Weaning, a time sensitive subject... WDYD?

[danio7]

First timer here, my DD is 3 months but such a hungry baby, she is very well made and weighs one stone but is definitely NOT fat..

I hear that you can add in baby rice etc at 4 months but the guidelines day 6 months. How do you even wean? Is it just the rice you add in or can you do more, does the milk drop all together? Very confused!!

Lots of things are labelled from 4 months. However, the guidelines are 6 months. The signs that your baby is ready for weaning are the ability to sit well, to reach out and grab food and shove it in her mouth. All the things you might hear about waking at night, watching you eat etc are not signs of readiness.

If you wait until 6 months then you can give anything except added salt, whole nuts and honey. You just start nice and easy by offering food at normal meal times (either puree fruit and veg or offer finger food such as steamed veg sticks) and follow your baby. If she wants it, great, if she doesn't, don't worry just take it away. Continue to feed milk (breast or formula, whatever you are currently doing) on demand. She will gradually take less and ask less as she eats more solids. So long as you follow her cues (coming off breast/spitting bottle out for milk, turning head away from food or throwing it on the floor) then you will know when she has had enough and won't be giving too much.

Baby rice is still a common first weaning food. You don't add it to bottles, you mix it with her normal milk and spoon feed it. YOu don't need it at all though.

The NHS leaflet is very good. I'll try to link it.

www.nhs.uk/start4life/pages/no-rush-to-mush.aspx

OAS advised by my dd's paediatric dietician that from 17 wks on was ok, my dd was small and had reflux. I found annabel karmels books great.

Sorry that should say 'I was'!

17 weeks is the recognised lowest age for weaning yes. However, thre is a difference between a baby with no other problems and a baby who may be medically advised to wean early such as a baby suffering with reflux.

Of course there will always be people who have weaned before 6 months. There will mostl likely be several people coming along telling us how they weaned their children early and they ahve no problems or saying how as children we were weaned at 3 months old and survived but that is all anecdotal isn't it, just like saying "my gran smoked and lived to be 95 so smoking isn't dangerous". Anyway, the consensus is that there is no harm to be done by waiting until 6 months but there may be harm done by weaning earlier. Of course in some cases, as in yours Tracy you might be advised by a HCP to wean before 6 months because it is best for your individual circumstances.

There are some cases where it is medically recommended to wean before 26 weeks, but they are rare. In all other cases it's best to wait until your baby's gut is mature enough to digest solids (there is research being proposed on a possible link between the four-month weaning that used to go on and the prevalence of digestive disorders in over-30s such as ulcers). The gut literally cannot extract the nutrients from solids and will only be damaged by them.

One of the commonest myths is that solids are in some way more 'substantial' than milk and that hungry babies will be more 'satisfied' by solids - in actual fact there are practically no calories in something like baby rice. It's about as nutritionally beneficial as wallpaper paste (and tastes much the same). Milk - whether breast or formula - has far more calories and will satisfy a hungry baby better than solids.

Another myth is that feeding solids aids sleeping. Not true - there is no link between food and sleep.

The NHS leaflet is very good - wait till your baby is 26 weeks and then give her a cracker!

There are differing opinions out there on when to start but 'official advice' is as outlined by others already.

But as a rule when you chose to wean the solids will start to be in addition to the milk, not instead of but spaced far enough between milk feeds so that baby is still hungry for the solid or milk feed e.g. you may chose to start with breakfast a hour or so after the first milk feed of the day. I started with one meal a day then built it up, naturally I found baby started to enjoy the solids more and more and the milk feeds declined. All babies will take to it a little differently but I found the weaning board on here really good when I was unsure of how I was approaching things and the foods I was trying.

And as for the two approaches, purees or baby led weaning (basically leading with finger foods, baby helping herself) I did a mix of the two, as baby got older less spoon feeding and more feeding her self. If you start before 6 months (and lots do I think!) it would have to be purees and cereals of course. Start slow for example baby rice and normal milk and as you/baby is ready you can introduce fruit and veg purees depending on what you start with. I started just a wk or two before 6 months. I don't think starting at 4 or 5 months with a little baby rice alongside the milk feeds is unusual, but I didn't find the need myself.

