Do you have to start weaning at 6 months?

[newmum234]

My little boy is getting on for 5.5 months so I’m starting to think about weaning. The problem is I just don’t know where to start! He’s also not able to sit up without support yet, so we don’t have a highchair. Should I wait until he can sit up on his own before purchasing a highchair and starting weaning? What’s the latest age you should start to wean?

If formula fed you don't need to worry about iron after 6m if you switch to follow in milk, as that has the additional iron in it.

You don't have to start at 6m, but it's very advisable to as:

• it raises their risk of food allergies and intolerances (though to minimise that risk you want to introduce allergens between 4-6m ideally)

• you miss the opportunity to try them on a large variety of foods whilst they are still relatively compliant.

• the sitting up thing just means able to sit in the high chair, not necessarily independently sitting.

When you do start weaning, you may also find that your baby doesn’t follow the ‘food is just for fun until 12 month’ thing. My DD weaned at 5 months & by 8 months, was wolfing down food & dropped to two bottles. I really worried about it but my HV said it was great she took well to weaning. She loved food & became non plussed by milk (formula fed). We made sure she still had a couple 6oz bottles & topped her calcium up with plain yoghurt, copious amounts of cheese and milk in things like cereal & rice pudding. She ate everything under the sun until 2 years, now she’s fussy 🙄

My youngest is 6 months & again we started at 5 months (both on medical advice as both have/had severe reflux). DD2 prefers to feed herself on the whole (DD1 preferred it spooned in) & so is probably eating less. She’s still having quite a bit of milk. But will simply follow her lead & continue to do a mix of baby led & spooning in!

I really recommend both Annabel Carmel & What Mummy Makes. Two fantastic weaning books. I’ve made many a delicious meal, purée, snack from them!

Don’t worry, weaning is fun once you get going!

Really long, quite old now but all info still correct and worth a read :) Explains the background behind some of the "shoulds" rather than a blanket rule.

www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2013/09/13-baby-led-weaning-myths.html

The 'sitting unaided' thing seems to come from an American baby-led weaning Facebook group who are massive, absolutely militant about this (I've seen them insist that a 10 month old shouldn't be given food if they can't sit unsupported on the floor for 2 minutes!) and seem to have entirely made it up. It's not in any actual baby-led weaning guide (including the Gill Rapley one where the term comes from) and it's clearly not necessary if you're going to spoon feed rather do baby-led weaning since people used to routinely spoon feed three/four month olds, which is now not recommended but not because there was some disastrous outcome from those babies not being able to sit.

It was about well before then, people were throwing it about as advice in 2009 when DS1 was weaning, probably before then too, but I have heard of that FB group. TBH they give some quite dangerous advice (e.g. if you have spoon fed once at 8 months you must totally drop all solids and restart offering one item at a time - this is BONKERS and totally unnecessary, potentially even harmful).

Beware militant FB groups. Some people hear advice, ignore/forget/don't notice the reasoning behind it and adopt it as a kind of badge of what a super parent they are and then go and insist it, as though it was one size fits all, in an extremely bullying manner. In these kinds of echo chamber groups often the same posters will go around with their pet beliefs and brigade everyone else and it becomes a bit oneupmanship, soon advice not to start until 6 months becomes distorted into it's best to start later, so I didn't start until 8 months, 9 months, my child is still fully breastfed age nine or whatever - and because they are an echo chamber with other people repeating the same views it can lend an air of authority.

If you join parenting related FB groups I would recommend to stick with general, preferably local ones, if you join advice related ones make sure you pick one which is staffed by actual experts and check their credentials - often these groups have stricter posting criteria which can be a bit of a pain.

Beware one size fits all advice. Usually there is nuance. Always ask for the reasoning why and if something doesn't make sense explore it for yourself. If in doubt refer back to advice bodies you trust e.g. NHS (whose advice must be evidence based).

Is Aitch's weaning forum still about? :o That was ace! And no weirdness about unaided sitting nor militancy about spoons.

My DD didn't sit unaided until 13 months so if I'd have waited the poor child would've starved!
Sat unaided at 13 months and walking by 14 months but still started weaning by 6 months

My little boy is 8 months and still can't sit unaided. He's fine in a highchair though and shovels in food like there's no tomorrow! We started around 6.5 months as he didn't seem quite ready at 6months. He's EBF and doing fine. I do need to start giving him a multivitamin though.

They just need to be upright as with BLW if you feed them reclined it's a choking hazard :) You can do that on your lap or in a highchair. Bumbo isn't the best as it tilts their spine which (according to some occupational therapist blog I read) affects the movement of the arms so it's not natural which if you're partly doing BLW for development of fine motor control reasons, is counterproductive.

My DS didn't sit unaided until he was 10 months but was crawling, cruising on furniture by 9 months 🤷‍♀️ I got him a good high chair and started weaning at 6 months using the blender a lot with mixing yummy fruit and making healthy soups. It started off like this until he was able to cope with solids. If I was out and about and at peoples houses (before Covid) I used his infant car seat as a high chair to feed him. I asked this question to my HV and she recommended that I start at 6 months as it's important for a baby's muscles to develop by the jaw.

The "food is for fun before one" thing is also not an official, evidence-based recommendation - or, rather, it's a bit of an oversimplification. Milk should, mostly, be their main source of nutrition before one - but (particularly for breastfed babies) food becomes an important supplement from six months.

The only other thing I'd add is: don't sweat it. The first few weeks are usually a massive anticlimax! You build up to Starting Weaning, ceremoniously put your baby in a highchair, present them with your lovingly prepared, carefully curated foodstuff of choice - and nowt happens. They might mush it around a bit, sometimes even near their faces, but it can be a slow process getting them to actually eat. Except when it isn't. They are all different!

I recommend baby led weaning. There are books and a Facebook group