Introducing solids at 4 months?

[Psammead]

I am aware that the current advice in the UK is 6 months, but I wonder what people's opinions are about weaning a baby at 4 months.

My DD is 4 months today and weighs 14lb 8oz (6600g). She was 8lb 1kg (3650g) at birth and is on the 75% for weight and length. She's a super strong baby, can roll over, has been able to hold head steady for a long time and the paediatrician always remarks at how her musculature is remarkably 'advanced'. Sorry, I am not showing off or anything - it's just true.

The last 2 weeks, give or take, she's been needing top up feeds in the day time and at a party yesterday tried to stuff a cheese roll that I was holding into her mouth! She's fascinated by food and by people eating.

All my instincts say to try her on solids and see how it goes. And my approach to parenting is really to listen to my instincts and observe my baby's behaviour rather than to follow general advice to the letter, as I can't see how it can apply to all babies as they are all so different.

Anyway - I am interested in your opinions as some people I have mentioned it to have been horrified at the thought of weaning so early.

I was in the same boat as OP just under 2 weeks ago. DS (who is now 19 weeks) was grouchy and I tried everything. He is bf, but would drink over 9 onz of EBM. It was wearing me down, trying to keep up with his demands!! hes a big boy (17 lb), was so interested in food and gone from good sleeper to bad one.

I decided to try weaning, if he didn't show interest I would wait. Well, he eats and eats and eats!
I went with my instinct and my baby (remember babies dont read books about what they should do at what age!)

Just to be contraversal , I was weaned at 8 weeks and have no food allergies and a cast iron stomach!
Surely some allergies are genetic and cant be avoided regardless of when weaned?

Why do you want to give her solids? If she's on the 75th centile then clearly breastmilk is enough for her.

DD was also strong and 75th centile, weaned at 26 weeks. It was a bloody pain in the arse and I'll leave it later next time if I can.

OP-this is an age old, guaranteed bun fight sort of topic, but here's my tuppence.

dita has made an excellent and very practical point. Introducing solids is a major PAIN IN THE ASS. You will go from feeding on demand anywhere you like, with no/little preparation required, to cooking, cleaning, buying, preparing, storing....such a drag! I am always amazed as to why on earth anoyone would be in a rush to do all that, but then maybe I am plain lazy.

I also think that the idea that baby is ready because they show interest in food is a bit of a red herring-what on earth does it mean? Don't babies show interest in everything you do?

I weaned ds, nearly 10 years ago, at 12 weeks, and he's still here and healthy!!!
All these new guidelines, are just that, GUIDELINES! They're not set in stone!
If YOU feel your dd is ready for weaning, and going by your op, it sounds as if she is, then you should maybe try her out with some baby rice to start (you get flavoured rice), then as she takes more, start blending what your having at meal times, and try her out with 'real food'.
Every baby is different, and some are more advanced for their age than others. My ds was one of them, and if I had followed all the baby books and HV's advice, he would have starved!!!

In the old days, before all the guidlines and focus groups and health advisors got involved, mums used to be trusted to use their own judgement. If you think your baby might be ready to try solids, its YOUR baby, give it a go!!

I have 3 boys aged 14, 10 and 7 and for every one, the advice had changed. Wean at 3 months, then 4 months, then 6 months!.....Well the 14 year old was weaned at just short of 3 months!! (I know...put me up against the wall and shoot me!!) and I know its not any proof or anything, but he is a fine, strapping lad with no allergies or illnesses or anything.

Going back to previous generations, babies had baby rice put in their bottles and the holes made bigger so they could suck the sludge out!! and my own DH was not breastfed, or even brought up on formula, but was fed exclusively on watered down CARNATION MILK!!!!! can you believe it!!!...until, of course, he was about 6 weeks old and his mum started him on minced up meat and two veg! Whilst I in no way condone this, he is not dead, and is in fact quite healthy, so I think we all worry too much these days and should really all TRUST OUR INSTINCTS and not get too hung up on what is after all just advice

Interestingly, mothers have never been trusted to use their instincts. If you read Christina Hardyment's Dream Babies, you'll see advice on childbearing and child rearing goes back at least as long as we have had power structures and communications in writing.

ishouldgotobed, you detail such poor practice as mince and veg at 6 weeks and your only criteria for judging this is that the adult has survived and is 'quite healthy' and use this as a basis for telling someone to ignore advice....doesn't make sense!

These days, official advice is a least based on a system of gathering research, assessing evidence, getting in expert commentary, and finally making a judgement based on all of this. Why would we go back to a system of 'trust your insticts' when 'instincts' led to the really very poor nutritional practice you describe? Of course, it wouldn't be instincts - it would be someone else 'advising' this was what the baby needed, anyway.

There are some arguments for discussing whether 6 mths should be fixed in stone for every individual baby. But as a routine guidance and a public health policy, it is just fine

My understanding was that some conditions, such as IBS and Crohn's disease, didn't show up until your 20s or later anyway, so you can't say that an 8, 10 or 12 yr old is "fine". Happy to be corrected.

I know enough adults with IBS not to bother taking the risk, personally.

In 'the old days' many, if not most, babies didn't live long enough to be weaned. Look up infant mortality

I dont get the whole baby gagging for food. Babies have no concept that "food" will fill them up so how can they desire it in order to fill them up?

Not to mention the difference in calories between breastmilk and pureed carrot...

I wouldn't do it if the tongue thrust is present.

I am on an thread on another internet forum for mums of babies born the same month as mine. As my boy was born at the end of the month, he is one of the youngest. I was the last to wean a week ago (at 23 weeks, 5 days on medical advice), with the majority starting at 17 weeks.

