Who has breastfed exclusively for 6 months?

[Spod]

I was wondering, with the current advice being that breastfed babies should not start solids till 6 months....yet plenty of people tell me that they start weaning at 4 months. My HV told me yesterday that very few people manage to exclusively breastfeed. I am constantly being told that I should start my dd on solids now (reasons to include 'shes such a big baby' and 'she'll sleep longer at night' but i really want to wait till 6 months. What experiences have you all had... if you started at 6 months or earlier, what were you reasons, how did it go and what did you feed for the first few weeks?

Sorry elliot. I'll have another go. DS was started on solids at 4 months and would feed for an hour at a time during the night. DD was never one for long night feeds and around the 4-5 months fed far less and most of the time just needed a cuddle to go back to sleep. Just before starting her on solids she went from 10.00pm - 5am without waking or feeding.
I left her until 6 months not because of sleep at all and would still have left weaning until this time had she fed a lot during the night but because imo it is better for her health to wait until 6 months. There are a lot of allergies in our family and ds had excema when we started solids. Of course there are no quarantees but I dont want to take any chances.
Had she appeared dissatisfied during the day with milk then I would have started solids earlier but I think that it is normal for babies to wake a certain amount during the night as we all can do.
BUT everychild is different and you have to judge it on your child of who you know best.
So yes her sleeping habits changed ie she slept far more if that is improving.
I still cant see how a few teaspoonfuls of carrot puree will be more filling than milk.
The reason I am starting solids now is because of the iron otherwise she is quite content without them and I would have waited for longer.

fed exclusively for 6 months, solids made no/little difference to sleep with both girls.

sorry I reread your message and you did say once well established where I was refering to much less. But surely at 4-5 months there are only ahving first tastes anyway?

hercules, thanks for that. In my book anything that enables me to get more sleep counts as improvement
bundle, the thrust of my question wasn't really about whether solids made a difference to sleep (we've been round that before!) but I do remember various people reporting that their babies upped their feeding around 4/5 months and then settled down again - that's what I'm interested in at the moment!

Oh i see what you mean now elliot. No more feeding but less time iyswim.

Mine went strange at 4-5 months and settled down again about month 7 before solids were established. I don't think there is any relationship, just the solid feeding mums started to blame teeth instead!

well, since i started this threadi thought i should contribute again. my dd is a week under 6 months and i have been giving her tastes lately... shich she loves. today i gave her 4 teaspoons of rice pudding...she woofed it down. I have decoded to start a week earlier than planne dbecause she is clearly ready. she knows what to do with the spoon, the food, the whole lot! she grabs at my food all the time and she sang to us as we fed her her rice pudding! She has been waking more at night for the past 7 weeks or so, previusly she could sleep 7 hours without feeding, these days its around 3.5. I'll let you know wht solids do. Also, lately shes got so much quicker at feeding but also fussier... and some days not feeding well at all... so solids is the right thing to do.... will let you know if it has any impact on her sleep!

Regarding sleeping habits: I thought I was so lucky that my daughter slept through the night right away, I had to wake her up for a night feeding when she was first born. I let her sleep through the night at 6 weeks old. Of course now she does not sleep through the night, she nurses off and on all night long. She has a co-sleeping bed right next to me and just crawls over to me and finds my boob (i wear a loose tank top) She has been doing this since she was about 4.5 months old and I dont see any end to it either. She screams bloody murmur and wakes herself up completely if I try to let her cry it out. I try also to feed her solids before bed and it doesnt make a difference, maybe a little if any. Im hoping she will start to grow out of it and that this is only separation anxiety running it's course...Dare to dream

Quick question for people who weaned at 6 months. I envisaged dd opening her mouth and easily taking the foodbut she shows no interest at all and wht she takes is by chance rather than her taking it iyswim. Should i persevere or leave it for a week or so?

Leave it a week. My dd had no problem at all eating from the spoon.

thanks mearrs. She is satisfied with bm at the moment and shows no igns of wanting solids, i just thought omg 6 months!
I will give her a week and try again. Hooray - no more mashing for a few days.

