Really want to hold off solids till 6 months

[dinny]

if I can. but ds (4 months) is VERY interested in food/grabbing our food. want to excl bf him and start solids at 6 months. how do I make sure he's getting enough to eat? he's 18 weeks, 19 lbs and feeds every 2-3 hours day and night (we're all v happy thus far too). thanks for any advice.

It's nothing to do with appetite at that age. Solids are really not recommended at all before 4 months.

well she is a hungry baba though (she is now 15 weeks old) so not long to go now

Alex was ready at 8 weeks for solids, he hardly had any gagging reflex and was staring at us eating our food, he had the odd bit of fruit/veg puree every now and then till 4 months when he couldnt wait to get tucking in to rusks/biscuits/anything else that tasted nice! We have no allergies in our family, if we had, i wouldnt of done it so early, he also started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks. he is now 10 months and at the average centile for weight/height and still loves his food!

one of the mumsnetter's baba when was 11 weeks old he started on the solids coz he was permantly hungry.

Blimey

some really useful posts here. ds so interested in family meal times, but then he's interested in everything. just been giving him spoon to play with etc. think the comment that cavepeople would have waited for signs babies were ready for solids (sitting up/no gag relex) is excellent. also love the thought of just giving ds tastes of "normal" food instead of blooming baby rice. thanks, everyone

Welliemum, I don't know what I'm saying. Often I feel very inadequate & guilty for not getting to 6 months (mind, not as inadequate as I do when I see how keen my babies are on solids once they start, I worry they don't get enough milk.) The rest of the time I'm just plain confused.

SamN - have just seen your post (don't tend to be around at the weekend) - quinoa seems unpopular with lots of babies, maybe I was lucky that my dd took to it. I didn't try it till 7 months, and always sweetened it with banana / apricot / prune. I found the Suzanne Olivier book fab. Sorry folks ... slight quinoa ramble there!

Very interesting posts - I felt under huge pressure to wean dd before 6 months (guidelines then were 4-6 months), but really glad I held out. Plan to do the same for next baby due in March, and won't feel guilty this time round.

thought i might as well add my piece. with my 3rd child - 6 in a fortnight - i took him to see gp when he was exactly 12 wks as he had dropped off his centile and i could not get him to take any milk. she told me to start him on baby rice. it now turns out he had silent reflux - starting the rice did not help in fact when i look back i think i was forcefeeding him it . it did not stop his weight dropping of the centile and he got very constipated. it wasn't until he was about 7 or 8 months that he would eat it "properly". my 15 1/2 week old will not even be looking at baby rice until he's at least 21!

sorry - when i took him to get weighed a fortnight ago there was a mum with a baby who's 2 weeks younger then him so was about 11 weeks old being given advice on what foods to try first and being told that when they start chewing on their fists its one of the first signs - according to this theory i should have started my baby on rice at about 8 weeks old.

There seems such pressure to bring babies on to the next stage rather than enjoying where they are. My understanding is that babies digestive systems are too immature and don't produce amylase the enzyme that breaks down starch until at least 4 months of age - hence the 4 month guideline.

In the mother & baby group I go to we were told that formula fed babies may need to be weaned from 16 weeks - but not necessarily. As breastmilk changes in its composition then bf babes won't need to be weaned until 6 months but that food will need to be introduced from then as iron stores will be getting depleted.

Although my dd is 15 weeks and 15lbs often leaves some of her feeds and sleeps through the night - I have thought about weaning her as this seems to be the trend - most of the mums I know have weaned from 16 weeks if not slightly earlier.

However, advised by my hv that can wean from 16 weeks but if you can hang fire the nearer to 26 weeks the better and if the babe is putting on weight even if it slows, is sleeping and doesn't seem desperate to start scoffing then chill out and enjoy unsplattered wallpaper - it will soon come around!

Just had ds weighed today, he is 18lb (19 weeks) and HV said she was surprised he hadn't had solids yet as he is a big boy. But he is happy (always has fed at night so night waking doesn't bother me). I am doing the right thing by holding off, aren't I? He is so happy and lively...

yes, see you there at 1pm? or shall we meet in that coffee place first maybe....? forgotten its name...

see you in Therapy at 1pm then.

hotmama, at last - someone with a scientific explanation as to why we wait!

I started to give DS a few teaspoons of rice a couple of weeks ago; it made no difference to how he sleeps (he's only up for 1 or 2 feeds anyway) or how often he feeds during the day. Like Dinny, I think I'm going to wait until 24 weeks.

Zebra, For a confused person you sound amazingly together!

Some days it seems to me that parenthood means being in a permanent state of worry about doing the right thing. I think it's so important not to beat ourselves up into a frenzy of guilt about our decisions. (That's what health visitors and clinic nurses are for )

My take on weaning is that there's reasonable evidence that holding off weaning til 6 months has advantages for baby. But it's very much population based advice, as opposed to individual advice, so an individual baby might be better off weaning slightly before or slightly after the 6 month landmark.

That's where parental judgement comes in - and after all we know our babies better than anyone else.

I think guidelines are great, but not if applied rigidly in an if-you-do-it-differently-you-are-a-BAD-MOTHER sort of way. There just can't be 1 single right way to wean a baby.

Hmm, ranting again.....

I have started giving DD2 a couple of spoons of food at 20 weeks. (About a teaspoon twice a day now).
With DD1 I felt so confused by advice versus the signals she was giving me, I ended up feeling extremely guilty whatever I did. With DD2 I decided from the start that I would take my cue from her, it has made for one contented baby (and mum!). She enjoys socialising very, very much, so giving her just that little bit of food has made her very happy....she loves joining in meal times, and now knows what all the fuss is about! For weeks and weeks she has imitated us eating - raising her hands to mouth, as if placing food there, then chewing her tongue (in place of food)and swallowing (not her tongue, TG!). Babies are individuals and to bunch them all into one set of recommendations (or rules seems more accurate) strikes me as totally ridiculous. Guidelines should be just that, we tend to pick and choose guidelines regarding most other aspects of life so I really feel our babies should be presented with the same choices, as individuals and that we as mums are not made to feel guilty or pressurised regarding what we (we are the parents after all) feel is right.

It's been mentioned before but a book I am finding REALLY helpful is "What Should I Feed my Baby - the complete nutrition guide from birth to two years" by Suzannah Oliver. Covers scientific stuff, menus and recipes etc. Given to me as a Xmas pressie from my SIL - clever girl!