To think I am not being unreasonable re weaning

[memoo]

DD is just a few days off four months.

She is a very hungry baby and feeds every 2 1/2 hours in the day til about midnight where she will then go until about 8am most nights.

I am more than happy with this, I think we're doing fab despite the constant feeding which I think is pretty normal for a young baby anyway.

However its seems I am surrounded by people who have different ideas. My Mother and mil are both badgering me to start weaning her because in MIL's words "the poor little mite is starving" with is usually followed by "in my day ..... BLAH BLAH BLAH"

Now even a friend of mine who had a baby just a few weeks before me has started weaning her baby.

It seems I'm the only one who thinks DD isn't ready yet!

It is also now commonly felt that the WHO advice to exclusively breastfeed until 6 months is mainly for those in developing countries to give babies more time to develop immunities to the poor quality food the babies are weaned onto.

Yes ILovePlayingDarts but it was also commonly felt that the world was flat......

Have to say I let my children decide when they were ready. Ds 1 was 15 weeks, grabbed a sandwich off my plate and started putting it into his mouth. Ds 2 was 27/28 weeks and still wasn't that fussed and preferred his milk and ds 3 was 19 weeks as he always ate with the rest of the family and started to pick food up and put in his mouth.

It didn't matter the weights of my boys, ds 2 was the heaviest at 1/2 oz off 10lbs at birth but didn't wean until 27/28 weeks.

Dh has a caveman theory, he always asks the question 'what would we have done if we were cavemen?' sounds funny but I can see his logic. There wouldn't have been a plug socket for a blender and the babies would have just made it clear they were interested.

I would say, watch and trust your baby more than any specific date that is based on an average.

Dh has just said that any baby that sleeps for 8hrs solid isn't hungry...

MrsBadger was that on Circle Of Moms by any chance? Some of the 'information' given out makes me shudder in that group on fb!

CarriesOnGivingFactualInformationRegardlessTiggaxx

Hello

YANUB

All babies are different, my 1st dd bfed every 2 hours until 6mths and also slept through the night from 8.5 weeks, i could not wean her onto food until 8mths. She has always been a great sleeper and still is.

My mum was also on my case alot when she was younger worrying that the feeding was draining me and i should add a few bottles in. But because she was my first and I was not working at that time i knew no different and it really didnt bother me. Her feeds took 20 mins.

My 2nd dd fed only for 5 mins and fed 3-4 hours and was a terrible sleeper and did not sleep through until 16mths about. I tried everything including some formula and it made no difference whatsoever.

So dont feel pressured into introducing formula, this is just the way your baby feeds and not many babies sleep through at four months so she is doing great and so are you.

x

muppetgirl - that is very interesting. I would always say introduce food later but i can see your point.

also just realised you were talking about food and not formula... mushy pregnant brains here!

still applies though, they ususally say one of the signs which shows they are ready to be weaned is starting to wake at night.

Complete rubbish Darts

I would point out that a baby explors by putting thing in his/her mouth.
They do it with everything as soon as they have the co-ordination to do so and when that is vairies from baby to baby.
I would not assume that just because a baby grabs somthing and puts it in their mouth that it is fine for them to eat it. No-one would decide that just because a child can drink from a wine glass, that they should drink wine.

There are guide lines on weaning for good reasons.

YANBU and i had similar comments from my mother who advised me that i was sleeping through the night within the month, eating solids by 3months, potty trained by 9months - thankfully take all with rather large pinch of salt (if there was any left) since she dumped me with my gran within the week and buggered off with her new hubby!

sounds like you are doing a fab job with your DD. IIRC, there is a growth spurt around 16 wks which is possibly why she is feeding more.

I would go with the flow and you will know when she is ready for solids (be it one day before she is 6months old or 8 months). DS2 wasnt the slightest bit interested in solids until he was nearly 8 months. did BLW and he is currently eating us out of house & home.

The WHO advice to ebf to 6 mths is not for developing countries... it applies here, in the UK

where do people get this tosh from...

My ds is 18weeks and i have had the same from everyone, especially as he has started waking hourly at night.

I just keep putting them off week by week, soon he'll be 6 months and i can do BLW!!

YANBU

Your baby so you do what you want!

I waited the six months, despite my friends and family telling me 'your depriving her' WTF!!

She didn't know anything else apart from milk so how I was depriving her I don't know!

I didn't wean any of my three until they were 6 months - even my youngest who was almost 12 lbs at birth so he must have been a hefty weight by the time he had his first solids at 6 months! I breast fed so not sure how much they were getting but it was obviously enough.

MIL did order in some gold top from the milkman so she could feed ds1 when we visited when he was 6 weeks old....(and was very upset when I wouldn't allow it). And I did walk into the room on the same visit to find her pushing a chocolate biscuit between his lips...

Some of the things MIL's have done or said are just unreal!

Buying in gold top for a six week old!!! Potty trained at 9 months!!

Maybe its the affect of years and years of motherhood taking its toll on their brains! Maybe we'll all be like that by the time our babies are all grown up and having babies of their own.

DD excelled herself this morning by having a full 8oz bottle followed straight away by another 5 oz's!! Glad mil isn't here, she'd be cooking her a full english!

Oooookay! When I had my DD (she's now almost 12yo), The health visitors were telling us to wean at 3 months! I just kept to the same for DS1 &DS2 as it was what I'd been told to do for DD?! Has it changed THAT much!

we have only started our youngest two when they were old enough to try real food mashed rather than pureed. From 6 months there is no need to make special purees or buy special food, ours eat soft veg, potatoes and shredded chicken etc. Had far fewer problems than with my first where I spent ages making ice cube trays full of special weaning foods sucj as pureed plaice and tomatoes (which she hated) with choking an tantrums at 4 or 5 months!

Ignore everyone who questions you you are in charge

YANBU
End of.

BLW rocks.

They grow up far too fast as it is, without forcing development stages on them. Enjoy your little milk fed bundle a while longer because once they start on solids you will be spending your days walking round supermarkets discovering lumps of weetabix in your hair.

Not at all we did BLW before I'd even heard of it - think DS was about 5 1/2 months when he nabbed some food from my plate and we went from there.

My MIL was a loon with DD. She was trying to feed her cheesecake 'because it's just like milk' at 3mo.

ok I have just googled baby led weaning and it seems that that is basically what we have done especially with our third. Didnt really mean to I had just had enough of spoon feeding 3 times a day lol...

Lol at cheesecake being like milk. But my gran was conviced I was going to kill my 10 month old because I gave her a bit of mild homemade chicken curry.

I'll never forget a mumsnetters on here saying that when she told her HV that she was doing BLW the HV was horrified and wrote "mum giving baby human food" in her red book.

Still makes me laugh when I think about it.

The WHO based their recommendations upon information taken from studies carried out in other countries. Some of which were third world/developing countries, but also Finland I think. Please correct me if I am wrong.
So because of this, for alot of people the basis of not weaning until 6 months is questionable.

Just saying. Not agreeing.

I did a combination with Ds(15 months) he eats almost anything. Loves noodles, which is most amusing watching him use his hand to get them into his mouth

Said MIL then proceeded to puree every meal we ate at her house for the dc until they were 3 years old! (what if they choke...)

They would turn it down and eat from our plates.

I remember leaving them with her for an afternoon and she'd given them (age 3 and 4 at the time) pureed chicken carrot and potato on sliced white bread with the crusts cut off. They ate a couple of bites

I took them to pizza express on the way to the train station home.

She now tells all and sundry what fussy eaters my Dc are...hahaaaaa

memoo I remember that - made me snigger for ages.