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,?

14 weeks no regrets currently 18 weeks now!, nap during the days are longer ( haven’t experienced any sleep issues YET)

We do- Baby porridge with a top up of milk at 10:00am

Purée food at 1pm ( also cut up cucumbers, peppers or strawberry’s) and hold to her mouth ect

What works for one not always for the other I’ve had friends who didn’t start porridge until 6 months so each to their own! X

4 months on jars and purées. She’s just turned 5.5 months and I’ve started baby led weaning. This week she’s has toast, broccoli, sweet potato, cauliflower, parsnip and yam. All whole just steamed and softened. No problems what so ever. She’s even getting the hang of putting a spoon in her own mouth.
I’ve completely scraped the jars now apart from fruity ones that I’ve been freezing so they turn into like fruit smoothies.
X

At 5 months she needs to nap. I had to bounce DD into submission for naps twice a day and it was a pain but it worked and improved her nighttime sleep no end. Weaned at 7 months and it made no difference whatsoever to her sleep.

I weaned my son at 5 months despite being determined to wean at 6 months. He kept grabbing my food and he was sitting at 4.5 months, and one day he kept refusing his bottle after having many issues with reflux. In the end I gave him a little baby porridge which he “fed” himself with a spoon (with a lot of mess and missing- he didn’t actually master the spoon until 16 months). Anyway, I decided to follow my instincts and it worked out best, despite my understanding that 6 months is when the gut is mature enough. I feel like I did what was best for my baby but I’d aim for 6 months again...

DS1 is 26 now. Guidelines at the time said from three months, so I started him at around 3.5 months.

By the time DS2, who's now 25, had arrived the guidelines had changed to four months so that's when he and DS3 were weaned. The advice changed to four months sometime in 1994.

It was in 2003 that the guidelines changed to six months. Those of us who have older children usually followed the advice at the time more or less, just as parents do today.

Though it did horrify me when MIL told me she started weaning her DC back in the early 60s at 6 weeks

16 weeks. All.of min restarted wakening in the night and being unsettled.
turns out they were hungry.

I started at 17 weeks with both of mine. They are 13 and 14 now and have always been very good (and unfussy) eaters.

18 Weeks, on homemade purées for a short time. Was eating lumpy mashed family meals and finger food easily by 6 months. Introduced most allergens by 6 months and no allergies or intolerances at all.

Unfortunately it made no difference at all to his sleep if that's your main aim!

'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.'

All this.

All three of mine were about 7 months; started (baby led) a couple of weeks before that but 'eating' didn't get going properly until much closer to 1.

Solids didn't help with DS1's sleep or DS2's reflux (just made it more colourful 🤢)

Also no correlation with unfussy/fussy eating. I have one of each type plus one too young as yet to fall definitively into either camp.

Last week at 6 months exactly, any earlier and I'd have had a fight on my hands. He loves feeding himself and I didn't want to attempt baby lead until he was 6 months. He loves it. A friend started weaning at 4 months, he's the same age as DS and still doesn't like eating and doesn't sleep well. Unfortunately sleep is more to do with the baby than what they eat.
DS sleeps pretty well but he still naps maybe 3/4 times a day with at least one good 2-3 hour stretch in the evening.

5 months with both. It didn’t affect sleep at all but it did help with dd2 being sick - she was still sick but not as much and she never sicked up solids so it helped keep the milk down too.

6 months and a week or two. She’d thrown up at least 3 times from birth and that magically stopped the day she hit 6 months, nothing to do with solid food as hadn’t started it yet. It made no difference at all to her sleep and she still fed as much till she was over a year despite 3 or 4 full meals a day by then.

My daughter was 5 months yday & was ebf until last saturday when I decided to start weaning due to her wanting to hold food I was eating. She definetly naps longer now

6 months and did BLW

*oh and despite weaning, my son’s sleep got a lot worse after weaning until 14 months old!!

5 months 2 weeks x

17 weeks for DD1 as advised by HV to settle her reflux. It did and she became a happier more settled baby overnight. Sleeping improved very quickly.

6 months for milk monster DD2 who ended BLW by default as she refused to eat off a spoon.

I found purées much easier and tidier than BLW weaning and my purée weaned child is much less fussy and slimmer than the BLW one. My kids always seem to go against the grain though.

16 weeks exactly as told to by my HV.
Its outdated advice, and even then was bad advice, but as a young Mum I did it.
It was fine, nothing bad happened, she's always been a great eater.

About a week to ten days before she turned six months. I don't think it made a huge difference to sleep, at least not at first, as they don't take in many calories from food to begin with.

16 weeks as recommended in 1997.
in 1988 when my nephew was born it was recommended at 12 weeks.

DS: 5 months (Annabel Karmel)
DD: 6 months (BLW)
Both exclusively breastfed until then, and carried on after til past 1.

How funny op - I started at 5 months 1 week with my son and he was exclusively breastfed too!

We originally intended to wait until 6 months (again like u) but he was just so keen to get started and had so many other signs that he was ready too so we just decided to go for it. Honestly a few weeks really doesn't make any difference.

We gave him a little something midday for 2 weeks, then increased this to a little breakfast as well. Then another 2 weeks after that he was on 2 'meals' (if u can call them that!) a day so we did do it gradually. We started with purées because we were too scared of choking! In the early days I added a little breast milk to his food just so that it seemed less alien to him if that makes sense and this worked really well.

He's nearly 2 now and is a great eater most of the time

Good luck. Try to let go of the rules and focus on your gut instinct.

That should have said 3 meals not 2!