My frined did not start solids till 8 months and her DS looked like a sumo wrestler!

This is a great thread. Looks like lots of people have managed the 6 month thing -- but why are health professionals so negative about it?

I can see that there may be a case for not overemphasising the need for 6 month exclusive feeding in case less-enthusiastic feeders decide to throw in the towel straight away, but when I said to my HV 'Oh, aren't you supposed to wait till 6 months for weaning now' she went off on a long thing about how unrealistic it was to expect that, what a tall order, blah, blah etc. which I thought was positively DIScouraging.

As I said on the slow weight-gain thread, we need a collection of inspiring stories like the ones here so we could wave it under HV's noses. Not that I'd take any notice of what they say anyway, but other people probably aren't as stroppy as me, and might be put off by such a discouraging attitude from their HV.

Mears - The only thing that concerns me is the iron. How long is okay?

hercules - I started dd at 6 months, and she was rubbish with the spoon to start with, but really quickly got the hang of it. You could leave it a week, or you could try feeding her some off your finger to bridge the gap between breast and spoon.

That makes a lot of sense musica- i'll give it a week then do that.

Mine didnt take to the spoon very quick either but she did the finger too. Most of what was on the spoon would end up spit back out her mouth. She still only takes a small jar of food and usually doesnt finish that all the way but close. She receives the spoon well now opening her mouth like a little bird when she see it coming. She has to be hungry though or she isnt interested. 7.5 months old.

having said here yesterday that i started dd on solids a week before 6 months... i tried to give her another small meal today and after 2 mouthfuls wasnt interested! so we're not exactly 'on solids' after all!!! but she does love her high chair.... oh they keep you on your toes... so at least maybe I'll get to the 6 months as i wanted.

I made the mistake of getting a very nice CLOTH highchair! It is a total mess! You couldnt tell that it was cloth material by the box picture and to my suprise it was not the kind of cloth you can just wipe off. ARGG! Many trips to the wash. I am getting ready to give her her own special little spoon for learning to feed themselves. I cant wait to see the mess she makes. The spoons have a little stopper on them so they dont stick them down their throats. Pretty neat! I had never seen them before a friend gave one to me.

Have any of you Mums tried this bottle out? Copy and paste this link.

www.adiri.com/p7.htm

Its a nurser bottle specially designed for nursing babies that dont want to wean to bottle. I want to get one but i'm afraid that it wont work and they are quite expensive. Just curious if anyone has tried them so I could do a little research. Mine takes the bottle a little tiny bit now, about 2-3 oz, sometimes less. I would like to try something closer to the shape of a breast and this seems like a good thing. If any of you have the time to take a look, I would like the imput. Thank you

TBH I think you'd be fine for another couple of months regarding the iron thing (too much emphasis on it IMO)

What does everyone think about fluoride drops? My doctor gave us a prescription for fluoride drops to give our daughter once per day when she was 6 months old. She is almost 8 months and I have not given it to her. I just dont know if its necessary. I guess its just standard for babies who are not given tap water because bottled water does not include fluoride like tap water does in most cities. Was curious of the importance or necessity.

my dd is starting to look even more interested in food.
I was eating an apple yesterday and she mimiced my action of putting a piece in her mouth.
And my water bottle LOL so cute
When we are in the bath together she wants it and trys to put in her mouth (bit big)
did give her a wee squirt full the other day... now she is addicted.
So some of us are introducing solids soon... but what about other fluids?

I'd never give my baby fluoride drops. Fluoride is a poison. And my ds didn't even have teeth until he was over one.

I too would not give fluoride drops to a baby. I religiously gave DS1 his recommended dose only to find them change it a couple of years later because of fluoridosis (brown mottled teeth due to too much fluoride). Too late for him though, the damage was done. I looked into fluoride a lot when they were threatening to put it in the main water supply (still are) and it really is a poison. Can cause a number of illnesses. Doesn't prevent teeth getting decayed - just delays it. Cleaning teeth properly is the only way to protect them.