Weaning at 4 months

[Georgia0808]

Hi everyone, on the advice of my baby’s doctors, health visitor and pediatrician it has been decided it’s best to start weaning him at 4 months and I was wondering if anyone has any tips, advice or anything with weaning this young, in the nicest way possible I don’t want anyone telling me I shouldn’t or I should wait as that’s not what I need. TIA

When my, now 25-yr-old, DD was born, the advice was to wean at 3 months (4 months for my 21-yr-old and 6 months for my 16-yr-old).

As DD1 was a 'hungry baby' GP and HV advised me to wean at 10 weeks and, as a new mum with zero experience and no guidance from my DM (or MN), I did.

We started on very runny baby porridge then whizzed up veg.

The idea of it now appals me as the guidance has changed dramatically, but DD is a healthy, robust, fit woman at a healthy weight with no problems at all.

I'm not saying anyone should do this these days but it doesn't guarantee catastrophe.

As an FYI only a paediatric dietitian can recommend early weaning and they’ll give you guidance and amounts and food to be giving them.

A paed recommended introducing baby rice or formula to my little girl at 4 months because she was waking up once in the night (wtf) and when I asked how much she said the HV would support. I asked HV and luckily she balked and said it wasn’t recommended. The paed was talking out of her arse and her recommendation was based on some BS study that concluded babies who were given food at 3 months by 5/6 months they slept 15/20 mins longer at night.

Was that the advise back then @MeridasMum? I was introduced to solids at 6 months as was my brother and he’s the same age as your eldest?

@Kanfuzed123

Was that the advise back then *@MeridasMum*? I was introduced to solids at 6 months as was my brother and he’s the same age as your eldest?

It definitely was the advice. Many of my friends and I have chatted about this over the years.

I wonder if it's regional?

Weaning at 4 months is too early. Sorry I know that's not what you want to hear.
You need to carry on with the formula.

I don't get why people are always in such a rush to introduce solids so early.......just wait til the baby is nearly 6 months. All this narrative about the baby being a hungry baby or needing more calories cos of vague medical needs makes no sense, the foods that are introduced first (fruit and veg) contain minimal calories......there is much more calories/fat/protein in breast/formula milk so if the baby is actually hungry then they will be satiated by being fed more milk for longer, rather than a few spoons of apple purée.

I doubt health professionals actually recommend this, I think people decide they're going to wean at or before 4 months, mention it to their health visitor/GP who gives a non commital response which the parent takes as a recommendation to proceed.

As for baby rice......don't even get me started. Just wait til they're closer to 6 months and then you can skip that stage of sloppy food and give small bits of real food, don't need to faff about with pureeing it at that age, just give soft foods or mash it up a bit, no need to over complicate it once they're the right age

Perhaps it yoyo’d I’m 32 and time as apparently advanced without me knowing my brother is actually 28 😂.

I wondered because I have ibs symptoms that can be from early solids but my mum said 6 months?

Maybe it just varied hugely from person to person giving advice and regionality playing a role too?

Unrelated to the thread but were you also advised to sleep your kids on their side? I was put to sleep on my side, think sometimes with a rolled up blanket behind me, miracle i survived

@impossiblypossibly I was advised to, because my 4 month old was waking in the night once, exact words were ‘for some babies breast milk isn’t enough anymore, they need rice or formula’

God sorry clogging up the feed the sleep question was for @MeridasMum

@impossiblypossibly in certain circumstances health professionals do advise to wean early, I was for my eldest for reflux. The doctor gave us 3 options, a) thickened formula, b) thickener for expressed milk or c) start giving baby rice before feeds. All working on the same principle of something thicker/ more solid being in the stomach reducing the likelihood of regurgitation. For us personally I was still breast feeding and had difficulty expressing so thickening expressed feeds wasn't really an option. I also wasn't keen to start formula at that point, which the doctor advised was basically thickened using the same ingredient in baby rice.

