Quick! I need decent evidence-based refs against early weaning

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My friend has just posted about her new (8 week) baby on FB. He was quite large at birth (and now is 14lb) and she's just asked, rather coyly (because she knows it's waaay too early) when she dare start on a bit of baby cereal and fruit. he is EIGHT WEEKS, ffs.

I know, I know, none of my bloody business - except that I'm fond of my friend and of her DD (haven't met her DS yet, she lives far off) and hate to think of an 8 week old baby being fed cereal. And though I don't think she'd try it quite yet, two of her FB friends have just posted enabling comments to the effect that they started their DC on solids at 8-10 weeks and 'they are fine'.

I posted something I desperately tried not to make patronising about immature guts and her baby only needing her fab milk (she is bf-ing every 2 hours, which I'm sure is why she's wanting to get onto solids) but I also said there was now compelling evidence to link food intolerances with early weaning. I know there are, but I've mislaid my Gill Rapley book. Does anyone have some good linkies, please?

(Background - her DD was huge at birth too and she was talking about solids at about 12 weeks - I think she may have waited a few weeks after that but she definitely weaned well before the earliest guideline age. She likes to fly in the face of current, peer-reviewed scientific evidence, no idea why...)

This link to delaying solids on kellymom.com convinced me to wait.

There's a weaning position paper from the British Dietetic Association that takes the view that between 4-6 months is fine - it has information on the damage done by weaning before 4 months. Even waiting til 17 weeks would be better than 8 weeks!

Here

Thanks! I know that some HCPs are of the opinion that 4-6 months is best, so maybe I'd better steer her thataway rather than risk alienating her entirely with talk of BLW and waiting until 6 months!

Have you asked your friend why she wants to wean early? You might get further with her if you can encourage her to open up about the reasons for her decisions. Ask is a more powerful mode than tell, normally.

Sounds like maybe she needs a bit of support with BF.

Thanks for the links ladies.

My husband was weaned at around or just before 3 months - born late 60s. He was absolutely fine until his early 30s when he got really bad IBS, gluten intolerance (first food was rusks) and dairy intolerance (was FF).

Early weaning may or may not be the cause of his problems. Some evidence would certainly suggest it was a factor. His brother was weaned at the same time and onto the same foods. He, so far, is fine. It is random whether someone is affected or not.

All these people saying their young children are 'fine' have no idea whether there might be long term consequences associated with early weaning.

Don't worry, I won't blast in with all guns blazing and tell her what she should do. I agree, she does sound like she needs some reassurance that bf is going well and that her baby is fine as he is for the moment. I'll try to do that. She was very eager to wean early with her DD too (I suspect she tried solids a little before 17 weeks) and I also think she has very strong, and well-meaning, influence from her mother, but which is pretty outdated. From what she said a few weeks ago, her HV was (unconsciously?) undermining her bf, by suggesting that her DS would eat her alive when he hit a growth spurt.

She said he was feeding every 2 hours, so I'm extrapolating from that, that she wonders if he's too hungry for 'just' breastmilk? She must be exhausted if he's feeding 2-hourly at night too.

I know she was keen that bf work for her this time (DD had bad tongue tie) but also that she can have quite rose-tinted expectations. Not sure what to suggest, really. I will forward her some useful information, though.

TuttRhino, thanks for the anecdotal info about your DH - good example!

I know this is a bit off the weaning part, but this is an article I read about feeding more often So I nursed him every 45 mins

My dd was a frequent feeder and when the common culture is a bottle every 4 hours, it's hard to get used to feeding more often. I used to re-read this article every so often when I started doubting myself.