signs of readiness which for most babies is around 6 months. Some will obvs be earlier, some later.

I see it from both sides, from an allergy perspective, the earlier the better. From a mum perspective, you think it's going to be fun, it's not. It's messy and never ending!

I'm not the person you're responding to, but I weaned my twins at 5 months which was 4 months corrected. I referred to my HV (who was lovely btw) and she was supportive. Part of the reason was that I could no longer afford a tin of formula a day for them.

They're 14 now and no food allergies, and good eaters.

Third son I started weaning at 6 months, but he wasn't interested. At 7 months was when he actually ate his first bite.

Also no allergies and a good eater.

That’s all very nice but not relevant to what I asked.

I started at 4m with my first, about 5m with my second. Both thrived on it, no allergies etc.

My first did tripod sitting at 4m almost to the day, and with a straight back unassisted for prolonged periods about a week later. We did mostly purees of allergen heavy food, but gradually added finger foods. By Christmas day (just turned 6m) she was feeding herself Christmas dinner.

My second was smaller and not quite as fast on the milestones so we waited a big.

We wanted to wean early because on reading the WHO rationale on 6m (which mentions nothing about gut readiness btw) and the research on allegeis suggested a significant advantage on weaning before 6m.

It is messy though.

My little one is 3 months old and has a bottle aversion. He’s 64th centile at the moment but is slowly dropping down the chart. I was advised to start weaning at 4 months but I’m not going to do that as to me he’s still taking a decent amount of milk and 64th centile is still above average in weight.

If he continues to drop or starts refusing more milk I will consider weaning at 5 months.

Personally, if your baby doesn’t need to medically do so then I would wait until 6 months or at least a couple of more weeks x

When DD was small, it was "the guidance is not to wean before 6 months, but whatever you do, not before 4 months". It was quite clear that the HVs weren't allowed to advise anything other than the 6 months, but knew full well that some of us would start earlier, so wanted to make sure it wasn't too much too early!

Those of us who did start earlier, it wasn't just because they "seemed ready" in terms of skills; it was because they were feeding insatiably and we felt like they needed more than milk could provide.

@lanthanum my reason was dd’s reflux made her so unsettled it woke her at night and she lost weight despite breast feeding on demand. She’s 15 and still underweight but I’ve concluded that’s her build as she’s grown on the same trajectory. A 5’7” size 4 beanpole.

Why not adopt a baby-led weaning approach, which lets the baby take the lead? If your little one is ready and able to pick up food, get it to his mouth, chew it appropriately and swallow it then great, he'll go ahead and eat. If he is not ready then he won't.

https://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1007100/baby-led-weaning-your-complete-guide#:~:text=BLW%20gives%20babies%20the%20chance,hand%20and%20eye%20co%2Dordination.

I weaned both of mine around five months, worked well and they're super eaters. I enjoyed the process though, didn't find it a drag at all.

Yes exactly the age to sit totally unsupported can be up to 9 months old and still considered normal. Obviously you wouldn’t wait that long to start weaning so it’s definitely not a sign of readiness you need to wait for. They need to stay in a sitting position and be able to hold their head steady so a little back support ie how they’d sit in a highchair is absolutely fine. If they slump over in the highchair and can only sit fully supported in a bouncer then they are not ready.