Weaning my baby

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FTM here. What age did everyone start weaning their babies? I've read tons (and tons!) of advice that essentially says 6 months is the guidance but as long as they are no younger than 17 weeks go off when your baby is ready.

Did anyone wean before 6 months? Did you all just start with baby rice? Just have a few questions.

And before anyone starts having a go (Mumsnet can truly be the most judgemental place) I am not saying I will start my baby before 6 months just asking around at what other parents have done. My instinct tells me he might be ready sooner but also don't want do anything wrong.

6 months for both of mine as I didn't want them to end up with gut issues later down the line. They're now 2 and 7 and doing great. I wouldn't advise giving baby rice, it has no nutritional value. I followed baby led weaning.

I did both mine at 6 months and they were 8 months before they took a significant amount. The only mums I knew who started earlier were exclusively breastfeeding and desperate to reduce this without giving formula.

Baby rice has no nutritional value at all. It also won't make your milk dependant dc sleep all night.

Useful to fill holes not babies imo.

I weaned at 6 months, but it took ages till DS would take much in the way of solids, not till around 9 months when I went back to work and DH took over, and DS no longer had a readily available supply of milk on demand!

@BlackBoxes it was the other way round in my experience, the BF mums all waited till 6 months, the FF mums went with 4 (or even as early as 3, which was mad).

I weaned DS at 5 months on advice of medical professionals and whilst it helped it also meant I had another month of the faff that is weaning. Unless medically advised I'd stick to 6 months, I never got the rush some people have over it, it's so much easier when they are just on milk.

Sorry forgot to say, my eldest took to BLW straight away. My youngest ate very little until around 9 months but both eat well now. Just give them abit of what you're having and eat with them at meal times.

6 months. There’s no reason at all to start sooner than that unless under medical guidance. The gut isn’t ready for solids before around then, and as you can’t see inside your baby’s gut you’ve no way to judge if they’re ready sooner. Early weaning in linked to gut problems in adulthood because of this gut readiness issue. Just wait till 6 months, there’s no need to rush.

I started weaning the day after he turned 6 months. He was 6 weeks premature though, so his corrected age at that time was only 4.5 months, but the health visitor said to go by his actual age rather than his corrected age.

We started just with vegetable purees (carrots, peas, etc), and then added in some finger foods after a few weeks (solid starts is a really useful website/app for teaching you how to prepare different foods for different age babies). We didn't use baby rice as we wanted to get him used to trying different flavours.

He's now 2 and is a pretty good eater.

The signs that your baby is ready are:

They can sit unaided (with good upright posture, not leaning forward)
Can confidently grab something and bring it to their mouth
They swallow food - that is they no longer have the tongue thrust reflex which would make them spit it straight out

We were advised by our consultant paediatrician to wean DD1 at 4 months due to allergies. We waited until closer to 5 but she wasn’t really interested and didn’t eat properly until 8/9 months when she could properly feed herself.

Incidentally started weaning DD2 shortly after 5 months as she was doing all of the above and getting very upset at mealtimes that she didn’t have any food. She loved her food straight away but was bottle fed and had reflux so was a very different baby to EBF DD1.

Baby rice is pointless really. If you want to start with something like that start with baby porridge at least. But also just give them some finger food and some of what you’re having, it’s a lot easier.

have baby sit with you for meals so they become interested, and give them little bits of your food. No need for any 'baby' food, it's all ultra processed and bland!

I’m about to start DS at around 4.5 months.

my reasons for doing earlier include that early exposure to allergens at 4-6 months reduces allergies. Starting at 6 months could be too late. This is new research so doesn’t feature in current NHS guidance. See Gideon Lacks research on this.

I am EBF and babies are born with enough iron for 4-6 months. If I start weaning at 6 months he will take a few months to get used to it so won’t be taking in anything properly until 8 months plus as some others up thread have said. I don’t want him iron deficient. The old rhyme “food before one is just for fun” is nonsense and untrue. Milk doesn’t contain everything you need it doesn’t have iron.

“early weaning” is now used to describe any weaning before 6 months. When you look at the evidence used to guide the WHO report and the nhs recommendations, they define early weaning here as under 4 months. Definitely don’t wean your baby before 17 weeks but after 17 weeks is not early.

finally many European countries advise weaning from 4-6 months, not 6 months as we say.

