Weaning at four months

[s86h]

Hi All,

I'm quite shocked at the judgemental reactions on here from, what I assume, are unqualified people simply tearing others apart on 'early' weaning.

What I'm looking for on here are some ACTUAL experiences, not advice, not opinions - actual experience from mums who, for whatever reason, decided it was time to try introducing solids (meaning baby rice, purée etc) before 6 months.

In my case, I need to return to work 2 days a week (financially necessary) and my 4 month (18 week) old DS won't take a bottle under any circumstances (we've tried literally everything and persevered for weeks) - neither breast milk nor formula and so it's impossible to feed him the amount he needs now during the hours my MIL has him.

We can feed with a cup, but he just doesn't get enough this way at the moment. We've now tried complimenting this by thickening the milk with baby rice so he can be spoon fed and he loves it. He's still getting his breast milk morning and evening as usual.
This is now my last resort, and wanted to reach out, but after seeing the responses I'm gobsmacked at how rude and unhelpful many (not all) of the responses are (and with shocking lack of evidence/ability to even spell at times!).

It seems people are quoting all sorts of negative 'side effects', issues, should/should nots based on 'science'.

Problem is, I can't find any empirically sound studies to support this.
The WHO based their recommendation of 6 months from two (rather shaky) studies, the main one being based on the comparison between EBF and early weaning (mostly in developing countries with poor sanitation). 1% of the population in the UK still BF at 6 months, so it's not even a comparison!!!!!

This article seems to assess most of the literature out there and questions much of the current guidelines, calling for more research (though it's not terribly recent):

eprints.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/24133/530B9A5C-5982-44F8-829C-91F7226EDEED.pdf

I'm genuinely curious to learn if there ARE studies and science that I'm maybe missing, but after HOURS of trawling through various bodies of research, I thought I'd ask here/get some context.

In the mid 1990s, starting weaning at 4 months was suggested to me by my health visitor. It was the norm back then. Start with baby rice and see how you go was the advice...

Hi there,

Not quite exactly what you are looking for but this Facebook group for CMPA might be helpful. Some mummies on this group need to wean at 4 months due to allergies so it might be a helpful read for you:

www.facebook.com/groups/237098283829485/?ref=share

I'm read the posts on this group often as my DS has CMPA, they seem to be a friendly bunch.

As for starting out with weaning, I would pick out one or two veggies you feel comfy with, to steam then blend to give to your DS. Sweet potato is quite nice and smooth when blended. I started at 6.5 months age corrected to 5 months with fairly smooth purees then moved onto lumpy, then took it from there.

Good luck!

I'm not sure it's judgmental as much as going by what seems sensible and not dangerous. If a baby can't sit up yet, it doesn't seem like the safest thing to be feeding it solids.

I think the thing is OP that even if you do successfully wean at 4 months old, main source of nutrition until 1 (and definitely 6 months ) needs to be milk of some sort. Even when weaning at 4 months was recommended, you're talking teaspoons worth once or twice a day, not full meals.

That isn't a negative comment, just fact. I empathise entirely as my middle wouldn't take a bottle/cup of milk whatsoever and it was really hard. Throw in multiple allergies and it was an impossible situation so I stayed off from work as long as I could.

With my 3rd ( now 9 months ) we have had success with Lansinoh bottles and scalding my milk after expressing as I have high lipase which makes my milk taste soapy once stored. I also can't give him a bottle but other people can.

How long is your working day/will you be away from him?

I know current advice is 6months but I had my babies in the 90s when we routinely started at 16 weeks and mine survived with no issues ( one is coeliac but I doubt that caused it ) . That said we also had them in front facing car seats from fairly early on ( weight was the factor ) and had ELCS s booked for 38 weeks . Frankly it’s a wonder that anybody survived 😀

I do agree with you in that it can feel a bit scary bringing things like this up as I've seen so many threads where people feel very strongly about the best way to wean etc.

I was in a somewhat similar situation with returning to work (went back after 12 weeks) and I feel like a lot of the info out there is swayed towards the fact that thankfully maternity packages are a lot better now for most, so people are able to be at home with the baby!

I started with baby rice around 4 months (to PP's point she has always had a strong neck, could hold her own head up very quickly and was sitting happily with support at that age) as she was an insatiable baby, she took to it really well and really enjoyed it. Moved onto rusks and baby porridge (some brands still market 4months+). As she has grown we have moved onto pouches etc, alongside finger food snacks. She seems happy enough, still drinking plenty of milk, trying different flavours. I will say I take comfort in knowing her meals are complete in terms of nutrition rather than me trying to put something together.

I get it's not for everyone but time wise I'm struggling to make one balanced meal a day for the family, never mind ensuring she has a variety of balanced meals throughout the day, so it works for us. It also made going on holiday much easier as I could just pack her usual food and go.

In terms of safety, I think it's just about going slowly and checking your baby can cope with each stage, which I can't imagine is any different whether you start at 4 or 6 months to be honest. The only thing I stuck to was holding back dairy until 6 months as I'd read something about maturity of the digestive system.

