weaning. confusing for first timers?!?

[cazboldy]

Hi. Have just been to clinic with my youngest DS. He is my fourth baby, the others being 9, 6, and 5. When DS 1 was weaned they said at around 4 months......now apparantly they say 6 months.......Now i personally don't generalise but go for when I think that they are ready. I got told off by the HV ( who incidentally has no children!) , because he is only having 2 meals a day. He is 18 lbs 5 oz and is a lovely happy contented baby so I didn't really worry 2 much but having gotten home, am just thinking that it must be really confusing for some first time mums who get told not to wean until 6 months, but then attend clinic and get told that their babies should be eating 3 meals straight away! sorry if this is long!

Well i weaned dd at just after 4 months because she started waking in the night & was not satisfied with just milk, she is now 6 months & she does not have 3 meals a day, she only likes milk in the mornings, & likes something at lunch & then dinner but my HV came on monday & she has asked me to introduce a snack for dd mid morning.

It is very confusing & to be quite honest i am a 2nd time mum but dont feel i was told anything when ds waas born so feel i completely failed him but because of mn & a nice hv now i seem to know more about what i am doing with dd.

How old is your baby now.
That is a load of old rubbish. Two meals a day is plenty - I assume he's getting lots of milk. From what I read, babies can go way beyod six months with no solids at all and be completely healthy.

I think if your baby is happy, healthy and getting bigger then you're doing it right

I was actually told very similar by my hv. I took ds2 to be weighed at 25 weeks just before I weaned him.

hv: excellent eight gain. What is he eating.
me: Nothing. He's not 6 months yet.
hv: Well you do realise that if you leave weaning until 6 months, he needs to be on two meals a day within a week. He needs the calories.

So she thought he would whither away to nothing in a week. It's insane. I don't go to clinic anymore.

There's some info here kellymom

he is 6 months, and is doing fine. my 2nd DS was eight months before he ate anything even though he was always offered something every day. Am not personally worried, but just wanted to make the point that hv routinely give out conflicting information!

Your HV is talking crap (said with the greatest respect from another HV). The new guidelines suggest that 6 months is the advisable age for weaning. If your baby is happy, healthy and content with what he's doing then carry on with it. He'll let you know when he's ready for an increase.
I agree - far too confusing for us first timers. My DS is 3 now but I had no end of "advice" from everybody (including my own HV) to wean at 13 weeks because he was "a big baby". Took superhuman effort to resist.