Weaning?! Just need to know what other mums think in general

[Samlew89]

I have three children, a daughter and son who are 9 and 4. Then my son who is 18+ weeks.
Now I know that the weaning guidelines have changed drastically compared to when I was at that stage with my oldest son (almost 5)... My baby is looking at foods and watching us eating, he's also doing his excited arms and legs as though he wants some he has been quite content up until now with his first stage baby milk, slept 12 hours a night up until 2 weeks ago now he's waking through night starving.... I am considering starting him with rusks and baby rice as I did with my other two at little over 4 months old (that was the recommended age then)
I have mentioned this to health visitor and she basically said politely that it was absurd.
Has anyone else with older children who weaned at 4 months then waited till the recommended 6/7month now and seen a difference to waiting?
Just don't want my boy to be hungry and he can't possibly drink more milk, I can imagine the vomit 🤢 . He's 19lb 5oz a bigger baby?? Other people opinion would be great....

Thank you all, handy to know other people's experiences. So many rules etc even on my third still question my own judgement. I suppose its part of being a parent. Just want to do the right thing. Id be devestated if a wrong decision caused problems I'd never forgive myself. Haven't made any seriously wrong choices yet but still can't be too careful.....

Appreciate all your advice... Thanks ladies

My biggest advice would be just chill. Broadly give normal, less salty food, with a few exceptions (which beyond honey I can't remember).

Mine are 15 and 13 and it was certainly 'around' six months and no rusks then. The marketing about 4 months+ on jars has always been there.

I seem to recall that milk has more calories than any early weaning foods but mine were exclusively breast fed so the later they started solids the less faff/hygiene issues there were! There used to be a school of thought that said they slept better on solids at four months but I think that's been debunked.

Obviously it's going to be a lot harder to stop a third child grabbing their older sibling's pizza anyway .

@PassMeAnotherCoffee
That made me laugh with grabbing the pizza! That's very true though they seem to grasp things quicker copying siblings and want whatever they have.

DC are 18 and 15 . They were bf and bottle fed and started weaning around 3 months. Just baby rice in evening then moved onto one new puréed veg per week . No issues.

Current advice is also against hungry baby milk, but to give more milk instead. The best way I have seen it that made sense to me is "would you eat a slice of cake or more salad to be healthy but full". Silly comparison but made sense to me :-)

Weaning guidelines have stated from 6 months for the last 20 years. They haven’t changed for a long time.

I weaned at 5.5 months. My daughter was 2 weeks late anyway so very different to situation with a preemie.

Often people on MN often think you have to wait for 6 months exactly and terrible things will happen if you don't. This is not evidence based - the six months is really linked to breastfeeding to six months target (very important in developing world) and 65% of Eu countries encourage weaning a bit earlier (though none before 17 weeks). From six months, unless your baby is a good eater straight away or takes vitamins, there is a risk of baby being a bit low in iron if only on breastmilk as their stores run low, hence why I thought it was a good idea to start just that little bit early because I was bf and consistently struggle with anaemia myself.

This link has a really good summary of studies

child-nutrition.co.uk/evidence-base-for-hcps-complementary-feeding

www.madeformums.com/news/weaning-from-four-months-or-six-latest-research-questions-current-guidelines/

From an allergies perspective, it is better to introduce things like wheat alongside breastfeeding between 4 and 7 months, hence why I started earlier because I was starting to mix feed....

http://www.espghan.org/fileadmin/userupload/guidelinesspdf/HepNutr/GlutennIntroductionanddtheRiskkof_Coeliac.32.pdf

If you do wean early, do it for the right reasons - I.e because your baby is displaying all of the signs of being ready and interested. Not to fill your baby up, but to try to get them to engage with food so that they can become a good eater by 8-9 months when it is much more important that they get a range of nutrition. Rusks are not very nutritious or interesting really, so I wouldn't bother

Six months. Real food. Milk is enough til then.

@thetoddleratemyhomework
Thank you for the links... Will have a read through when I have my coffee break shortly when DH arrives home.