Good luck for returning to work!

I agree with @Coffeeandcrocs. There's no strong evidence against starting to introduce solids at 4 months (I've looked into the research too) BUT a child of this age still needs milk as their main source of nutrition.

YABU to criticise bad spelling and then use 5 exclamation marks 😁

But to give some advice, I would keep persevering with getting him to drink a decent amount of formula from a cup/bottle as well as weaning.

Babies can suddenly refuse to eat anything even though they’ve loved it previously - it’s a normal stage of weaning. So the main source of nutrition should still be milk.

I was like you OP, when I actually looked into the much quoted WHO guidance, I found out that it relates to giving your baby ANYTHING other than breast milk before six months. So if you have formula fed from birth (Which I did, no judgement here) you have already gone against the WHO advice.

I weaned both children at 16 weeks due to both having reflux and refusing feeds as a result. This was on the advice of trained medical professionals. Start with fruit and vegetable puree and work up from there gradually. We moved onto finger foods and more BLW by six months. You definitely need to wait until they are able to sit up for that due to the choking risks.

Agree with looking into Facebook groups etc for those who are feeding early.

@ChagSameachDoreen have a quick look, you'll see what I mean. It's completely judgemental when someone calls another an irresponsible parent IMO - single line, no other context, no other advice offered etc - this was just one example...

@Coffeeandcrocs bless you, that sounds super tricky. As mentioned, he's taking it from the cup so he is being fed milk as well, plus his normal feeds - we're literally just talking about the 6/7 hours she has him on those two days to supplement a little.

I'd probably keep with him having a little on the usual days to keep him used to it, but

He's sitting up fairly well, not showing the tongue thrust reflex and doesn't display the same screaming he normally does when you try and approach with any form of fake nipple

There will always be someone out there who will have something negative to say, and though it's easier said than done, try not to let it get to you. You need to do whatever feels right for you and your baby. I'm pretty sure my sister's children were weaned at 4 months as per the guidance at the time and they're only in their mid teens.

I don't have any personal experience of early weaning, but a family member's LO just wouldn't sleep at all and a sleep consultant advised early weaning to ensure baby was going to bed with a full belly. This was only last year and from memory age 4/5 months. The baby went straight onto baby porridge, purées, etc 3 times a day in addition to being breastfed.

Also, I'll share the same advice that was given to me by our DD's NHS dietician when I couldn't get her to take a bottle. She refused from around the age of 14 weeks when I tried formula top ups on top of breastfeeding. When she was around 8 months she was diagnosed with a cows milk allergy meaning I had to go dairy free as well and really struggled, so was desperate to stop BF. The dietician said there was no harm in adding a couple drops of vanilla extract to the formula to sweeten the milk and make it more appealing (especially as she had no teeth at this point so the sugar wasn't an issue in this sense).. she loved her 'vanilla milkshakes' as I called them and within 3 weeks she was exclusively taking bottles of her soya based formula, and had reduced the 2 drops in each bottle to none. The advice seemed very unconventional at the time but it worked! I used Dr Oetker Madagascan vanilla as no alcohol was used to extract the vanilla.

@GiantTortoise appreciate that - 90% of time he will be - it's predominantly to cover those 14 hrs a week, with a view to keeping it going maybe 1-2 times a day more just for continuity (learned my lesson there on becoming complacent with the bottle early on and now he rejects completely 😅)

Totally agree
When my teenager was a baby the guidlines were 4 months plus to wean so we did it as soon as she reached 16 weeks tbh.
No issues. Although we were young parents so sadly we used alot of jars, very inexperienced and were not in a stable career..however, she is lovely and tall now..amazing figure.
She isnt a fan of anything too exotic but she seems to love rice and vegetables! And kiwis.
Weirdly HARDLY EVER has sweets or chocolate which is what they said could happen if you have baby on jars/pouches. Completely oppoosite! Actually never knew a child so put off by sweets. So all good for me

Second, because of first I remember the moment giving her jam from a scone whilst we were waiitng in a car showroom! She lapped it up..and was under 4 months so slowly just starting giving her bread, bits of fruit..she eats so well!
No issues at all ! Howeverz she is the opposite and has a huge sweet tooth.

And last child, didnt wean until 5/6 months because she was a generaly more difficult baby (only one tjat didnt sleep through at 6 months) so I put it down to she may have a sensitive stomach.
This one hardly eats tbh. Iv posted on here a few times asking for advice but basically they are all so different as you can see!!
AND
nothing corresponds to the guidelines given meaning none of them are overweight, or have digestion problems

I've read the (long and boring) document that the WHO produced in relation to its 6m policy. It's very much focused on advantages which are importance in poorer countries but matter little here.

It doesn't really mention maturity of the gut with a lot of people on here seem to think is the main reason for waiting until 6-months. The WHO mention the benefits of delayed return to periods with extra exclusive breastfeeding, the effect that delayed periods has on family planning, a small additional weight loss of 2 extra months exclusively breastfeeding, two additional months of lower diarrhoea risk because food isn't being prepared etc.

