when can i start feeding my baby solids?!?

[xaneesx]

Have a 3month old. Baby food jars say start at 4 months health visitor says 6 months. I feel he is very hungry and ready for solids however have been told his digestive system may not be fully developed. Please help.

Most of us was weaned from 3 months nothing was wrong with my gut as a baby just think people need to go with there instincts that's all.. Theres nothing wrong with giving ur baby a bit if baby rice and it's not just because he's a large baby he crys and crus hell drink 9 ounces in a feed still want more..

Not many people realise why babies were weaned so Young.

Many years ago around 1900 (and before) babies tended to begin solids between 7-10 months. However when formula milk was first introduced, it was little more than sugar and water and left babies with a nutritional deficit. Advice was to start weaning around 8 weeks. As formula became more widely available it became better quality but still not good enough. Babies tended to thrive better when weaned earlier (3 months) and did well. Formula today is much better than it was years ago and can sustain babies well even past the 6 month mark! Research now shows that early weaned babies face more complications as older children and adults than those that waited. It's now illegal to advertise weaning products to babies under 4 months.

I weaned my dses at 4 months - that was the advice back then.

But now there is so much scientific evidence to show that it is better to wait until 6 months that that's what I would do, if I had another baby.

Katieemily - why do you think that 'instincts' are a better guide to what is best for a baby than scientific evidence? I am more than happy to do some things based on instinct - but for a baby's health, I would prefer to rely on science.

hell drink 9 ounces in a feed still want more..

Give him more then. More milk.

More milk - maybe by adding in an extra feed in the day?

Rice is one of the WORST things to give!!! Rice swells up as it travels through the digestive system, and can leave children in agony hours after they have eaten it, so not easily apparent.

Ds2 wasn't weaned until just after 6 months, so not a typically 'immature' digestive system. It took awhile to work out what was causing the post 10pm screaming and writhing. When rice was removed from his diet it took 10 days for the pain to fully subside. He was 18 months old before he could tolerate rice.

The ignorance is strong with that one. I'm an IBS sufferer, found out when talking to my bio family I was being fed puréed salad sandwiches at 3 month old because I wanted them didn't want all the issues I have now though!

What 9 ounces every 2-3 hours that's not healthy well I followed my mum's advice only being 17 years of age and it's seemed to work fine

Have we been invaded by spies from the Sparkly Place? Please follow current advice.

Instinct is a red herring with weaning. Instinct can't let you see inside your baby's gut. I am as hippy dippy as they come. I knew instinctively when my babies were hungry. I knew from the way they moved their mouths and the expressions on their faces. I knew they were waking up hungry as opposed to waking up wet from the way they wriggled. I knew my babies better than anybody. My instincts told me they were hungry. Pure logic told me that if they were hungry, nutrients and calories were to be found in milk, not a mushed up teaspoon of carrot. They told me they were ready for solids when they were able to sit up, pick up food, put it in their mouths, chew it and swallow it. Interestingly, this happened at 6 months with both of them.

And 'I did x against all advice and I'm alright Jack' is a flawed argument.

I think car seats are a load of old shit. I used to sit on the roof rack with my trusty pack of razor blades for company and I'm fooking okay. Why, just today I stepped into traffic without looking and no cars hit me.

It's hardly a ringing endorsement for ill advised behaviour.

Katie, if you had a heart attack today, would you go to hospital and say "please only treat me with medical knowledge gleaned before 1980 because that's what my parents had and it didn't hurt them" or would you say "please, throw the book of the most up to date medical knowledge you have, the best and current thinking, to make the best decision possible"?

Your parents weaned you early because it was the best advice then. Follow the best advice now; stop giving your baby baby rice and wait until 6 months when you give them proper food (ie, not baby rice).

Everyone I have spoken to in my family about the whole 6 months weaning thing have laughed and thought how ridiculous it is and I feel the same

I don't think katieemily wants to accept that advice can change as our knowledge increases.

There are many things which used to be advised as good practice in child rearing, that no-one in their right mind would do today - swaddling a newborn baby so it cannot move at all - and even hanging it up on a peg, once swaddled, strapping your child to a board, to straighten their spine, letting your child sit in the car, completely unrestrained, holding tiny babies on the potty until they wee'd or pooed until this was a reflex action brought on by the sensation of sitting on the potty - then saying they were potty trained, when they were far too young to have control over their bowels or bladder. Before 1842, children under 10 could legally be sent down the mines to work - we wouldn't dream of doing this now - yet it was pretty normal for small children to have to work.

Best practice changes as we learn more. Why follow outdated advice, when there is advice based on better evidence?

Rock on sista. We feel the same about seat belts. Load of old bollocks.