When we started, ds could pick up and self-feed a variety of finger foods - sticks of mango, carrot, pineapple; broccoli and cauliflower florets, wedges of avocado, sweet potato and butternut squash. He can also self-feed stage 1 foods from a spoon. Within three days we had evidence (from the nappy!) that he was digesting all these foods - and he is still drinking as much milk.

The babies of the other mums who started at 17 weeks are still not eating finger foods and all are still on stage 1 foods.

Swings and roundabouts.

If you do wean at 17 weeks you'll just feed your baby mush for ages and ages and then find yourself in the same position as me in a few weeks, so why bother? It doesn't impact on their weight or development and the calories are so minimal for most stage 1 foods that they will drink as much milk. It's a load of faff for nothing.

As ds was ready, it's been great fun and I'm really proud of him picking up a spoon and self-feeding. It's a messy old business but it's brilliant entertainment and he's learning valuable skills from managing his food himself. I think lots of babies who are spoonfed could feed themselves too but it's harder for parents to trust that they can having fed them when they were so utterly dependent.

I have just started my ds at 17 weeks as he was miserable and unhappy.

He is now much happier, we are taking it fairly slowly and it seems to be going well.

Also since I introduced a second meal a day two days ago he has slept through having been bf every 2 -3 hours for the previous few weeks, maybe coiincidence of course but I think he needed extra.

My other 2 were also miserable at 4 months and I did them at this stage too, all three seem ready and the first two are certainly healthy eaters not too fussy and healthy children. I think that every child is different and you should be guided by your own child.

HI, ds was weaned by 17 weeks and i got advice from my doctor as at 15 weeksi was ready to give up bf cos i couldnt satisfy him....even after a full feed he was hungry.....it was awful. He is now 23.5 weeks and loves his food....he has a mixture of mashed and finger food.... and its working really really well. he was 23lb at 21 weeks so i think it is safe to say he is a big boy. doctor just asked about allergies in the family etc to check that. try it and see !!!!!!!!!

oh and i managed to continue some bf with some ff but a little bf is better than none!!!

Personally I wouldn't bother.

Weaning is such a pain in the bum.

I know lots of people who say their baby needed it/wouldn' have held out etc but my DD was born on the 98th centile and breastfed all the time from birth and she 'held out' til 6 months.

But what I think a lot of my friends who weaned early for were looking for is a way to get them sleeping through, and I genuinely don't believe weaning would have made any difference on that front (not that I would have done it for that reaosn anyway).

It didnt make a difference on ds sleeping through as he slept well anyway.....but it certainly has made him happier during the day!!!! I have and am loving it, its a bit messy at times but a lot less messy than when ds was throwing up milk everywhere!!!

I presume that you have x ray eyes so you can see whether your baby's gut is developed enough to manage non-milk food without risk of future gastric problems. Because you wouldn't be going against WHO advice if you hadn't, would you.

mmmmm

DD turned 5 months last week, not sure what that is in weeks and am to lazy to figure it out!
She can accurately reach out and grab things ie, the spoon and put it to her mouth. She also doesnt do the tongue thrust thing. But she doesnt sit up so well. But I started her on a bit of baby rice last week as her feeds had increased and had started waking in night again. Have been giving her mushed up banana and apples and carrots etc. Wont do the "proper" stuff for another month.
Did BLW with DS and we both really enjoyed it.

Oh, and incidentally, the friends who did it to make the baby sleep through didn't achieve that anyway.

The WHO advice is problematic, no? As it is designed to prevent early weaning from the breast? The ESPHGAN paper says there is not enough evidence to say that weaning between 4-6 months is as problematic as it is sometimes made out here.

My issue with people being prescriptive about six months is that we know that development is individual in just about each and every way. You don't ship your child off to physio if they sit at 6 months or don't crawl at 8 months, or your child to SALT if they don't have a first true word by 14 months.

A non-sitting child at 6 months is arguably developmentally less ready for solids than a sitting one at 5 months. If the child is sitting up well, has no tongue thrust and can pick up a piece of food and bring it to their mouth and chew/gnaw on it, they are ready for solids.

My boy is weaning 'early' (again, under medical advice due to cessation of weight gain from milk feeds) and our approach is baby-led.. so if he weren't ready for it, he wouldn't be doing it. Yet within three days of starting, there was evidence that he was digesting his food and he was taking as many milk feeds as before.

The one-size-fits-all approach to weaning is a bit silly. The day they turn six months doesn't equate to a magic developmental wand of readiness!

I have started solids when my LO was around 6th month. As its the right time to starts the solids. Your baby has to be ready for the solids if you are starting at 4th month. Until then breast milk or formula which provides all the calories and nourishment to your baby needs and can handle.

So its better to wait until your baby is around six months to introduce the solids food can help to protect his health. It can reduce the chances that your baby will pick up an infection from food because at six months his immune system is stronger. Most of the young babies will push food out of their mouth as it is called as tongue thrust reflex. So their your baby may lose tongue thrust reflex if you start solids at 4 months.

I had read an information online regarding the baby food chart. In that it has given what we can give food at different stages. Here is source of that www.momjunction.com/articles/essential-tips-to-follow-for-your-babys-food-chart_0080607/

This baby is 5 now so I'm guessing they're weaned!

I don't really want to encourage the resurrection of a zombie thread...but that linked article is awful! So badly written, and full of completely wrong and unnecessary advice. I wouldn't recommend that article to anyone!