starting on solids

[Samuelkane]

My baby is 10 weeks old and I have started to offer solids for one meal a day he is having baby rice just one teaspoon with dinner time bottle. He was a big baby born 9lb 15 oz. I am getting such mixed advice and am worrying I am doing this two early and it will harm him. Any advice would be grately recieved.

We now live just outside Zurich but originally from UK. DS was born in UK and dd in Switzerland. Fennel tea is readily available in supermarkets here even Milupa make one for babies but they add sugar!! The hospital give it to newborns to try and pacify them so I can't believe it is unsafe but I'm sure your HV would be able to advise, however I suspect it may need to be more dilute than normal. Personally I can't stand the stuff!

Incidently fennel itself is deemed as a suitable weaning food from 4 months, they don't bother with baby rice here just straight onto carrot and potato etc.

Might be worth a try.

One thing I do know about fennel is that it's really diuretic (it's recommended against bloating and cellulite) and I don't think that dd needs any help in that direction!

Switzerland seems a very beautiful place. My dream would be to move to a remote Scottish island, but dh says he won't get a game of cricket! It's very interesting to hear about what other countries do in relation to childcare, I think we start our children at school far too early in the U.K.

Sorry, getting miles off the subject!

Thinking about it, fennel is closely related to dill which is a prime constituent of gripe water, so it should be okay.