Just a bit surprised what I got at dd's 6 month review visit from the health visitor yesterday - I was feeling quite pleased for making it to 26 weeks bf after a rocky start and a few hiccups along the way. Am enjoying starting to wean, and am very tired from dd's night-time wakings and looking for a bit of support. I felt like I got told off all round.
" Oh why didnt you start weaning at 4 months, didnt you know the WHO guidelines are aimed at third world countries and not ours?" (but surely our government's doctors and experts wouldnt have adopted those guidelines then and published loads of information on them would they?)
"But babies dont need feeding during the night once they reach 6 months, its a habit - only a very small minority of babies dont sleep through the night by 6 months!" (oh right, what a bad mother for creating a habit by feeding my hungry baby ..)
"Dont give her too much sweet food or she wont take savoury" (we're talking apple and banana here not cadbury's cream eggs)
"Try to get her onto 4 tablespoons of food, 3 times a day within a few weeks" (
but we're only a week into solids and at the moment she's just tasting the food and getting used to swallowing it and feeling it in her mouth..)
"Babies get all the milk they need in the first 5 minutes, you can break them off after that if you want, the rest is just for comfort" ( .. but what about the hindmilk?)
No wonder people are totally confused by the subject of feeding and weaning - the advice is contradictory and confusing even to the well-informed.