Please don't lynch me, but is early weaning possibly a good thing?

[SarahScot]

DD is 18 weeks. She wakes up every 2 hours at night to be fed. This started about 3 or 4 weeks ago as previously she was up once or twice a night. I am knackered to say the least and am struggling to look after my 3yr old and go about my normal life.

Having read up on weaning I had decided to wait until 26 weeks or thereabouts. BUT, everyone in RL I speak to tells me that giving their babies solids helped them sleep through or sleep longer. I am desperate. Would I be doing her harm by starting her on baby rice now? I'm so torn between doing the 'right thing' and trying to improve my own (and my poor 3yr old's) quality of life!!!

Sarah sorry the baby rice didn't help. If you want some support through this there's a 4 month sleep regression thread over in Sleep. Ironically it was started by someone advocating formula and weaning and is now a bunch of us just trying to ride it out.

Have you ever heard of Wonder Weeks? It's a book that claims there are set developmental leaps that you can predict babies will go through at nearly the same time based on their due dates. There is a big one at week 19. It starts from around 14 weeks and ends at around 19.5 weeks. In the run up to the big leap babies can sleep badly, be cranky, clingy, and generally a bit hard work. When I adjusted for my baby being ill, her appalling sleeping exactly corresponded to this time and started to improve around the time it should. The improvements are a bit 2 good nights, 2 bad nights, but the bad nights aren't as bad as they were so it's definitely improving.

If this holds true for your daughter as well hopefully you're nearly at the end of it. Hang on in there.

What I have been finding fun about this period is that people will either say to you "oh your baby can't possibly be hungry, find another way to settle them" or "oh your baby is starving, wean them". And some people have managed to say both to me in the same breath!

Good luck.

If she still has the tongue thrust, I'd take it to be a pretty clear indication she isn't ready for solids yet - I agree with you, give it a few weeks and try again. Hope her sleep improves soon.

yes the 4m regression exists. Loads of babies come out of it sleeping better without the introduction of solids. On the other hand some people intro solids and then, suprise suprise, their baby comes out of the regression and they think it's the solids wot dun it...

I agree that it sounds like she isn't quite ready. DS took food off the spoon and pretty much hoovered it down right from the start. I hardly needed to put a bib on him as very little came back out. I'd say from here on in just try her with little bits and pieces now and again and it'll become fairly obvious when she's ready. The lack of sleep is horrible but it will pass eventually :(

Muser, that's really interesting about the Wonder Weeks idea. She probably was around 14 weeks when she started waking more in the night. If I go by her due date she is 19 weeks old today, so maybe I've only got a few more days of this to go.

Moonface, I think you've got a very good point there. Mothers put up with a few weeks of no sleep, finally crack and give them solids, then they suddenly sleep through . . . at the time they are probably getting past the sleep regression anyway.

I remember when DS started solids he would hoover the lot down without losing much at all. In fact, his first food was pasta with pesto that he grabbed out my bowl and ate before I could stop him. He was only about 20 weeks then I think, but I didn't agonise over whether he was ready because I didn't have mumsnet to inform me then and just went with the flow. Too much information seems to be just confusing me!! It's frustrating, I'm normally an decisive confident person but I seem to have turned into a gibbering wreck. No wonder sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture.

Fair points from all. Think it has made a difference to my girl prob,as Peppa said, it sits in her tummy longer. She is breastfed and not taking any less so all solids is extra at moment. Tbh I am just bloody glad to get a few hours sleep. Might give her a mars bar bar before bed tonight and see if she goes all night