To think weening should be done ASAP

[Ryoko]

I plan to start Weening him when he is 4 months old if he will except baby rice or porridge at that age.

IMO weening as soon as they are able is natures way, thats what all other animals do it sounds unlikely to me that our ape-ish ancestors sat there giving milk alone for over 6 months so I feel that weening at 4 months is probably better for kids.

Oh, I didn't think you were being smug It sounded like you meant your DD was on the 91st percentile for gurgling.

No I meant weight wise lol however constantly being told she is overweight (she is not she is perfect not even that chubby) . That there must be something wrong with my milk.

simple fact is - we can't know exactly wht ou tribal ancestors did WRT to weaning - we can guess that they didn't have a set age (not having calendars and all!) and probably not all tribal groups would have had the same practices - weaning would probably be by mother feeding her own food to the baby pre-chewed (this is still the practice in many but not all tribal cultures)
I rather think the types of food available woul dhave played a major factor in this kind of decision.

whatever - different groups would have done different things, different women within those groups would probably have held differing opinions on it, and no doubt would dhae argued about it too...

these days different researchers, vested interests and womens groups push different angles..all boils down to doing whatever you want with your baby in the end just the same!

What do you know about how apes feed their young, Ryoko?

"Not until three years of age do young chimpanzees venture more than five meters from their mothers, and between ages four and six, the period of infancy ends with weaning."

pmsl @ shirleyknot

I'm talking about our Ape-like ancestors, if they didn't get offered food pre chewed they would have started trying to eat left over fruit from mum at some point.

not be waiting until they are x amount old before mum (or dad) allows them access to edible things.

Thus it must be biologically fine to start weaning em from 4 months (as it says in my books) or 6 if thats what other books say, it shouldn't do them any harm to give them the opportunity sooner rather then later.

You aren't making the slightest bit of sense, OP, you do realise that?

baby orangs and the like still eat fruit *lynette^ - they aren't EBF..

they are so veryyyy cute with their mummies too.

i don't like the word 'weaning' when what is meant is introducing solid foods as it is generally confusing.

we are large land-primates to be fair, and argments like this tend to hang around 'biological norms' and 'statistical evdience'..

Ryoko, the link supplied by Hecate to primate research shows that apes and monkeys normally weant their babies when their first permanent molars come through- which in humans is round about the age of 5. However chimps seem to be particularly late: I found another site (research paper by Jane Goodall) that showed that chimp mums only start weaning when their babies are between 1 and 2 years old and do not usually complete weaning process until they are 4 or 5 yo. Considering that chimps can walk and climb trees by an age of 5 months, I think you would have to concede that chimps actually wean far later than even the most liberal WHO recommendations.

If you are going to make comparisons with nature, it doesn't hurt to find out about nature first. It's an interesting place- with lots of breastfeeding going on!

Why are you so hung up about what our ape ancestors would have done?
You clearly don't actually care what the biological norm is so why are you banging on about it?

RYOKU why do you want to wean early?

OP why don't you at least wait til 4 months and see if he is actually ready, rather than start an argument now and @ 4 months he might not even be interested? It doesn't matter what you have already pre-decided re weaning the baby may not be ready exactly according to your schedule, it can vary quite a bit..

I weaned DD at 4 months. In the event it was fine, she was pretty eager. But in retrospect I weaned her early because I was desperate to get to the next 'stage'. BFing was difficult and we were supplementing with FF, which I hated, so it was kind of like I wanted to replace the FF with food IYSWIM?

DS was nearly 12lb at birth and stayed on the 99th-ish centile, everyone kept saying I was bound to need to give him solids early, but we waited until just before 6m, and pretty much went straight to 'mostly-BLW' (we spoon-feed too) - so much easier!

I am fairly sure 'ape' mothers bf them as long as possible. They didn't have access to baby rice Baby-led weaning would have been a lot simpler when all that was available was fruit, meat or fish and no blender!

cross-posted with Lynette

oh well, it's been an educational evening

but Ryoko, in view of the fact that chimpanzees do not wean their babies until 4 or 5 years do you not think we humans ought to revise our weaning habits? Because after all, we should be closer to our natural roots, non?

There has been scientific research done which concludes that a baby's digestive system is not mature enough for weaning until 6 months and that early weaning can cause digestive problems. Personally I can't see why you would want to wean early. It is a myth that it helps them sleep longer which seems to be the main reason people want to do this.

Also if you want to go the ape route then baby led weaning would probably be closer to that approach.

"I'm talking about our Ape-like ancestors, if they didn't get offered food pre chewed they would have started trying to eat left over fruit from mum at some point."

I seriously doubt these ancestors they'd have been weaning at 4 months. As I said before I met some bedoiun who were living the same way they have for thousands of years and they were not weaning early. No access to sterile equipment or blenders meant this wasn't possible.

This is a really stupid arguement for weaning early. The best arguement for weaning early was that in the 1970s they said 8-12 weeks to start and we all turned out ok (BTW my mum weaned me at 8 weeks, will never know that why I have IBS - or maybe its due to the carnation evaporated milk I was fed).

I have weaned both my DC at 21 weeks (5 calender months) becauase they seemed hungry - asked HV was it better to switch to formula or wean and was told to wean. DS2 is 10 weeks, will wait and see how it goes before I decide.

ryoko - well it sounds like you will do what you like anyway but consider waiting until your dc can at least sit up - bit safer imo

also the best thing about waiting for 6 months or later is that you can actually give them solid food and not puree everything. i am blw dd - its genius! i pootle about in the kitchen doing chores whilst dd sits in her highchair and feeds herself over steamed veg, by herself! now thats convinience!

There has been scientific research done which concludes that a baby's digestive system is not mature enough for weaning until 6 months

and there is other evidence to suggest this is wrong...and that gut maturity is driven by the introduction of food...

Baby-led weaning would have been a lot simpler when all that was available was fruit, meat or fish and no blender!

erm..the range of food eaten by our hunter-gatherer ancestors extends much wider than this, root veg (generally less pleasant than those enjoyed today) were widely used (soft boiled once utensils sufficient to do that were fashioned, or baked before that...) watching that Wild Food programme with dear old Ray Mears in the UK was Eddycashunal.

and mothers would chew foods for their young (this is mentioned in the bible..)

so baby rice would be be soft-boiled rice pre-chewed by mother....(in countries and times where rice was grown) ...

interestingly pretty much all evidence agrees that regardless of commencement of weaning, its best to BF as long as possible....

so when i hear of people considering formula in order to delay weaning, i wish there was less focus on his issue, and more on the more important and better proved one (ie, continutation of BF)

I have held off - dd is 6 months very soon - but I am the only person I know who held off, the amount of people who say their baby is outwith the rules and cannot wait is astounding. Or that baby is trying to grab their food so is therefore ready/waking at night so that must mean he needs solids.

No, I'm not trying to paint myself as a saint but I don't understand why people don't follow official advice which has a body of research to back it up.