weening before 6 months

[charleyb]

MY DS is 18 weeks and a real hungry horrace, he is at the top percentile for both wieght and height and has to be given milk at least 7 times a day/night. Has anyone started weening before the sacred 6 month rule? and has it had a positive effect on the number of feeds and sleep patterns?
Im confused with the differing advice that i read

I still BF 14mo 7 times a day/night. That's normal for an 18week old.

Just give him more milk if he needs it.

No, it will not impact on his sleep patterns, although many people will try to tell you that it does. Although weaning did upset my DS's digestion when we did it at around 6mo, so we got a few sleepless nights and the return of the night poo .

LOL - The dreaded night poo !! now thats something i can live without for a while yet

DD is 2 and we sometimes get a turd at night!

Meant to say, once you start having to give them solids, if you are anything like me and my group of friends, you will miss the easy days of just being able to feed them milk.

I would put it off as long as you can! (Looks ruefully at the marks on the carpet where DS has lobbed his food beyond the reach of the splatter mat)

I started giving my dd farley's biscuits squashed with baby milk in the evenings, very little to get used to it.

She used to sleep through from 5 weeks anyway because she was on formula. (Tongue tie, detected too late then wouldn't take the nipple.) Haven't looked back though and will do it again with my next.

weaning at 4 months + 1 week

I would avoid farleys rusks as a first weaning food as they are very sugary and most contain gluten (even the reduced sugar ones are 20% sugar).

To the OP - How much is he taking at each feed? Would he take more in each bottle?

10 years ago it was normal for children to be weened from 4 months / 16 weeks

in the original copies of gina fords contented baby she writes if child is over X age (< 16 weeks) and over X weight then you might want to wean them then

the advice has changed for variouse reasons, but i think most of the fit healthy 10 year olds you see running around the primary school playground were weaned around 16 weeks and have clearly lived to tell the tale!!!

just to add that if i was giving non milk to a child under 6months old i would NOT be giving dairy or protein...

simply baby rice and maybe a bit of purees carrot / pear / butternut squash etc, allowing several days between introduction of new things (and by the time they have tried a small number of fruit / veg they will have arrived at the magic 6months mark!)

7 times a day/night is normal for a small baby (by small i mean young)

weaning had NO effect on my 3 at all with regard to sleep or milk intake.

the way I see it is that there are possible very negative side effects from weaning early. of course there are people who argue that there aren't,.. but the WHO advice is based on scientific studies.
there is NO benefit in weaning early.
so why risk it:?

Yes, because anecdote is so much more reliable than scientific studies...

OP - have you heard about baby-led weaning? We've had great fun introducing DS to foods that way, and you get to find out about their personality and preferences so well.