DD now 4 months - cannot believe she would have been weaned in the past!

[Zimm]

Well my lovely DD is now 4 months. I simply cannot imagine that she would now be weaning under previous guidelines. She cannot sit up and is my little baby :-) No judgement on those that do wean early - I'm just saying to me it seems bizarre - particularly as she is EBF so we can be out and about for a whole day with no worries! Can I leave it until 9 months?? (Joke) !

I'm sure you could leave it til 9 months actually - babies weren't weaned until 8 or 9 months up til the beginning of the 20th Century I think (although they were then weaned onto bones and pie crusts...)

I know what you mean though, my ds is just 17 weeks now and still seems like such a little baby. I was weaned at 4 months in the mid-80s in accordance with official guidance then when a lot of people weaned early at 12 weeks, and my mum got a bit of hassle then about holding out - though she's made a few comments to me recently about ds needing "more". I can't imagine giving him anything other than milk at the moment, I mean he's still a bit wobbly holding his head up, let alone sitting unsupported

I think all babies mature differently though, my DD has been able to support her head well since 12 weeks and at 17 weeks was quite steady sitting up supported.

I'm going to start trying to wean her at 5 months (she's nearly there at 21 weeks) because although she's still little I think all the signs indicate she is physically ready.

I think it's best to look at your baby as well as the guidelines to determine whether or not they are ready. Some babies are ready at 4 months but I can imagine some aren't quite ready even at 6 months.

Of course if I try to feed her solids at 5 months and she pushes it all back out wth her tongue then I'll know I'm wrong and we'll wait a bit longer. :)

When I had DS the guidelines were 4 months and he was weaned at 16 weeks, mainly due to pressure from the family as he was very high needs. If anything it made him worse and was a load of hassle.

The guidelines changed and DD weaned herself at 23 weeks by stealing food from my plate and eating it, so we did BLW which was sooo much easier.

Suppose I'm trying to say that you are doing the right thing but just be warned about waiting till 9 months, your lovely DD might just be helping herself by then

Dd1/2 were weaned at 16 weeks 9/11 years ago. I am so looking forward to BLW this time with dd3. Think she may be good fun to wean as she is already eyeing up our food at 8 weeks & is very obvious what she likes about smells of food (backed away from dd2 smelling of garlic, puts her face to mine when I've eaten chocolate!)

they are all different though
ds1 was weaned at 16wks under previous guidelines and was on 3 meals a day by 17wks, and a much happier baby.
ds2 was started weaning around 26wks, but really wasn't interested until he was 12mo (and was never bloody happy!).

I weaned DD1 at 16 weeks , as was the advice in those days ( she's 14 now). She was fine and loved the solid food. Has had no probs. Apart from being a moody so and so now but I don't think you can blame that on mushed up banana at four months

I know three women who started their children on solids at 9 months. All perfectly healthy and thriving. There are also reports of an Australian child who was still ebf at 15 months.

Our closest animal relations, gorillas, ebf for 3 years before starting solids.

Not necessarily recommendations, but food for thought. I wonder how much of the pressure to wean comes indirectly from baby food/formula companies?

I'm sure it would be fine to wait a bit beyond 6 months, but for me (and its been the same each time) I have found BFing very easy up to around 16-18 weeks - all three times on around 6-7 feeds in 24 hours and sleeping all night before that, to waiting up 2 hourly in the night and feeding 2 hourly in the day, everyone says growth spurt but for all three of my DC they didn't stop waiting up in the night (hungry) until weaned.

Was saying to my mum how hard i was finding it, and she pointed out in the past babies would have been weaned at first sign of waking up in night again.

I'm quite glad DS has never gone all the way through the night because it means I'm not weaning him for any reason other than I think he's ready.

I may get shouted down, but I have started weaning him at 20 weeks with baby rice, veg and fruit purees. He can sit up on his own (he sits playing on his mat), he doesn't thrust food out of his mouth with his tongue (in fact he likes to take hold of the spoon and feed himself) and he's very hungry (he's tried to eat just about everything).

I know from looking at him that he's ready for solids, so following the advice of 'you know your baby best', I'm weaning him slowly...

I was joking about the nine months :-) We'll be doing BLW from six months onwards.

OP - weaning at 4 months plus is not 'early'. Strange as it may seem to you those of us with older children weaned at 4 months were not chained to the blender and also managed to go out and about even when weaning!

I weaned DS1 at 4 months (6 yrs ago) and regret it horribly as he has eczema... who knows. Bloody hassle, too.

DS2 is now 5 months and although he's interested in what we're eating I don't think he's ready for solids - he's interested in everything we do but not physically ready himself for them yet.

With ds I started with wallpaper paste baby rice at 12 weeks because he was so hungry. Clearly looking back it was a growth spurt. He is a very fussy eater now age 12 and always has been. Who knows if the early weaning is a factor. Dd1 started solids at about 20 weeks as it was 4-6 months back in 2001. Dd2 started blw 2 weeks ago at 6 months. I think she was ready about 24 weeks but I'd been told I'd never ebf such a big girl to 6 months (she was above 91st centile when this was said) and I'm very stubborn so I held out. She was waking hourly for milk in the last week and loves food. She shouts for whatever we're having or even what I'm preparing for tea. She has 3 meals a day and still has about 10 bfs a day. I'm glad we waited even if I maybe could have started a little sooner because it's been so seamless and natural. :)

When I had my oldest I was told wean at 4 months but 2 years later with my second it suddenly became 6. Regardless of that however all three of my older ones started on little tastes of food at around 5 months. My new baby is 18 weeks now so i will probably start her on a few little tastes in a couple of weeks. We are only talking about a teaspoon of something normally mixed with milk at this stage not a ful english breakfast!

I just meant 4 months seems very early to me, given DD is still very much a baby. She only has 7 BF's day so you can see why I am unmotivated to wean - 7 feeds a day is easy. I am super lucky with her as she also sleeps well, I just know my second baby will be poor sleeper and eat round the clock ;-)

i know what you mean. our local infant feeding coordinator was telling me how when her kids were little, 20+ years ago, she was practically having to force spoonfuls into their mouths at 16 weeks as that was what you were meant to do. i'm glad it's more flexible now. having been going through the 4 month sleep regression, i've been getting pressure from family to start weaning, especially as he is a big boy, nearly on 91st percentile. i don't think he's nearly ready yet (20 weeks). i talked to the hv last week just so i could say "the hv says not to..." and she said no, he's already such a good weight, don't want him to get fat, which kind of makes sense.

am planning to do blw but i can't imagine him being ready anytime soon - 6 weeks doesn't seem very far off, but i know he will probably change a lot by then.

MIL was telling me that when she had her first, you started at 12lbs or 12wks, which ever cam first - looking at my 13wk ds I can't imagine trying to feed him!

my ds was12lb by about 8 weeks - seems crazy! i knowsomeone whose baby was 12lb9oz when he was born! i wonder if they would gave advisedsolids from day 1 back then!