When did you start weaning? (Be honest)

[Littlebittasunshine]

My daughters 5 months & 1 week , exclusively breast fed and I'm trying to hold off as long as possible. But she struggles with sleep and doesnt nap anymore takes hours to fall asleep every night shes also sick quite a bit. I guess I'm sort of hoping that when weaning happens it'll suddenly become much easier but on probably wrong . I know the recommended is 6 months. Is a few weeks early so bad,?

12 weeks but very slowly, 20 years ago now when advice was different, my son was ready and showed interest in food.

16 years ago it changed suddenly to 6 months! I didn't realise at the time and my next baby naturally weaned at about 16 weeks.

At the time I was told it was WHO advice as weaning too early put the third world babies at greater risk of poor hygiene.

Also first was around 6 months, my second not until he was 12 months. He had texture issues and then we had problems with constipation and anaemia. Things improved after a year old. Every child is different.

Both around 3.5 months, 30 and 20 years ago now. Advice was different then and both were ready. No known health or dietary issues with either child, now adult.

16 weeks. He was desperate for more than milk. Not sure if it made a difference to his sleep as he always liked sleeping anyway!

Around 16 weeks. DD wasn't sleeping much by then (about 5/24hrs max). She was ebf until then and clusterfed all the time. One evening her dad, halfsister (who lived with us) and myself were eating dinner and DD was watching. I mashed up a bit of carrot (no salt, gravy or anything else added), and fed it to her. 3 weeks later she was sleeping through the night and napping during the day. 27 years on and she's as fit as a butchers dog. I don't think my sanity would have survived waiting until she was 6 months if I'm honest.

Grabbing at food is not a sign of readiness anymore than them grabbing your car keys is a sign of readiness to drive.
The signs they are ready to wean and you won’t be damaging their digestive tract for life by shovelling slop in before their system can cope are
-lost the tongue thrust reflex
-can sit up unaided
-can pick up an item of food and bring it to their own mouth

And it has no correlation with sleep.

16 weeks. Started with 1 bowl of baby rice every morning for 5 days, then started offering other pureed food throughout the day. Milk was still an important part of my DS's diet though, and still is at 4.5.

6 months to the day, ended up in hospital so waited another month before trying again.

4 months

Yes sleep had always been a real problem for her. I spend all day trying to get her to take a nap. I've managed the last few days to get her to take naps in the buggy as switched it from the bassinet to the sitting up and she much prefers that. But night times are just a real struggle. We've tried everything you could think of

6 months on the dot because I'm a rule follower, essentially. Might wean the next one earlier because of evidence that it might help them avoid allergies (DD doesn't have any that we're aware of yet though, touch wood).

Agree with PP, it's a separate issue. You need to get her down for naps in the day, she must be hugely overtired.

Have you tried keeping it dark when she's napping? It sounds silly, but everyone and their dog drilled it into us that daytime naps should be in the light and noise. That didn't work for DD. She just didn't nap unless it was dark and silent. She's grown out of it and is now capable of napping in full daylight with the radio on in the same room, but it was an absolute impossibility before a year old.

Also, I recommend the Huckleberry app, it'll tell you when she's next due her nap and it's free.

The only benefit of weaning as regards sleep is that I think it is a bit easier to sleep train confidently (if that's something you want to do: a separate debate!) if they are eating very well during the day, because you would be less concerned that they are hungry at night. But you're not likely to get to that point for a while anyway.

I found that going down from 3 to 2 naps at about that age made a massive difference: my daughter went from being a nap refuser to having two nice long naps a day (which was useful for making food etc). The disadvantage was that I was a bit housebound by the routine. Alternatively, would she nap in her pram if you took her for a walk?

Bottom line: The closer they are to 6 months, the more developed their digestion is and so you can feed them a wider variety of foods. But there is some evidence that weaning between 4 and 6 months can help to avoid allergies. At her age, it's very unlikely that some mashed up fruit or veg will do any harm, but nor will it improve her sleep.

6 months. I was in no hurry to start. The change from just being able to lift up my top to provide nutrition to having to cook, plan meals, endlessly tidy up, see loads of food wasted was so tedious.

I looked forward to it even less with DC2. If guidelines weren't 6 months I'd have held off till about a year probably!

About 5 months and 3 weeks with both of them (we were on holiday both times so easy to offer them healthy things from our plate). We did blw with both.

Honestly, there is no rush because the whole thing is a PITA, but best to do when you have time to offer healthy things and life is otherwise not stressful.

I was so excited to start that we started about a week before 6 months. I quickly realised what a total PITA it is, even with BLW. I read that the 'messy stage' only lasted a few weeks but it's still going strong 4 months later. I spend half my life picking up steamed broccoli and half chewed toast from the floor. DS gets through more outfit changes these days then he ever did as a newborn as everything ends up covered in porridge/banana/pesto/whatever despite investing in massive bibs. It also made no difference to sleep either.

he was around 6 months. maybe a week or two earlier. it made no difference to his sleeping just a fuck load of cleaning up on top of nappies and breast milk.

27 - 28 weeks for mine. We were on holidays and so waited until we returned. My first had really bad reflux and it improved instantly with weaning. Second wasn't really interested in food until she turned 1 and still had to be nursed every 2 hours (during the day thankfully!) until she got more into food!

6 months - DC is a good napper but has never ‘slept through’. I am still EBF and DC wakes up about 4/5 times during night, solids have not made any difference to her sleep habits.

About 5 months.

But, dd hardly slept from 4 to 16 months!

4.5 months for the first and 5 months for the second. Once those hands grab at any food you have and the eyes follow your every move with food, you know! So we started with baby porridge for a while. It made a difference with settling them at that point. But they are all different so it's not advice but personal experience.

7.5 months

5 months(ish)

At about 4 months ish I did some baby rice and puréed veg. That was the guideline back then. I'd never heard of baby led weaning at that point but I did used to put a large part of a Sunday roast on the high chair tray and have fond memories of DDT's sucking on a Yorkshire pudding 😂

Mines a week or so ahead. Mainly bf, been doing first tastes for a few weeks. He's an awful sleeper.

Re naps, I had to put a strict routine in. Realistically he can't be awake more than 2 hours at a time without being super cranky (sometimes this is stretched in the evening).

Current routine

6/6.30am awake, milk

8 bit of baby porridge

8.15 feed to sleep, 45 minute nap

9 milk feed, play until about 10.30ish

Boob to sleep, another 40 minute nap

Awake. Veggie lunch at about 11.30. bit of a play

Just before 1ish in the buggy, rocked to sleep. Some days he does a 45 minute nap but if we are super lucky we get a 90 min/2 hour kip

3ish milk on awakening. Big play time

4.30/5 quick 30 minute nap

7pm bath

Asleep by 8pm

Is it perfect? No because he still wakes up loads at night but before we were strict about naps in the day, his sleep was even worse. Recently he's getting tired at an earlier time so bedtime has sometimes been nearer 7.30pm.

Have you tried a sleep tracking ap Op? It's the second time today I'm recommending One so I'm not sure if I can say which one I'm using in case it's against guidelines but I've had amazing results - you input all baby's naps, meals and nappies and after a few days it starts predicting when to put them down for naps. Amazing! dad still sleeps on my for naps but she it's herself to sleep now - no endless rocking etc. And at night she sleeps through til around five, had a bottle and back to sleep til around eight. It's really amazing and when I don't follow the app and she stays up later (like tonight) she is so overtired and difficult so I know it's working.
PS DD is six months on Tuesday and no weaning yet - i want to do baby led and want her to be able to sit independently if possible - she's very ready for it though so we may do the mashed food first if she still needs support to sit