Thanks for all the advice. Interesting to hear all your thoughts on baby rice. A friend of mine said that because it's made using their milk it's just a thicker texture, slightly different taste for them so an easy way to start.

I was planning on starting that way but perhaps not now!

Thanks ☺️

@LeMoax interesting. My son is also 4.5 months and I've been toying with the idea but nervous to "ruin his digestive system".

All my nieces/nephews were weaned at 4months and none have any issues (some in their 20s now). But there's so much scaremongering around doing it early I'm not sure if I will.

Although he's 4.5 months he's close to being able to sit unaided on the floor (he can do so for a few seconds already!). He can hold his head up completely fine. He has great hand/ eye coordination (all his toys are in his mouth). Essentially, what I'm trying to say, is he's showing all the signs of wanting to wean except for the fact he's coming up to 19 weeks so young.

I think my gut is saying to do it soonish (not quite yet!) but also to not necessarily wait until 6 months. But equally, that seems to be very controversial.

If it’s any consolation for those waiting, it is a right faff. You basically put lots of time and effort into preparing food, that gets smeared everywhere so you then have to clean it up. Baby doesn’t take much so they still need the same amount of milk feeds. Wait till 6 months and enjoy a couple of months where milk intake is in a routine making it easy to get out and about.

Most of my NCT group started early but I waited until 6 months. Agree with the others that it’s a faf and much easier when they are just on milk. Even if you just give them what you are having there’s still much more mess to clean up and you have to be careful with salt and sugar. Just because they are sitting up and putting things in their mouth doesn’t mean they are ready. It probably won’t reduce the amount of milk they are taking for quite a while either whether on formula or breastfed.

@BlackBoxes haha there is that. Sterilising/ preparing bottles is enough of a faff I'm not too keen to add to it 😂

My daughter has reflux and we tried to wean at 24 weeks so slightly early. She didn't take a spoonful of food until 27 weeks and didn't engage with weaning until 13 months! She's 3.5 and still mostly not fussed by food...

I couldn’t agree with this more. I personally wish it was later than 6 months as it’s a right anticlimactic faff.

Definitely wait until baby is sitting up and can have the correct posture for sitting in the high chair... this may be later than 6 months. Agree with a PP, the solid starts website is super useful for guides on preparing foods for each age group!

I started at 6 months and did baby led, started with fingers foods straight away. A single veg initially then combined things, then moved to recipes/family meals we all eat from a blw book. I've been lucky my baby has eaten everything from day 1, she's 1 now and still eats everything offered but I think it's more normal for them to play and explore initially

I'm honestly struggling to think of a reason why you would wean early? As others have said, it's a right ballache and there's just no health reason to (the PP going on about allergens is only valid if there is a history of allergens in the family)

OP, from reading your posts, you appear to want to do it just because your baby can sit up and has good hand eye coordination. That's not a sign that your baby is therefore ready to wean - those are simply the skills any and all babies will develop over the 4-6 month old period which are needed before you introduce solids at 6 months. It isn't a case of: baby can sit up = instantly start weaning. It's more a case of: baby is 6 around months, can they sit up, are they showing interest in food = if so, start weaning.

Is there an actual reason you think you should give your baby food? I'm assuming this is your first born? Are you just in a rush to try the next phase? Because that's not really a good enough reason to get them eating as their bodies are still maturing and are still designed solely to digest milk. As a mum of two under 3, both of whom are on solids, I'd enjoy the peace of just milk feeds for as long as possible

How can you tell they're "ready"?

What I meant was that you can't actually tell whether their guts are ready for solid food-so being able to sit up and hold things ans be interested in food is no more of an indicator that they are ready for weaning than being able to hold the steering wheel means that they are ready to drive a car...

@colourPink but its just unnecessary, why do you want to? Why rush? Are you also going to try and make him walk sooner or jump sooner, or will you just wake till he’s actually ready? I’d ask yourself why you think you want to go faster than literally all the current medical guidance

I'll just wait - was only seeing if anyone had weaned early.

Thanks for the advice