Baby rice..porridge and other baby food! Help!

[sayrahlou]

My baby is 16 weeks and I'm just wondering if any other mothers started giving their babies baby rice,fruity baby porridge and other jarred goodies at this age? He is a big hungry baby and quite advanced for his age..he likes them but Im just nervous due to the government not advising weaning before 6months..but on the other hand it never did me any harm as a baby and I'm sure I was getting rice etc from a young age. Im not giving them for every meal but he seems more content after a good feed.

big hungry babies just need lots of milk. they don't need anything else until they're around 6 months old.

Okay doke..why does the boxes/jars say 4M+ then? Just curious!

they get away with it because the UK Dept of Health guideline used to be 4months. this then changed to 4-6months. then as maternity leave has extended, the DoH can support the World Health Organisation's guideline of exclusive milk feeding for 6months, which has been in place for about 10 years if not more.

The food companies are supposed to self police and adhere to a 6 month labelling, but they don't. especially as the DoH still states that you should wait til 6 months to wean and certainly no younger than 17wks. so their labels are saying this is ok from 17wks basically.

who are you going to trust? a company who's job is researching, protecting and advising on people's health ie the WHO, OR...a company who's job is to make as much profit as possible from selling baby food.. no brainer really.

okay thanks,first time mum so Im abit unsure and my health visitor etc keep giving me contradicting advise. Thanks tho,milk it is!