Katieemily - anecdotal evidence aside, what qualifications and/or research do your family have, upon which they base their opinions?

You haven't told us what research you have done, to ensure that you are giving your baby the best start in life.

I assume you will be putting your baby in a car seat? Your mum probably didn't get strapped in one when she was a baby - she's fine, why wouldn't your baby be fine, in a carry cot, loose on the back seat?

Do you put your baby down on their back, to sleep? Do you know why that is advised? Do you know that cot death rates fell in the UK by two thirds following the 'Back To Sleep' campaign which began in 1991? Before that, babies were often put to sleep on their fronts - but following strong scientific evidence that showed that this increased the risk of cot death, this campaign taught people that it was safer to put babies to sleep on their backs - and fewer babies died, as a result.

Would you reject that scientific evidence too, and put your baby to sleep on their front?

Everyone I have spoken to in my family about the whole 6 months weaning thing have laughed and thought how ridiculous it is and I feel the same

And your family are better qualified than the experts in child rearing and nutrition?

I just disagree with the weaning at 6 months think it can be done at around 3-4 months if you couldnt they wouldn't sell 4 month plus tubs

Katie I will write to all the medical journals and leading research scientists and tell them all the work they have done to demonstrate the damage early weaning does to the gut is a waste of time.

It's wrong, because KatieEmily's family says so. They must publish apologies immediately.

What are your family's qualifications so they can pull rank on all these poor ignorant scientists?

Ohhh, katieemily, katieemily, katieemily - do you not realise that the baby food manufacturers are more interested in selling you baby food than in your baby's welfare? Profit is all that matters to them.

If they start marketing baby food from 6 months instead of 4 months, that is two whole months of income from gullible parents that they will lose.

But if you would prefer to take the advice of people who have an ulterior motive for their advice than the advice of scientists who have your baby's best interests at heart, then there will be nothing we can say to convince you.

You might be interested to know that cigarette companies used to market their product as being good for your health - indeed, cigarette companies had adverts with doctors endorsing their brand. And of course, initially there was no scientific evidence to counter these claims.

But now there is a mountain of research proving the link between smoking and cancer, smoking and cardiovascular disease, and smoking and other conditions - so the medical advice has changed.

You need to learn to look critically at what you are being told, and work out whether the person giving it has an ulterior motive (selling you baby food, so they make more profit) or whether the advice is impartial. You haven't learned that yet.

grin I just disagree with the weaning at 6 months think it can be done at around 3-4 months if you couldnt they wouldn't sell 4 month plus tubs

I have to say that amused me a bit. Don't you think baby food manufacturers would make more money if everyone gave their baby jars of food 2 months earlier?
If you wait to wean until 6 months you have absolutely no need to feed them the sort of mush/purée you get in jars, they can eat what you are eating.

Katie can your baby sit up my himself or do you prop him up to spoon food into his mouth? Can he spoon food into his own mouth?

Our old paediatrician has an interest in weight management and has published a few papers in this area. He was shocked when he saw my son at 3 months grab the bottle with one hand and use his feet to support the bottle while he took down 8oz in as many minutes. I had the wrestle the bottle off him to burp him. A month earlier he had awful colic and threw up after every single feed.

The one thing the paediatrician we saw said was to fill the tummy up every 3-4 hours and let it empty. He explained that this helps the baby learn what a full and empty feeling is. Using his patient population from 20-30 years ago he was able to show how parents who had feed that way had children who had the lowest rates of obesity and lowest levels of obesity. He said the other expanded studies in more diverse populations were looking that they would also show similiar patterns but that they were started 10 years ago so another decade or two is needed. I thought it was interesting. My kids are too young to know what their weight management will be long term. It doesn't help that daddy gives them cordial and chocolate milk all the bloody time.

I'm also a youngish mum I do live away from home though. I just ignore the advice from my mother just because she weaned me at 8 weeks or whatever it was and I was fine doesn't mean it is the right thing for me. And it certainly does not mean it is right for my baby.
As humans we are ever evolving our knowledge is ever growing. We should utilize this as much as possible .

Katie, how ignorant. I assume your family have medical degrees? Scrap that, with that level of ignorance they would be lucky to have 2 GCSE's between them.

There is no excuse for ignorance. To ignore medical guidelines is poor parenting.

Katie- why is weaning at 6 months ridiculous? I assume you're not just taking your family's word for it, you are doing your own research on how to bring up your child aren't you because you're an idiot if not.

My mum told me how my baby should be in her own room when a couple of weeks old and I should be weaning at 4 months and should stop breastfeeding at 6 months. I did my own research, looked at the evidence and made my own choices.