When did you try your baby with food

[mumbunforever]

Just a general question really to gage when the average age of weaning is for most babies I know government guidelines say 6 months but most parents I have known have tried their babies younger.

DD2 is 4 months and I think I tried my first when she was 5 and a half months...I'm going to wait as long as I can but I may try her before the six month mark to see if she takes an interest...She is a big baby and is still having feeds every two hours so feeling like she may be interested in food sooner than my first.

If anyone did start their LOs sooner than six months what was the reason if any?

Thanks in advance

I do think 6 months is maybe too over precautions, a month is neither here nor there.

Without wanting to do 'back in my day' but I weaned my two at 4 months back in the 90s and most of my mum friends did at the time and there were no major issues.

I’m in Germany which is pretty conservative when it comes to infant health but the guidelines here are to start at the earliest from 17 weeks, but certainly before 6 months. The reasoning is that the mother’s iron reserves start to deplete after 6 months so (reasoning only applies to BF babies - the majority here) you should start weaning before 6 months so you can introduce meat and fish at 6 months. Here they tend to start weaning with pure veg, then fruit, then introduce grains for the second meal.

There’s always a lot of pearl clutching on MN about starting before 6 months whereas there is medical reasoning supporting earlier weaning.

Babies are actually born with their own iron reserves. They deplete based on rate of growth etc. Ff babies have as much need for iron as bf, as iron in both types of milk is difficult to metabolise.

DC1 was about a week past 6 months - she helped herself to DH plate Just grabbed a piece of something (can’t remember what it was) and just shoved it in her gob and started chomping!
DC2 has multiple food allergies so we stuck to the guidelines like glue ie not before 6 months, and only introducing single foods at a time. He wasn’t remotely interested until about 7.5 months. I did offer before then, but he just threw it. He eventually picked up a stick of cold watermelon when he was teething and had a good chew on it and we just went from there

My ds was really whingy around 4 months and my HV suggested it ! I literally gave him a spoonful of pureed fruit here and there , no set meals or reduction of milk .
It did stop him whinging ! Maybe he was bored !

5 months and 1 week.

Initially wanted to wait until 6 months but ds was desperate for big boy food!

Like @chloechloe said it’s important for babies to be eating at 6 months, so if you start at 6 months you need to go quickly (ie not a different veg purée once a day for ages before introducing any dairy or meat).

Research has shown that risk of allergies is lower if allergens are introduced before 6 months.

Mine were 4 months (I now suspect he had reflux, he was so much happier as soon as he started eating), second baby I tried at 5 months but he wasn’t interested so started a couple of weeks later, third baby 5 months. She’s now 6 months and eats exactly what we eat, chopped up

Be interested to see if guidelines do change again - it would be nice for them to be "signs" rather than an age really but not sure if that's possible.

Understandable that they change with research. I was feeding myself two Weetabix for breakfast at six months!

AuntMarch the guidelines have been the same for 25 years but they may change in the future. 6 months is based on gut readiness and this can’t be assessed by external development signs.

Thanks @Lweji. I tried some avocado today as I had already bought it. She was definitely more up for that than banana but still not loving it. After a disaster with my hand blender I think I'm going to bin what I have prepared and start again in a couple of weeks.