Weaning, do you wait until 6 months?

[Janus]

I'm breastfeeding my 4 month old dd3 and she's thriving and 3 weeks ago weighed 14.6lb. I'm imagining she's now hit 15lb (weighing her tomorrow!). She used to sleep quite well, wake about every 4 hours for a feed and sleep in the day. However, during the past few weeks she is waking so much more (sometimes 4 or 5 times in the night) and doesn't sleep for more than 45 mins in the day.
My other children are slightly older at 5 and 8 and the advice when they were young was to wean at 4 months, which I did with no allergies, etc.
I think my dd3 is ready for food, she looks at me when I eat and the sleeping (to me) also indicates she's ready. BUT she has slight excema (as I did as a child and as her sister, aged 5, has slightly too). So, should I start solids? I would go very slowly, baby rice for about a week, then introduce a fruit for 3-5 days, then a vegetable, etc.
My gut instinct is to start but I know the advice now is 6 months, just would really like to know what you are all doing???

Im no expert by my ds is nearly 21 weeks so heading towards 5 months and last week i started giving him some baby rice. like you i have a dd who is 5 but she had slight asthma as a baby, no sign of it now and we have a history of exema in the family so i was cautious with her. DS is enjoying a taste of baby rice, he still isnt a geat sleeper and prefers to breast feed than anthing thing else but the baby rice provides a play time when he can cover himself in it! I have read the new guidelines and they make sense but all babies are individuals and parents are the same so i am just going with the flow. I figure that the world is big brother guided enough, ds is interested in food, tries to steal mine at every opportunity, is sitting up well in his high chair and has developed some pincer grip.
Going with all that ill aviod anything other than home made fruit and veg purees till he is 6 months and introduce food slowly and making it fun....

The advice now is to wait until 6 months. This is partly because of allergies, but also because some babies guts are not developed enough to absorb food properly until this age. There is no way of telling whether any one baby has a properly developed gut or not by looking. The best food for babies up to 6 months is milk. If they are hungry - more milk. Looking at you while you eat is not a real indicator of readiness - babies watch you while you drive the car - it doesn't mean they are ready to have a go.
Probably for the vast majority of babies weaning early causes no harm at all - but for a few it will. Why risk it for the sake of a few weeks?

Janus, there is prob not much risk for most babies in starting solids post-four months - but the vast majority of babies do not need them at that stage, so honestly, why bother?

The sigsn you're describing - looking at food, waking up more at night - are not signs of wanting food, but signs of being four months old

It's a lot easier to wait a bit longer as babies are more capable then of feeding themselves by holding, sucking, licking and so on.

You might get more experiences and discussions over on the weaning board.

Janus - my DD did this at 4m - fully bf, previously went with 1 night waking. Then 6-8 wakings. I stuck with it, she is now 25.5 weeks and wakes only twice. I haven't started solids yet, I don't think it's that.

She also loves watching me and DS eat etc and will grab things, but I haven't let her eat anything yet.