Cow and Gate- no wonder...

[againandagain]

....people are still weaning early and seem to think that its a choice to wait untill 6 months as opposed to actual guidelines. I just copied and pasted this from the COW AND GATE website!

Telltale weaning signs

After a full milk feed your baby cries or demands more

Your baby finds it harder to wait until the next feed, and becomes irritable or chews their hands

Where they've previously slept through the night, they now wake up for a feed.

Daytime sleep becomes more erratic too - not
settling down or waking up early from naps

Your baby looks fascinated when you eat, and perhaps tries to reach for food you're holding

ds2 is 20 wks, have tried him with a bit of baby porridge, as he seemed to be extremely interested when I was munching away - really don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not, what do you think?

Also what exactly is BLW?

It's terrible but I can't remember how old the other two were when I weaned them.
Like a lot of things I''ve blanked it out

I agree that given the new guidelines parents should try to wait till 6 months. But it doesn't work out for everyone.

At 4 months my DD stopped gaining weight well and went from the 25th to 9th percentile. She was also feeding a lot more often- she was breastfed. My HV advised me to supplement with formula or switch completely in order to increase her weight gain.

So which guideline was most important for me to follow? The 'exclusive bfing' one or the 'no solids till 6 months'? I chose to continue bfing but started weaning just after 5 months. She took to it straight away and I have no regrets.

baskingseals - BLW is baby led weaning. www.babyledweaning.com has lots of info, but basically, if the baby can sit up in a highchair and is reaching for things, you let them explore age appropriate foods such as sticks of steamed carrot or soft fruits, then progress onto things like pasta and eventually they self-feed themselves anything you would eat. Makes sense to me as if you look at things biologically, nature does not often get it wrong. I would probably avoid porridge for now as most porridge has gluten in which is not recommended under 6 months. Unfortunately the baby food companies like putting "From 4 months" on their packaging which confuses things. If your DS is interested in your food, let him try some (as long as he is sitting up straight and not anything too hard like raw apple) - I started at about 21 weeks with DS.

Pozzled, sorry but I think you have been given bad advice. Weight gain does slow down in breastfed babies at 4-5 months of age - it's normal and doesn't mean there is necessarily a problem. Not saying you did wrong to act on the advice given though, you should be able to trust a health professional's guidance (directed at HV not at you )

I weaned ds1 at 4 months as he was ready for it. Having been told by friends about their babies pushing food out with their tongues I'd decided to try it & if he did that go back to just milk even though he was feeding what felt like constantly. He had no problems eating & I'm convinced he was ready regardless of his age. I plan on trying BLW with ds2 (currently only 7 weeks) which will mean he'll be older before we start but I may change my mind & wean earlier if he's the same as ds1. I think it's important to know the latest guidance & the reasons behind them but also to trust your own judgement & knowledge of your child. My HV is still advising weaning at 16 weeks which is a bit worrying as surely she should be following the latest advice

My DH gets IBS but it is entirely stress related, he was exclusively breastfed till he was 5.5m. My uncle has crohns disease and was brought up in Africa, not weaned till over 6m. I honestly think there is a lot more to these conditions than early weaning.
If you want to wait till 6m, that is your decision, but don't judge those who need to do it earlier. I have no problem with waiting for a baby who is happy to wait, but all babies are different!
My eldest DS at 12 weeks could not have waited, as I've said he was taking 7oz every couple of hours, even through the night. This wasn't a growth spurt, he'd fed like this from birth and upped the volume as he got older. Don't judge me for weaning when I did, even HV said he needed it.
Let's hope none of you get an incredibly hungry baby from birth (97th percentile takes a lot of nutrition to keep going!) and try to stay for 6m on milk alone!

thanks bertie, v helpful and just what I needed to know. He's sort of sitting up in his bumbo - bit slumped but he's getting there. Will stop the porridge and give him a steamed carrot or two and see how we go.

Thanks again.

five - as I said, I did have a very hungry baby, and I just fed more milk - 7oz is nothing!!!! And not all digestive issues are caused by early weaning, but by weaning early, you increase the risk of getting them. And if you have a family history of digestive problems, all the more reason to be cautious. 12 weeks is ridiculously early, and as we all know, HVs don't always know what they are talking about.

Five- Using IBS sufferers who were weaned late as an example is like saying because non-smokers can get lung cancer smoking is not a contributing factor to lung cancer.
Its a ridiculous argument.
I have a 5.5 month old on 50th ish percentile who has 6 oz every three hours during the day, an extra ounce is not a lot more and im a good few weeks off weaning.

My 7 week old has 5-6 oz every 3 hours. Surely to be classed as an unusually hungry baby a 5.5 month old would have to be having a lot more than that.

Yes Claire thats what im saying.
Five was saying that her baby had to be weaned early as he was taking 7oz, so therefore was extra hungry and had to be weaned. I was saying my DD has 6oz and I would defiantly not call her hungry and I will wait a few more weeks to wean. I was effectively saying that having 7oz is not enough to justify early weaning.

Five was talking about a 12 week old though. 7 oz every 2 hours for a 12 week old is a lot of milk. Mind you my ds is taking 6 oz every 3 hours at 7 weeks old so could quite easily be taking that amount of milk at 12 weeks if he continues & it wouldn't even cross my mind to wean him that young.

You are right it is a lot. But it is do-able. I just dont understand why people would go against medical advice. No amount of motherly instinct can tell anyone when a babies digestive system is equipped to deal with solids.

