I would like to apologise to MsPea for the hijacking of her post. I did not mean to cause such controversy or upset to you all and I am sorry if you have interpreted my post in that way, I obviously have not expressed myself very eloquently.
MsPea said that on the advice of her HV she had done something she now feels unsure of, my point was meant to mean much more "who are the experts" than I AM A DOCTOR. My only point as a doctor in this post is going to be that as a mother you are the expert of your own child. MsPea and everyone else should of course listen to their HV, but this does not mean you should take as gospel what you are told as you will surely know if it will suit your child or not. All my other points are made as a mother and an individual with an opinion - NOT as a doctor.
I said in my post do what suits you and your baby, and I stand by that. We all parent in different ways and we parent different babies differently as well. Some babies will need weaning earlier than the guidelines recommend and my concern is that mothers are made to feel guilty for this.
As I said in my post, I am not an expert and I feel the same amount of anxiety, guilt etc with my baby as I am sure all first time mothers feel, regardless of my qualifications. I am also not a paediatrician or an expert in infant nutrition. When I was pregnant and busy reading baby magazines I saw the guidelines re infant feeding had changed from when I was at medical school. I did a medline search to look at the reasons why. What I read did not convince me there were significant benefits in delaying weaning to 26 weeks. These are my OPINIONS as a mother who has chosen to research the journal articles, they are NOT meant to be taken as professional advice. I am also used to guidelines changing, and fully aware that research can very much be shaped to show the evidence you want it to show in the absence of double-blind randomised controlled trials. What we are being told to do now re. weaning, co-sleeping and all the other emotive topics out there will most likely be different in 5-years time. We do what we feel is best for our child and I don't think we should feel guilty for not following guidelines to the letter or for following them and then retrospectively feeling guilty if they change.
Therefore my point to MsPea was meant in the sense that she said her daughter had enjoyed the rice and seemed sad when it had gone, but MsPea seemed worried the rice had been harmful in that her daughter had then had diarrhoea. I personally do not feel that MsPea has necessarily started too early or that she has done her daughter any harm in offering foods earlier than recommended.
I also said the breast milk remains nutritionally superior for a long time and that babies continue to need lots of milk despite food being introduced. I am horrified to think that my comments have been interpreted as denigrating the importance of milk for a baby. I am very very sorry if that is the case.
I will not post again on this thread as I do not want to further detract from the support MsPea was seeking. I offer my apologies once again for upset caused, and I thank Aloha for the very interesting comments she made which I found very helpful.