[quote Kanfuzed123]@impossiblypossibly I was advised to, because my 4 month old was waking in the night once, exact words were ‘for some babies breast milk isn’t enough anymore, they need rice or formula’[/quote]
Cos a 4 month old was waking once in the night?! FML! Perfectly normal for a 4 month old ( or any age baby really) to wake up several times a night, it's just a developmental stage

@impossiblypossibly gods honest truth. We were asked about Her sleep, and we were actually quite happy with it as everyone talks about the dreaded ‘4 months sleep regression’ she used fo swell 11pm-6am through and the she went to one wake up in that time and easy to settle too, so tbh were almost expecting a pat on the back.
Luckily I’d posted in a Fb breastfeeding support group and the advice got a lot of heat, spoke to HV and she balked at early weaning suggestion

[quote Kanfuzed123]@impossiblypossibly I was advised to, because my 4 month old was waking in the night once, exact words were ‘for some babies breast milk isn’t enough anymore, they need rice or formula’[/quote]
The human race would not have survived had that been true.

Exactly @WouldIBeATwat but it wasn’t in relation to sustenance but sleep because my 4 month old was waking once (once!) in the night. The study she was referring too as well was utter shite and unicef tore it apart. Solids introduced at 3 months and for those infants at 5 months slept 15/20 mins longer at night. I mean ffs

There's no medical reason to wean a baby this early

DD1: Failure to thrive due to constant sickness. Multiple admissions for signs of dehydration, suspected pyloric stenosis and CMPA. Trialled Neocate but made reflux worse.

DD2: Dropped from 75th to below 9th centile in her first couple of months. Wouldn’t touch most formulas including hypoallergenic and high energy prescription milks. Stumbled upon goat, which she would take enough of to survive but not thrive.

OP, there are medical reasons to wean early but you should be guided through this process by a consultant and/or dietitian. In our case, we were given information on foods to introduce and how to fortify ‘meals’ to ensure weight gain and correct nutrition. With DD1 we saw someone regularly until she started to gain weight properly at around 7 months, but with DD2 covid caused cancellations so we cracked on with the information we still had from DD1 and are due to see the dietitian early Feb. It’s a pain, but if it’s your first early weaning and it’s for medical reasons, you need to try and see someone.

Girls are now just turned 3 and 5.5 months. Eldest been thriving since about 6 months, and youngest has really picked up since Christmas and has finally lost her sparrow legs and got some colour in her cheeks.

Early weaning isn’t always the work of the devil when done properly.

Can I just say, from what I’ve seen mums net is for mum to come for a bit of extra advice from OTHER MUMS. I thought people on here would be here to help? Not drag this lady down because you don’t agree with something. I’m actually disgusted in the attitude towards her, If you’re not going to help with a simple polite answer, get tf of the page!!

ps all my siblings/cousins and MYSELF where introduced to watered down porridge with our formula milk. We’re all fine.

Every baby is different so if you want to try it hun, try it. Don’t listen to these ‘random strangers’ they’re the ones commenting on a random strangers post being rude 😅

cyr01 why are you reviving a 6 month old thread?

Erm because I’m looking for advice on my 4 month old baby, is that alright with you?

What advice are you after? NHS advice is wean at around 6 months. If a health care professional is telling you otherwise, then ask them for advice about what is appropriate to give a baby younger than the usual weaning age. Advice from randoms on the internet is obviously going to vary wildly in quality from the downright dangerous to the mildly misguided.

Hahahahah oh my imagine getting so butt hurt on what others do with their babies😂
I totally didn’t realise you are all professionals!! I didn’t actually say what advice I was looking for did I? No I didn’t, my child is quite happy on his milk, others maybe aren’t. As I was on mums net this page came up and after seeing the way some mums speak to others, should be ashamed of yourselves. If people want to try weaning early then so be it, the lady stated she didn’t want judgement and she’s ended up being a liar apparently? It’s vile imagine how she’s feeling after only asking for a bit of help. Freaks

@cyr01 as loathe as I am to post on a zombie thread you'd do well to follow your own advice as you're not polite either.

Why should I be polite to people that haven’t been polite? I’ll speak to people how they speak too. Simple

You appear to be responding to me, @cyr01 and I have been perfectly polite. If you are responding to people who posted over 6 months ago to tell them off about their posting style then I would suggest that's a bit pointless.

Can’t believe how many people think it’s okay how the women who made this thread got spoken too😳gobsmacked

I was responding to you yes, as the way you came off was quite demeaning and seemed like you knew better.