I'm a first time mum too, so no expert but hope some of this might be helpful

Yes it is difficult when here are such conflicting opinions out there. I know the uk has adopted the WHO recommendations for weaning, but many other western countries haven't. There is disagreement among child leading experts even within this country on whether 4-6 months is acceptable or to wait until 6 months, but the official line is 6 months. My dd's paediatrician also disagreed with the current official weaning age. I read something recently about the possibility that withholding gluten (which I did) until over 6 months may increase the risk of celiac disease. I know that not all research is good research but it does get very confusing sometimes.

There is a very interesting article in the British Medical Journal this year based on an analsis of the most recent research, it's carried out by paediatric gastroenterologists in UCL who argues the case that current recommendations need be reviewed and the reasons why. The WHO recommendation was based on pre 2001 research it seems. It is worth a read, it certainly makes me feel a lot better about the stage I weaned my dd at.
www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5955

Recommendations have changed over the years. It's interesting you're saying the present advice is based on pre 2001 advice. In 2001 the advice was on the dot of 4 months.

I caused a certain amount of concern by not weaning dd1 until 5 months, which in hindsight was too early for her. She was easy to wean, ate whatever was given to her, had no issues with finger food or lumps when they were introduced. It's only looking back I can see that she would have benefitted from waiting another month or two.

By Dd2 in 2004, the advice was 4-6 months. She steadfastly refused solids until about 8 months, and wasn't really interested in food until she hit about 3-4 and since then has eaten very well.

In 2007 the advice had changed to 6 months. Ds weaned at 7 months, first food was a piece of toast, and was by far away the easiest to wean.

Yes the uk didn't agree to adopt these changes until 2003 according to the study. I guess what I am saying is this seems to be a grey area, there is an official recommendation but there seem to be a lot of questions about whether this is the right thing amongst the experts. Sweden did increase the age to 6 months then reverted back to 4 again. I suppose the main thing is don't get too hung up about it. Obviously starting solids before 4 months is definitely not advisable but it seems it is not harmful to start after this time.

I was really worried about weaning because I thought I had to be proactive in some way and 'teach' my DD to wean herself. Didn't work like that at all in reality. I EBF her for her first 5.5 months, though was eying the baby rice packets from about 4 months and wondering if I should make a bit because she was a strong, solid kiddy who was feeding non-stop.

I tried baby rice finally at 5 months and she spat it out so I guessed to leave it a bit longer. Tried again a few times, same result. I was getting a bit worried that weaning was going to involve a lot of coaxing and effort. Then one day just short of 6 months, she grabbed a pesto tortellini off my DH's fork and ate it. From that point on she's eaten pretty much everything we have - steak, bread, garlic, broccoli, sardines, avocado, prunes, apples, cheese etc etc. She's now 6.5 months and enjoying it all immensely. But she still spits out baby rice and bland stuff.

I do a mix of spoon fed stuff and lumps of food I just pass her to have a go at herself. Plus breastfeeding when she wants it. Definitely getting less though - think the amount of feeds have almost halved over the past 2 weeks. Seems to work well for her.

Basically, don't worry about it. It seems to 'click' at the time your baby is ready.

The was a big review in 1994 with the result that NHS advice changed then to 4-6 months depending on the individual baby. Unfortunately many HVs "interpreted" this as 16 weeks on the dot for all babies, as DeWe says. The change to 6 months in 2003 at least had the result that most people now wait til 17 weeks.

I am English but currently living in Ireland and over here the guidelines are 6 months for breast feeding babies (there is even a question mark over whether this leads to iron deficiency anaemia now - you can't win!) and 4-6 for formula fed babies. There is no difference between the children in either of these countries. Not all countries adopted the WHO guidelines in the same way.