I know I am but I'm going to do it anyway!

[mytetherisending]

DD2 is now 6mths, has been bf on demand mostly and is fully weaned on 3 meals with desserts, juice from a cup and the occasional snack. She is still demanding night feeds which I feel she shouldn't need if she took good feeds at 10 and 230. Instead she faffs with these and wants milk during the night. I have now decided to quit breast feeding as she will not take bottles- so it is all bottles or none iyswim. I hope that being able to see how much she takes during the day and a gentle prod to take more will reduce night feeding. I have dusted off the GF book which I used with dd1 (and who has only had a handful of disturbed nights since 3mths!) in the hope that the routine will get me some modicum of sleep. I am knackered.

I know it is unreasonable to give up bf for the sake of my sleep, however, dd1 is constantly tired (2.9mths) and is behaving awfully because of it. The baby disturbs her sleep every night

I just needed to vent sorry! Grrr to all those people who say babies get their own pattern and start sleeping eventually- I can't wait til 'eventually' happens!

mytehter...te situation before 6 month and at an extended weaning age is different....

however obviously any breastfeeding is great!

x post. I think VVV is exaggerating when she says you've undone good work. Yes, you've given an immature gut something other than bm which can cause probs (but hopefully didn't in your case)but as you say, bf continues to be beneficial long after a baby goes on to solid food.

I know I don't know what it is, I just found it amusing that you mentioned it regarding being in a tolerable condition (is that meaning you could be better though If so I am sorry, I thought you meant it as in fair condition for age iyswim.)

Your attitude to bf reminds me of mine to pianos. To me, having a piano in my house is top priority. For the last 20 odd years, we have bought the house to go round the piano. I meet plenty of people who say "we'd love to have a piano but don't have room". It's a question of priorities. Not many people don't have room for a tv.

sorry [confused emoticon] don't really see your point with that. In relation to what?

Do you mean I do what I can to get sleep? Obviously I do agree, I will do almost anything because I can't cope without it (like you with your piano).

Mytether: my obviously weak comparison is this. Like having a piano in my house, my top priority when dc were babies, was to bf them. To me, bf was more important than knowing how much they had or maximising sleep in the household or minimising the noise they made or spending quality time with dh. Not because I was a martyr, but more because I did not believe that ff would make life easier anyway. Others such as you may say that bf is important but you can't do it because of x, y or z. It doesn't have top priority with you, just as having a piano in the house is not top priority with most people, even though they say they would like to have one.

Your priorities are not the same as mine.

But whatever parenting choices you make, there are always going to be some people who disagree with you, so I don't really know why you started this thread, when you had already made up your mind.

Elasticwoman I would bf during the night if she was feeding well during the day and was waking hungry. The problem being that she has set a pattern of not feeding much in the day (before weaning before people say too much food) and feeding loads in the night. I just want to reset her clock so to speak. I need to know how much she takes during the day to know if it should be enough daily intake. ATM clearly she needs milk at night because of the lack of bf during daytime.

Oh and in the OP I stated I just needed to vent my frustration over dd2s feeding patterns.

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Bloss My sister-in-law has just been told by her HV that the recommendation is 4 months in this country and it is WHO which recommends 6 months world wide due to santisation in poorer countries.

MTIE - You do what is best for your family, and be confident about your informed choices

Can we can the tired old myth about six months being for developing countries? It ain't. It's for all children in all nations.

Unless you can peer into a baby's gut and see whether the walls are open or closed, you have no way of knowing whether a baby younger than six months is 'ready' for solid food.

oh ffs to the HV. Do you know, I once had to give a prize to a group of HVs because they had set up a lunch club to go through the journals and talk about the latest research? That's how unusual it is for HVs to keep themselves up to date. Shocking.

Edam thats pretty appalling!

Why do people feel the need to be soo agressive when posting

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That is incorrect, bloss.

The WHO consensus document is online to read, and explicitly states that the recommendation is for all children.

The basis for recommending 6 months is biological not social - the evidence they examined was medical stuff about what is in breastmilk and whether it is sufficient nutrition for the first 6 months of life. (Conclusion: yes, it is.)

Ironically, the children they were most cautious about were the ones in developing countries. There's a theoretical concern (so far unproven) that if mothers are malnourished and lacking certain nutrients, they might not have enough to pass on to their babies.

So in fact the advice is more aimed at industrialised nations than the developing world.

What is the evidence that waiting until 6 months is not ideal Bloss?

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Bloss you have found the article to match what I have always maintained regarding weaning and allergies. I sincerely hope the trend of late weaning is reversed because I also firmly believe that there are more allergic children now than ever before. From my own experience at school I didn't know anyone with allergies, everyone ate everything and most were introduced to solids at 3-4mths.
However, when I worked on peadiatrics in 2004 there appeared to be loads of children with gluten intolerance and allergies. They being from the generation of mothers advised to introduce foods with caution and not introduce solids until 6mths.

That aside, chewing food helps to develop facial muscles and tongue control needed for speech development. The later babies start to chew the later this happens and potentially could cause delay in speech development. My dd1 had approx 300 words at 18mths compared with other children who had a normal amount and who of which none where weaned before 6mths.

Well written bloss...

I find it rather interesting that since you have found literature to back up weaning earlier than 6 months the thread has been rather quiet!!!

The trouble is with most research is that at best the sample is a few thousand subjects, at worst its less than 100 people. This is in no way representative of the world population and I find it irresponsible that the WHO choose to extrapolate results found in these studies to the world population.
For a piece of research to be worth the paper it is written on, it needs to study thousands of subjects from thousands of areas worldwide for a period of at least 10-20yrs for any findings to be conclusive IMO. This incorporates cultural, economic and social differences and thus gives a more representative world sample iyswim.

Barely anyone waits till 6 months to wean. Yes, more people do now than did three decades ago, but actually, prior to the industrialisation of food and rise in availability of processed baby food in cans or jars, babies were often not weaned till six, nine or even 12 months.

FWIW my Dh was weaned at six weeks by his Mum following guidelines at the time (or so she tells me). He was diagnosed with bowel cancer at 43. No family history of cancer. Read in to that what you like but were I to have any more babies now (not gonna happen btw...I'm too old and I now have experience of teenagers!!) they would certainly not be weaned before six months. I'd much sooner have to feed a little more often and during the night than have a child go through what my dh has been through as an adult. I only hope that weaning my 3 at 4 months as per the guidelines then, has not done them any harm given what has happened to dh.