I am talking about 17.5 years ago, at that time 12 weeks was early but certainly not unheard of, and I did it on the advice of HV as DS was constant slooshing around and very unsettled still after all those feeds.
What I'm saying is just because things are advised to be different now, don't judge others!
None of my other children have needed to be weaned till aprox 5.5m, and DD1 was over 6m.
I find that some people on here have the attitude that because they are doing the supposed right thing nowdays, then everyone else is negligent as a mother. NOT ON!!!
Every baby is different and some people need to realise that, children are not statistics to be judged by, they are all individual, with differing needs.

five - I don't think anyone has implied you are negligent, just that they wouldn't chose to wean their own babies that early. And you are quite right, things were very different 17.5 years ago, but there is evidence that is available NOW, that wasn't available 17.5 years ago(so I've been told by every health professional I've encountered in my DDs life) that weaning before 6m increases the risk of digestive issues in later (much later) life. What was perceived as right then is not necessarily perceived as right now, but that doesn't mean we are criticising those who didn't have that information available back then.

I find it rather sad that people are unable to make up their own minds about something in an informed manner. Everyone seems to take the guidelines as gospel.

My point regarding the butter and cream is that if you need to give your baby a high calorie diet for whatever reason, part of the way to do it is to wean early (however, not before 4 months). No, you don't give them butter and cream but by starting earlier than 6 months they will be ready for more calorie dense foods earlier.

The guideline of 6 months is the official advice from the WHO. The WHO bases its guidelines on universal need not just that of the UK. Many of the reasons for not weaning early are just not applicable in the UK - for example, we don't rely on exclusive breastfeeding for contraception, we have clean water which reduces the risk of gastrointestinal illnesses.

The research may be carried out by people who are educated in this field but it needs to be applied on a common sense basis by the parents. I believe DH and I have plenty of common sense and are bright enough to figure out what is going on with our baby to know whether it is safe.

AliGrylls, sorry but that is a big fat myth that the guidelines do not apply in the UK. They do, they are universal and nothing to do with sanitation. They apply as much to a baby living in a country with a supply of clean drinking water as they do to a child in a remote community in sub-Saharan Africa.

If someone wants to wean early because they are confident their child is ready, fine, but don't do it based on a myth.

AliGrylls - the guidelines are nothing to do with sanitation or contraception - they are to do with the gut having sealed - and I'm not aware that this varies according to whether you are from a rich or poor nation!

6 months is considered safe because ALL babies have sealed guts by then. Yes, your baby might have one earlier, but the crucial thing is that there is no way of telling without an invasive procedure. Ergo, by weaning early, you are taking a risk that the gut is not sealed. The guidelines aren't gospel, but they are there for a very very good reason. And I wasn't prepared to take that risk.

And it's rubbish that you give a higher calorie diet with solids - the calorific content of almost all foods in comparable volume is less than milk.

God forbid mums actually use their own instinct.

Why bother when there are 'guidelines' left, right and centre.

In fact, maybe we should just hand our kids over to robots to raise.

Well said Totally.

I weaned my dd at 17 weeks.

50 ounces in 24 hours was, IMO, getting ridiculous! I didn't see the point in making more and more bottles. Her tummy was obviously telling her it needed something substantial.

Totally- What we are saying is nobody is saying we should have our kids raised by robots. nearly all decisions on raising your kids are best made by the parents. However research has been found that proves that no harm will be done by waiting untill 6 months, however it is possible damage will be done by feeding a baby before their digestinal system is set up to cope with it. All babies will be ready by 6 months. No matter how much milk they drink, no matter how often they make a grab at your food and no matter how frequently they want feeding, you will not have the knowledge as to what is going on inside their gut, It is just impossible.

*digestive, even. God, baby brain!

I was not saying that the guideliens do not apply in the UK, I was saying that some of the reasons for not weaning early do not apply.

I understand about gut closure taking up to 6 months however, the way to test it is with a small amount of baby rice not with invasive procedures as one of you is suggesting.

You are right about the fact that initially a high calorie diet cannot be achieved with solids however, once you add balust (in the form of baby rice / any kind of carbohydrate) a baby who has reflux will be able to keep more food down; in addition if a baby does not drink very much milk and is underweight (or conversely is only drinking milk and stops gaining weight) butter (which I would like to point out has 9 kcals per gram) will do the job just as well as milk.

There are actually reasons why some people choose to wean early - if I had not weaned DS early his weight would have probably continued to fall off the chart.

Just to clarify - I meant as in cooking with butter in case you think I may be stupid enough to feed my baby neat butter.

Sorry- invasive procedures?? I think I missed something?
Ali I am aware that babies with reflux are often recomended to be weaned early. Which obviously is a needs must situation, however im talking about the average baby.

do you know what I have 3 children eldest 12 middle 10 and youngest 6 who were all started to wean at 16 weeks the eldest I was advised by my HV at the time to wean even sooner at 12 weeks ( just over 3 months) as she was a big baby at birth (9lb 13oz) I managed to hold her off until she was about 14 to 15 weeks. At the time even with youngest we were advised to wean at 4 months and packets of baby rice heinz baby cans and jars all stated from 4 months (I seem to remember the first stage cans and jars had green labels on them.) None of my kids are obese none have any allergies etc you do what you think is best and take advice from gp hv etc where necessary. what is unsafe about wenaing at weeks anyway ? That was the advice given 6 years ago are we meant to believe that we could have caused harm now by doing so ?