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.

MIL tried to give me out of date and quite frankly dangerous advice when DD was a baby - put baby rice in her bottle, wrap her up warm when she had a temperature etc.

I just ignored her and used my common sense, guided by my health visitor and other medical professionals.

That's still not 3.5 months or 10 weeks (!) as another poster has described. I wouldn't have thought many babies needed weaning at 4 months either, and I'd still want HV or specialist input before starting at 17 weeks tbh.

I'm another one who was weaned early according to the advice at the time and suffered terribly with ibs in adulthood. Advice changes for good reason.

I weaned at 6 months, following current advice. I also use a car seat when I can remember sliding across the back seat of my parents' car completely unrestrained. Best practice moves on.

You are a mother now, Katie. You might be young but you need to do what is best for your baby and stand up to your mum if what she is suggesting is not the best thing for your baby.

Why do people completely ignore the most basic of scientific evidence? It really confuses me and actually makes me quite angry. All advice given by healthcare professionals is evolved and backed up by strong, scientific research. Who the hell do you think you are to ignore that?!

When I was a baby it was quite common to use alcohol as a teething aid, I'm sure those of you ignoring current weaning advice would be horrified if someone was to say "my mum gave me whisky to help me sleep and I turned out alright so I've been giving it to my baby too, despite obvious warnings not to"

The scientific evidence isn't that clear. There are scientists who think after 4 months is more appropriate, depending on the baby.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12180052

The OP's baby is about 9 weeks old, though, chaos - that must be too soon, surely?

3 months is too young IMO. I think the majority of babies can wait til 6 months for weaning, and sometimes there is a need for early weaning but all the guidance is that before 17 weeks can cause lasting damage, as others have said.

If you are feeding a baby solids before 6 months it should only be puréed fruit or veg so a PP was spot on to say that a carrot is not going to fill you up more than a calorie laden food, which is what milk is!

What on earth is the rush? No baby is ready for food at three months.

Shoddy parenting choices. Just because our parents/grandparents did it doesn't make it right.

But still why listen to factual scientific research when you can listen to your mum/nan.

I still don't understand the obsession with weaning ASAP. So many mums I know are the same. I just don't 'get' it.

Me either Scatty. What's the rush? Genuinely don't understand why people want to rush it.

katieemily please tell your HV that you are giving your 9/10 week old baby baby rice, which has no nutritional value of milk with vitamins/minerals.

OP if he's hungry give him more milk more often.

My DSis decided to get her DH to book the day off work at 17weeks, and started feeding then, becuase they wanted a routine and more sleep. Baby couldn't sit up, was fed lying back in baby bouncer, still had tongue thrust reflex, and couldn't bring things to mouth, but had decided at birth that 17 weeks was the magical day.

zzzzz - in DS2's case the rice caused him a lot of pain as it went through the digestive system. Every night, well after his meal, he would cry out in pain. I had no idea what was causing it, GP had no idea what was causing it.

Eventually Google came to the rescue, and we worked out that baby rice might play a part - after removing it from his diet and after the remainder had left his system (10 days!) he was no longer in any pain at all.

I shudder to think what sort of damage we might have caused to his digestive system if we had continued with it.....

I think that giving a baby solid food at 10 weeks or 3.5 months, is a wrong parenting decision and I'm quite prepared to say so. I would say it directly to the parent face to face if it came up in discussion.

I don't think that weaning at 4 months is necessary in the majority of cases, however I don't think its wrong, it's just not what I would do. Guidelines currently are never before 17 weeks, but around 6 months, when your baby is showing the (actual) signs of readiness. So weaning on the dot of 17 weeks is within those guidelines, and so not a wrong decision.

Is it your mothers baby or yours Katie? Listen to the advice here and MEDICAL advice. . If it did cause problems in later life when your baby is older what are you going to say? "Sorry we ignored advice because we thought we knew better"?

I know what interfering parents can be like. You do not have to put up with it. My hv has given me leaflets to shut people up. Ask her.

I think weaning at 10 weeks is wrong for any child.

By the way, my DH was given baby rice from 6 weeks. He has struggled with his weight all his life, has no 'full' receptors (he would eat until he was sick) and has IBS.

zzzz - right and wrong are subjective in many situations, but not in all. Weaning a baby at ten weeks old is downright irresponsible, there can be no circumstance short of total starvation otherwise where it is the right thing to do.

Slightly off topic - but apparently the jars being labelled 4+ months and 6+ months is partly to do with the fact that some things really should not be given before 6 months and as some people do wean before guideline age, this is to differentiate for those people. So says my HV, anyway.

I weaned around the 6 month mark. DD didn't really start full on eating or dropping feeds for several months after. An old colleague of mine once mentioned going home to visit family and they were horrified when she gave her then 10 month old some bread, as the norm there was milk only until 1 apparently