TIKTOK....your thoughts on weaning at 16 weeks please :)

[princessmel]

I posted this in the 'weaning' topic but have been advised to post it here too.... I thought guidelines were 6 months these days. I mentioned this and possible damage to his gut and she said 'we'll talk about that in 2 weeks' (she was busy and that's when I'm seeing her next)

She said he could start at 17 weeks...with baby rice. Which I thought had less calories in than breast milk anyway. I said I wasn't keen.
She said if he drops down on the chart any more then we'll review it again. He was born between the 91st and 75th centile and is around the 25th now. I thought this was normal with bf babies too. He is 14 lb 21/2oz. He put on 7 oz in the last 2 weeks. Btw he had a chest infection a few weeks ago with Ab's.

I told her he feeds 2 hourly normally.

She said 'has he ever slept through the night?' . I told her he has (in the past) gone from 8/9pm ish to 4/5am ish a few times but is waking at 2/3 ish more recently. But I also said I expect to be woken for feeds, he is a baby after all!!

She also asked 'is he looking at you when you eat?' and I said he is, but tbh he looks at me whatever I do.

So what do you think? I wasn't planning on doing food till 6 months and then giving blw a go..with a bit of mush thown in.

tia

I'm not tiktok but I do know this is a common time for a growth spurt(hence so many wean at this age) and the correct advice is to carry on breastfeeding. Also looking at you eating is not a sign of weaning. HAve you looked at kellymoms site?

am not tiktok (obviously!!) but these are my thoughts:

recommended weaning age is around 26 weeks. although you can in theory give solids starting at 17 weeks, not before, but that is not usually necessary.

he is gaining weight, albeit a bit less than he has been , but prob due to illness and breastfeeding babies plateau with weight gain i believe

the signs of being physically ready for anything other than milk include:

sitting unaided with good strong head control

loss of the tongue thrust reflex

being able to pick up, chew and swallow a piece of food

that would start to indiacte the gut was mature enough to deal with something other than milk

a 16 week old feeding 2 hourly or so , wh ois happy and settled between feeds and is just going through the traditional 16 week growth spurt needs more milk and nothing else

looking at you when you eat is a red hering

he'll look at you driving, washing up, painting your nails, does not mean he could or should do those things!

from what you have posted, i can see no reason for early weaning and if it was going to be done this early, i would expect it to be done under more supervision and medical advice than this

Yes mums on my postnatal thread have mentioned the 4 month growth spurt...

I'll check Kellymom.

My friend said today 'all babies are different, you can't not feed him if he needs it, it can't hurt' But I thought actually it could...

ds1 and dd are asthmatic too.

IMO if you are convinced he's happy and thriving, which it sounds like he is, just say "I'm going to see how it goes for a month". Repeat after that month. Then he'll be about 25ish weeks
14lb at 17 weeks sounds pretty good, my 21 week old is just under 16lb and is a chubby little thing.

agree with lulumama and stealth - if he is happy, weeing, pooing then he's probably fine. my DS is 19 weeks and 16lb and is a chunky monkey - he slipped down to 50th from 75th but has just had a feeding frenzy of a growth spurt and is back up there. he also started waking up more frequently at night - at one point, about a week ago, he was waking up every 1.5/2 hours at night and feeding all day . i was starving too. now i have masses of milk though and it has settled down again to 2/3 hour in theday and 4 at night.

why are some hvs obsessed with effing babyrice?

Hi princess! My DS feeds every two hours and during his spurt one boob was not enough. In fact it felt like he drained me dry (not possible I know but it felt like it!) a few times! DS also sleeps on me for naps too....!
I tend to have a massive bowl of porridge in the morning which keeps me going if I have a late lunch. I did read somewhere that oatmeal can aid milk production but don't quote me on it!

I'd say forget the baby rice-you'll just fill your DS's belly with less calories and it's not worth the risk!

igglybuff - i felt the same - come lunchtime and it felt like he'd drunk it all! i had to triple side it at one point! a few days and some fennel and nettle tea later and there is enough to match his appetite!

The way my (lovely) health visitor put it is this:

6 months is what we know is the best for your baby. But there's a real problem convincing people to do it... so the NHS does give advice on earlier weaning, just to make sure people don't give foods which would be really bad for an early weaner - and the 17 week date is the one they say really not to go before.

Thanks everyone who is not Tiktok

Will post back in morning, ds2 is in bed and I need to sleep when he does.

Ruby - yes I drank a fair bit of fennel tea which I think helps...

IIf baby happy don't worry mine wasn't and was not getting enough from me moved to bottles for 3 feeds a day and was taking enough for a 6 month old and still not enough
to keep him happy so started him on organic baby rice and now very contented. Still has huge milk feeds (me Or 8oz bottles)with rice and very happy DS. Had lost reflux action but can't sit up or feed himself though