weaning... are you all waiting till 6 months ?

[Rosie2011]

just need some advice really... little one is now 4 months bottle fed. Just wondering if everyone waited till 6 months? also what are the signs that u should move onto weaning and also whats best for first foods and how often? any help would be appreciated xx

I waited until around 6 months each time, for the signs of readiness so not waiting for the day they turned 6 months each time, then did BLW. That's what I plan on doing with this one as well.

With DD1 about 24 weeks, faffed about with purées and bizarre weaning recipes, cut anything she was to have into teeny tiny bits and avoided anything she might choke on. She still isn't a fruit fan because of it.

With DD2, when her tongue reflex went at about 28 weeks. Threw whatever we were having at her, she's chomped on anything and everything and it's all been a lot less stressful, despite yoghurt pots being hurled on occasion! She is only 13 months though.

I waited with both until 6 months - ds1 bottlefed and ds2 breastfed. I think ds2 might have grabbed a little bit of icecream at 5.5 months. I did BLW with ds2. Although I didn't so formally with DS1, I certainly gave him food he could feed himself, and don't remember giving him puree regularly.

I don't see the point in baby rice, except for the baby food companies who make money selling it.

I did buy some prepared baby food sachets for a while and then looked at them - I was trying to give them things that weren't so easy to do anyway, but realised the mixtures of ingredients were overwhelmingly pear or banana with only a tiny bit of vegetable, and I couldn't see the point in buying a puree of something which doesn't need pureeing.

How do you know they've lost their tongue thrust reflex before giving them food?

We're coming up to the 6 month mark soon, so starting to think about weaning now. I went to a weaning talk run by a health worker recently; when I went home I was flicking through the healthystart booklet she'd given us all and a lot of the advice she had given conflicted with the advice in the booklet . I'm now even more confused than I was before the talk!

Anecdotally, my siblings and I were all weaned at 3 months and are fine, afaik. My dh was weaned at around 2 weeks (on bread soaked in raw cow's milk! wtf was mil thinking?!) and gets tummy troubles from most foods though luckily no actual allergies.

I have a question - if a baby is born at 42 weeks, should you adjust for the two extra weeks, i.e. think about weaning at 5 and a half months instead of 6? Wouldn't they start getting a bit hungry if you still had them exclusively on milk at 6 months?

"How do you know they've lost their tongue thrust reflex before giving them food?"

With DS, he took a bit of banana off my plate when he was about 24 weeks and I decided to just see what happened!

With DD, we did what could only be described as DS-led weaning. He didn't want his broccoli one night when she was about 6 months old - and she munched it down.

Apart from a chip DD stole off my plate at 5 1/2 months, we followed the guidelines and didn't give anything other than breast milk until 6 months.

I always thought I would go the blw route but I found it was a faff and dd didn't seem very interested in it and wanted whatever we were eating instead, so in the end we just pureed our normal food using a hand blender and gave her that. We eat pretty healthy though - cooked from scratch with no salt or sugar added. If we were eating 'naughty food' we cooked up some veg and mashed it for her.

I don't see the point in buying pureed food to feed at home. Better value to buy a blender and puree your own. The pouches are good to shove in the bottom of your bag on outings though. DD is 2.6 now but sometimes we still take the ellas kitchen fruit pouches as a snack. They survive being squished in a back pack better than whole fruit!

Lettice, as milk has more calories than food babies are unlikely to get hungry, as some veg won't do much to sate their hunger, but they might have the other signs they are ready.

My dd was 10 days overdue and I started her on fruit and veg only at 5 months, she demolished a carrot stick at first attempt, regularly from 5.5 and only introduced wheat etc from 6 months to be on the safe side.

The guidelines are to wait until around 6 months, so it isn't the exact date of being 6 months on the dot that matters, mewling, but whether you are awaiting for the signs of readiness, so I've followed guidelines each time.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/solid-foods-weaning.aspx#close

*Lettice - As others have said, it's not about exactly 6 months, so no need to adjust. Look for signs in your own baby. That might be 5.5 months, or 6.5. If you do it when they seem ready, it will be the right time.

With DD1 we waited until 6 months. DD2 spent a lot more time around food (e.g. sitting on my lap at dinner, whereas with DD1 we ate after she was in bed) and somewhere between about 5 and 5.5 months (can't remember exactly ) she started joining in, so we went with it.

BLW both times. I don't have anything against purees, but I don't see the point in faffing about with puree meals and complicated books - just do a few single food purees and then mash up a mixture of what you're having.

I was about to start the other day but paused to work out how many weeks my son is. He's 15 and I decided that was a tiny bit too early. My other 2 were around 4 months so I will wait a week or two.

DD BF 16 weeks, which was the advice then. I hated it, had to practically pour food down her.

DS1 FF advice had changed to 6 months although he wasn't fussed. Was happy draining his 10oz bottles, he got interested in food at 7 months and was feeding himself with a fork and spoon by 11 months.

DS2 BF was 5.5 months when he grabbed and ate food from my plate. I did proper BLW no spoons at all with him from 6 months and he is my fussiest eater and has horrendous manners.

DS3 BF wasn't interested in food at 6 months, he was 8 months before I started giving him food at meal times other than little tastes here and there.
I did spoon feeding our food chopped up or mashed a bit and plenty of finger food the same way I did DS1 and he is a really good eater now and uses cutlery well.

I waited until 6 months, but I was the only one of my NCT group who did....

I started trying to wean dd at 6 months, but she wasn't interested. Would push food away, drop it on the floor, and get distressed if we offered her a spoon. I initially got quite stressed about this, and kept trying, every day, offering her things which she would refuse. The health visitor told me to reduce her milk to below what she wanted so that she was hungry (awful advice), with the result that she started waking up in the night for feeds when she had previously slept through.

Once I started ignoring official advice, and just let her decide what she wanted we all relaxed. She started eating solids happily at 11 months.

My advice is to wait until 6 months, and if they aren't interested leave it for a while. Not all babies are ready at 6 months.

Wow, advice does change!

7 years ago DD's health visitors were really keen that we weaned onto baby rice at 4 months (as were the weaning books of the era). DD was a month premature and seemed perfectly happy with status quo so I didn't quite get round to it for a month or 2. By 6 months they were definitely expecting us to introduce meat/significant protein.

I'm sure I have my own baby book from the late 60s somewhere. I think my Mum was encouraged to start weaning after about 2 or 3 months. and clearly advice has shifted in the past 5 years or so, but all 3 generations of us are in good health.

If you have an active baby that's sleeping well, you can probably wait. if they used to be cute and sweet (it does happen for a few months before teething kicks in) and have turned grumpy you might want to try some baby rice.

Advice last changed about 12 years ago Madcats (in the UK anyway) from 4-6 months to 6 months. Previously it changed to 4-6 months in 1994.

Four months, nothing was ever pushed out, scoffed everything I gave her: mash, rice, avocado, minced fish.

DS: 5.5 mo
DD1: 6.5 mo
DD2: 9 mo
DD3: 10 mo

All fully breastfed till then. DS was grabbing stuff from our plates at a bit over 5 mo, so we deemed that to be a sign. The girls just weren't interested until much later.

There is always someone who says its changing all the time on threads like these but its not its only changed twice in 20 years.

All of mine apart from 1 were around 6 months the one that wasn't was on the advice of a consultant and started weaning at 8 months