On the flip side that is research indicating that earlier weaning (4-6m) can help reduce food allergies and intolerances and that it can be risky to wait 6 months before introducing those.

Remember also the different countries have different guidelines and in many countries in Europe 4-6-months or near 6 months is the guideline rather than after 6 months.

We introduced food at 4-months for my first and 5 months for my second (she didn't seem ready until then). Both took to food well, had no difficulties and have no intolerances. Just as a word of warning though my second was a bottle refuser and even though we had introduced food I had to stay nearby until about 9 months to breastfeed during the day.

Who would even think to give jam to a less than 4 month baby?
Mind blown.

@SalviaOfficinalis haha I was waiting for that 🤣 tbf, I didn't moan about punctuation 😉
Honestly, I found it wild that some of the people spitting vitriolic spew couldn't string a sentence together and was still in my feelings ha!

Appreciate your advice though, we will continue with the cup for those hours, it's simply to add as a supplement and I wanted to understand if it would do any 'harm' - the remaining 90% of the week/rest of those days he'll be on the boob

@Creepymanonagoatfarm

Who would even think to trawl mum forums about 4 month old babies to contribute sweet FA, aside from a snarky little comment?
Mind blown.

@CrotchetyQuaver - thank you, that's helpful - think baby rice is a safe route to start with from the sounds of it

@MDevane86 thank you so much that's super helpful. Will have a quick look in there. Also sounds good on the puréed bits. Will crack the blender out!

Yep I didn't wean so much as start my babies on food around 4 months. Both were 10lbs plus or minus at birth and were ready. My daughter also never took a bottle. A breastfed her for a year but by then it was down to one feed a day. She used a sippy cup.
Banana was their first food and I made a lot of purées based on sweet potatoes.

@Floralnomad haha isn't it?!
Honestly I oscillate between neurotic reading, NCT group texts and libraries, to thinking I am being ridiculous and reminding myself how everyone I know that's my age (and older) had parents that had to 'wing it' and we generally survived unscathed lol.

Thank you!

My children's weaning encompasses most of the major changes in practice in recent times. My eldest was born in the late 90s and the guidance had fairly recently changed from "at 4 months" to "between 4 and 6 months" though I'd say that weaning at or before 4 months was still pretty common where I lived.I started with purees at 4 months. Then my next was born in 2003, the year the DoH adopted the WHO "6 months" guidance, though if I recall correctly that had been WHO policy for a couple of years. I started weaning with purees about a week before 6 months but was fairly unusual amongst the Mums I knew in weaning so "late" . My youngest was born in late 2005, so weaned in 2006 by which time, certainly in my social circles, weaning at or around 6 months was well established and BLW was gaining in popularity. I did BLW from 6 months.
I have no idea if their different weaning histories affected them in any way. There's nothing obvious, but a sample of 3 is statistically meaningless so even if my early weaner had health issues it would be impossible to say they were caused by exposure to purees at 4 months.
But from my perspective, weaning later, and BLW specifically, was just so much easier. Looking back at weaning my eldest I got myself, and her, so stressed over it. With hindsight the hours I spent preparing and trying to coax substances with the consistency of wallpaper paste into a clearly disinterested child, who could barely sit unaided and still had the tongue thrust reflex was ridiculous. But I didn't know any different (no internet in those days of course) and was doing what my HV told me to do. Obviously there are also other confounding factors, not least the fact that I was a more experienced and confident mother by the time I had my younger 2, but purees at 6 months seemed a lot easier and more natural than purees at 4 months, and BLW went more smoothly still.
I don't believe anything magic happens overnight as a baby turns 26 weeks old. There will be a range of readiness. There must be - there's a range of normal for everything else developmental so why would weaning readiness be something that happens to everyone on a specific date? That makes no sense. So some babies will be ready before 6 months and some might not be even by then. But in my admittedly limited and completely unscientific opinion, weaning a more developed baby is easier and seems more intuitive. I think being able to really sit up unaided for long periods and having a well developed pincer grip and developing hand eye coordination made weaning easier and a more effective and enjoyable experience for my younger children and me. I don't see any evidence of harm from early weaning in my eldest but it was a bloody awful experience for us both (and made absolutely zero difference to breastfeeding frequency, sleep etc) so for that reason alone, if I had to do it again I would wait til somewhere around 6 months unless medically advised to do something different.

@ODFOD2 I find it so misleading and so much stuff out there that's completely contradictory.

Thanks that's helpful - he's sitting up if in a high chair, head up and neck strong, but struggles to sit completely unaided. Wonder if that's enough? He's seemingly able to swallow ok, I've just been really cautious and doing very small amounts to test

@mydudero thank you, it's sad that people can't be kind or at least constructive. That being said there seems to be some lovely people in this thread (including you) ❤️
I've never heard of the vanilla - that's certainly worth a look. I did taste a couple of different formulas and they are not pleasant, so that might help sweeten the deal (pardon the pun 🤣)