Weaning - 5 or 6 months?

[testy1997]

I'm confused on when to start weaning my baby. Much of the advice is conflicting. Some say 6 months and others say it is important for exposure to allergens to begin at 5. My LG is not displaying eagerness for food but we have a history of allergies in the family so I am keen to expose her as quick as I can it beneficial. Does anyone have any advice or actual solid research to help me?

Allergy UK says 4-6 months for babies at high risk of allergies and 6 months for babies not at high risk. They've got a really good booklet on the page I linked which I used when I was weaning my DD (now 3, no allergies!).

6 months has been the advice for decades. Unless advised by a medical professional I would wait.

Although personally I never got why anyone felt the need to rush weaning it's tedious, messy and annoying.

@YourNameGoesHere she's my second so definitely not in a rush as I know how easy it is when they're just on milk! But there is lots of info out there now to say 6 months isn't actually optimal and so am just trying to weigh up the research.

If she can sit up unaided, has lost the tongue thrust reflex and can move her hands to her mouth I’d start. I stuck with 6 months, but think introducing allergens as soon as possible is always a good idea.

Remember with allergens it’s rarely the first or even the second time they react, it’s usually after a few goes of it, so keep giving them even if no reaction.

I think you should go by her interest level where the guidelines differ. What is the allergy? I was reading yesterday that the early introduction only seems to apply for certain allergies, not all of them. It's complicated, basically!

If she's showing no interest then I'd wait until she's 6 months. All babies are different, mine started at 4 months

@BertieBotts suspected cows milk allergy! And the family allergy is dairy!

My daughter has allergies and we started weaning at 24 weeks to see it would help with her reflux. She was 27 weeks before she had her first spoon of food!
She was a very slow weaner and didn't have her first meal until 13 months.
We were under the care of a dietician and by 8 months we had tried a lot of the big allergens and the dietician was happy with this. We had already identified allergies to dairy, soya, eggs and celery whilst breastfeeding so we did have a smaller list to try than everyone else!

EAT study for allergies showed high risk (allergy) children did far better being weaned with the foods at 3 months.

I did this with my daughter after a previous child with multiple life threatening allergies and while the first month was rough, they can eat anything now.

www.food.gov.uk/research/food-allergy-and-intolerance-research/eat-study-early-introduction-of-allergenic-foods-to-induce-tolerance#:~:text=The%20EAT%20Study%20was%20funded,eczema%2C%20by%20the%20age%20of

Your baby has probably already been exposed to cow's milk protein, unless you are breastfeeding and strictly dairy free yourself, so early weaning would have no benefit in this instance since the exposure is already there.

The general gist now is 6 months unless at high risk of allergies (early onset eczema a key risk, or existing CMPA). If at high risk, introduce egg and peanut early and regularly if no reaction. Less data on other allergens and whether introducing them early is useful but I did personally once I’d got the main ones out of the way.

It’s not really weaning as such - I just did a couple of spoons of something with the allergen in once a day until 6 months.