weaning at 11 weeks

[ja9]

two dear friends of mine are doing this.

i'm so

couldn't bring myself to say anything to them except squeak '11 weeks'? when they were talking about it.

Oranges, was that directed at me (sheepish voice)? I do hope not, I wasn't saying 4 weeks is good and boob is bad, just pointing out that breaking the rules doesn't always kill you!

hunker - you say "Facts are that babies' digestive systems aren't really ready for solid food till 6 months or later." and "a higher risk of your child developing allergies, bowel problems, etc" what's the source for this? genuine question - I genuinely haven't seen this - with regard to 6 months - in black and white. both your statements here are different from saying that there's no evidence of harm for leaving weaning til 6 months - which I have seen in many a good source. I read the research thread thoroughly earlier today and as far as I could see nothing there backs up these 2 statements. The only thing that showed an advatage was with reagrd to HIV transmission. Please don;t think I'm being aggressive - I'm genuinely interested.

Guidelines are guidelines, no one is (or should be) trying to dictate what mothers can and can't do.

The move to six months came in while I was pg with dd1, who turned out to have silent reflux (diagnosed after the event) and was miserable and in pain with every feed until I started (very simple) solids at 4.5 months. Nothing to do with hungry baby, just baby-in-pain. She was a happier bunny almost immediately.

Now, dd2 has diagnosed silent reflux (diagnosed easily as she has a floppy larynx, which caused her other problems early on) and is on reflux meds. Which are doing the trick, more or less. So at nearly five months I'm holding off.

Interestingly, my grandmother was horrified at the thought of babies being weaned before NINE months - but on the other hand, in her day babies were given sugar in their milk to soothe them

Instincts and "gut feeling" sadly do get lost wiht teh whole conditioning of society....and it's not just advertising that does that...but they certainly have a win win situation on their hands with it!
Fact is, that out instincts will be influenced by the "brainwashing" info we got over the past whatnot years...therefore a lot of decisions do have to be amde on a conscience (sp???) level!

Here, Hatwoman - I found this pretty logical and powerful when I was weaning mine

i dont undestand why they keep bloody changing the rules when dd1 was baby the rules for weaning were 12 wks, and i started at about 15 wks, i assumed it was still the same for dd2 2.7 yr age gap

and when she was starving at 11 wks i thought well its only a week early it doesnt matter she loved it and it settled her from every hour feeding to 3 hours between feeds, when i announced she was being weaned a wk later the hv nearly died on the spot saying the guidelines are 16wks its far too early.

i said well its tough im not getting up 8 times a night for anyone
she was not too impressed gave me a long lecture but knew she was ready and that was that.

thanks Hunker, I will give it a decent read - though mine are 6 and 4 now so I'm way past all this - but I'd still like to work out where I stand....then I can wade in these threads

mad...because they ahve done some research and more to find out the best weaning age...and this was known for at least 10 years but they didn't like to change the guidelnes unless alongside teh guidelines for Maternity leave changing...so...not in favour of any Baby, but in favour of stupid politics!

Just started reading this thread, with my dd1 i started giving her baby rice at 6 weeks, with my hv's full knowledge. She actually eats better than my others, i dont think there is a veg we have found that dd1 doesnt like, dd2 was weaned at about 12weeks, and ds1 was later he was about 16/17 weeks, my dd3 is 6 weeks old, and is not ready for weaning, but i will use my own judgment as to when i will start weaning her.

My mum weaned both me and my sister and brother from 6 weeks, and we used to have rusks in our bottles for bed, (something that i would/have never done) also 'guidelines' now state that babies under 12months shouldnt have honey, although my mum used to put honey on my dummy to get me to go the sleep from about 2 months old. just my two pennies worth.

so hunker, it is only the 'weaning' threads you are staying off, right?

Nicjay - why did you think your dd1 needed baby rice at 6 weeks?

Yes, Kiskidee

Nicjay, no honey is because of the risk of infant botulism, which can kill babies.

The reason the jars say "from 4 months" is because they are made by corporations. The main aim of the corporations is the bottom line i.e to make money. 2 extra months of mums buying their product can make all the difference to their profit. It is very misleading.
Often the same companies that make jars, make formula too.
In the country where I live, they have "juices" and "teas" with big red numbers on them saying "from 2 months". Mums believe that the manufacturers know best.

Mum07, sorry, but I just read your post. Do you really think that there is a conspiracy to keep women breastfeeding, or don`t you think its more likely that breastfeeding mothers are a threat to corporations and governments who want better profit and economies. Thats why breastfeeding mothers were hounded down by corporations and governments throughout the 20th century.

sakura - that's a very simplistic explanation of the labelling thing. I think most people are in doubt about the corporations' motives - that's not why the question gets asked - the question is asked because people don't understand why they are allowed to advertise like that if weaning at 4 months is harmful

i was just saying about the honey thing and how 'guidelines' have changed. Same as the attitude when i comes to weaning, talking to my aunt all of my cousins were weaned before 3 months of age.

I weaned my dd1 early, because she started sleeping through the night at 2 weeks, then started waking again about 5 weeks, i saw my hv and she was already on the hungrier baby milk (sma white) from about 3 weeks, and was hungry after about 2 hours after a 6/7oz feed. so rather than her bloating herself with milk, i gave her about half a teaspoon of baby rice about 5pm, which really settled her, she never had any other 'food' until she was about 12/13weeks.

I don't know the entirety of your circumstances so I can't comment, but I doubt very much it was the half teaspoon of baby rice that settled her.

The obvious comparison are cigarettes. In the 50's they were advertised as 'For your throat's sake smoke' and through the 20's & 30's were thought of as highly beneficial to health. Now we know they cause cancer and yet they are still on sale. And everyone has an uncle that smoked 60 a day all his life and he lived until he was 104.

Clearly, early weaning doesn't have such dire results as smoking, nor are the risks the same, but I think it demonstrates how the public can't rely on private companies, or indeed the Government, to always do the right thing by us.

So what I'm saying is, Heinz and Marlboro might not be the best people to advise you on good health.

I meant to say - people are in no doubt as to the corporations motives

there is legislation currently going through which is telling the corporations they are going to have to change their labelling to include WHO guidelines. rather like how formula tins have to say that bf is best. however the corporations have objected...i haven't time to google the link to the paper they've put together objecting to it, but it is available online.

that would be good if it goes through - certianly less confusing

"I doubt very much it was the half teaspoon of baby rice that settled her." Why not? How much do you have to give for it to be "worth it"? If you wait until 6 months do you suddenly start giving bowlfuls at once? I'm not being flippant, I just want to know!

Milk has more calories than rice so a little bit of milk would be more filling than a little bit of rice.

You don't have to give masses of food at 6 months because milk is still the main food and should be till at least a year. Around 6 months or later is the time to start introducing tastes and getting the baby used to foods, exploring etc. Lot of people wait longer and/or find that their babies arent that interested in food until much later.