Early weaning?

[Lauren2809]

Hello! I’m a FTM with a now 15 week old boy. Last time he was weighed at 10 weeks he was over 15lbs and had passed the 91st centile. I’m getting him weighed on Monday to see where he is now. But basically I went to a weaning talk under advice of the hv and they advised he may be ready to have some purées from 17 weeks. I just wondered if anyone had done this and had any opinions/advice on it? He generally has 7oz bottles every 2 hours but sometimes finishes that and has another 3/4oz straight after . He’s obviously a big strong boy, he always has been and chews everything like mad but is he really ready?! I don’t want to start him if he doesn’t need to. Thanks :)

Every 3 hours sorry!

Feeding every 3 hours is totally normal for a little baby. Make sure every time he drains his bottle you offer more so he always leaves some, that means he stops when he is full. First purées are often lowers in calories in milk so you may find he wakes more often in the night for food. Weaning is a pita so I would wait.

Just wait until 6 months, then do Baby Led Weaning. Both mine did this and are strapping lads and non-fussy eaters.

My friend was advised to start weaning her baby at 4 months because he was drinking ridiculous amounts of formula and it did help (now he eats ridiculous amounts of food ) but that doesn't mean it will for your baby. Starting weaning is a difficult time in any case, they might want to drink more milk rather than less to begin with, they can get tummy upsets from adjusting to different food, sleep can get worse, plus of course the horror that is weaning poo.

Anyway in regards to when to start weaning, so long as it's past 4 months/17 weeks, then the important thing to look for is the signs of readiness (sitting with minimal support, reaching and bringing things to the mouth, losing tongue thrust reflex) rather than the age (though if you want to minimise risk of allergies you should start by 6 months at the very latest)

Sorry but don't do ealry weaning it can be harmful to babes stomach. It's more recommend to wean under 6 months by the world health organisation or NHS. Also you need to wait for all the signs of readiness with traditional weaning (purée*} or baby led weaning. Purée are full of sugar tbh and unless homemade buiu don't get the nutrition in needed it's all a marketing scam my health visitor told me that.bmy son use to have bottles every 3 hours at that age that's complete normal think your HV needs retraining

NHS advice is to wait till around 6 months. Our big boy was having anywhere between 9-13oz a feed from 4 months onwards. We waited till 25 weeks and just did BLW. If you start on puree, then that would be less calories than milk so it's not going to fill them up. From a purely practical pov, they barely eat anything to start so you still have to do the same amount of milk, I felt like I was constantly feeding my LO for weeks, juggling either a milk feed or trying to get him to try to eat, it's messy and food nappies are horrible. I'd wait just to avoid food nappies.

Thanks everyone! You get so much conflicting advice it’s hard to know what’s best and what’s just old fashioned advice lol. They were saying milk and then top up with purées but I think I’ll just keep going with the milk for as long as possible! Thanks :)

6 months is advised as that's when the gut is fully developed. Any earlier and you risk problems like IBS in the future.

Milk should be the main source of nutrition until the age of 1.