Health visitor says no baby porridge at 16 old any opinions pls

[isobel79]

Hi

My HV has said no baby porridge for my lo who is 16 weeks tomorrow. He is on 7oz of milk. He weighed 15lb on 16\6.

Any opinions would be gratefully received. I feel like he needs something more. He's on pepti 1 and it doesn't seem to fill him up.

Thanks all

My ds is also nearly 21 and was weaned at 13 weeks as advised by the HV. I found dd 18 red book and it says 4 months and on a mixed diet of cerreals veg fruit meat fish cheese yoghurt and pulses should be offered by 6 months.
It certainly wasnt norm to wait until 6 months back then.

Dds red book

Baby porrige and rice is an awful first food. Both mine were started on pear and sweet potato.

I agree with Bruffin. DS was weaned at 12/13 weeks. The official line was 16 I think but GP advised going earlier because he was ver, very hungry. It was shifting towards six months I think with dd three years later but I followed the same routine with her.

They are both totally unharmed by it.

Ds loved baby rice, but we made it up with breast milk or formula and also gradually added fruit and veg purees to it.

OP can't give Hungry Baby milk as her baby is on Pepti which is for a milk allergy. Terrible advice!

Up his bottles fo 8/9oz.

Also I had a HV shout at me 12 years ago because I'd not started weaning my then 18 week old baby. She called me stupid and said I should have started the day he turned 16 weeks.

times change, my dc were 94 - 99 and all were 16 weeks, i remember it was really hard waiting for the 16 weeks.
however as mentioned in 2003 it was changed to 6 months/26 weeks.
but you dont want problems with tolerating lumpy food.

Australia has just reconfirmed it's weaning advice to be around 6 months and defiantly not before 4 months.

in fact my hv said in 1994/5, dont bother with baby rice, go for potato/parsnip/ carrots

thus i carried this on, but my different hv was demanding to know in 1999 why i was not using baby rice

Not all doctors agree it's best to wait 6 months, lots of other countries like USA and within the European still tell people to wean at 4 months. The official advice he is around 6 months, they don't say wait until they are 6 months.

Here is an article in the bmj www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5955 which clearly states "A reappraisal of the evidence is timely in view of new data and a recent expert review for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), concluding that for infants across the EU complementary foods may be introduced safely between four and six months". Full report is here www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/scientific_output/files/main_documents/1423.pdf

One of the main reasons WHO support breastfeeding to 6 months is its most important advantage is the protection it gives to children in developing countries, it protects massively against diarrhoea.

Dixie
Eat study results
The eat study introduced allergens from 12 weeks. My ds has food allergies which didnt occur until he was 4 so i doubt it was weaning

Meant to say just genetics, my dd has none

I suspect it's the carrying on of BF that is more the issue than whether or not it is at so many weeks or not, past a reasonable stage, i.e., four-ish months. If you are introducing potentially reactive foods, the breast milk perhaps projects the baby's gut. I wonder whether this is why my eldest didn't show any signs of coeliac disease until some months after he was hospitalized at 12 months and blitzed with ABs for his pneumonia, and then went on to have bronchiolitis. Not that he was diagnosed with CD until he was 19 years old.

Perhaps the fact that I was BFing him until eight or nine months was somehow preventing some kind of CD switch from being flipped. I had stopped BFing by the time he got the pneumonia. Perhaps I should have carried on BFing until he went to university!

I was advised that during the first year that the solid food is more about them learning than providing nutrition, and that the milk would cover that. I just used to give them bits to play with initially and never spoon fed it in. My third's first food was profiterole - not advisable, but she learnt more about eating than if I'd shovelled rice in off a spoon. I sometimes wonder if spooning stuff in might interfere their appetites, whereas baby lead weaning teaches them their limitations - stop when they are full. I still try and avoid plating up food, and encourage them to do it for themselves so they know how much they need rather than finishing a plateful thats too big.

Some mentioned the US but the AAP still say 6 months.

Thank you all
My LO has an appointment with a dietician in couple weeks so will see what the outcome of that will be

I think that every child is a bit different and the key is to do the research, then observe your own child carefully and come to a decision. The WHO guidelines are there for a good reason, but they aren't meant to be written in stone for every baby.