When do yo wean?

[CupcakesHay]

Hi

1st-time mum to be.... not due til end of Jan 2011... But husband is planning holidays already - which has got me thinking!

I'm hoping to breast-feed and I was wondering - roughly what age does weaning start at?

Thanks in advance,
H x

if by weaning you mean 'introducing solids', then 6m

if you mean 'stopping breastfeeding' then that is your choice - it's fine to bf for as long as you want, but they can't have plain cows' milk as a main drink before 12m.

hi Mrs Badger, yes - I meant introducing solids... I get a bit confused with all the technical names

So I can breast feed and start to give solid foods?

around the middle of the first year

oh yes - in fact you have to
at the beginning the amount they eat can be so teeny that they often still get most of their nourishment from milk (breast or formula) till they're 12m.

taking a 6mo or older on holiday is dead easy though - you can just sit them on your lap and give them bits off your plate. No need to fanny about pureeing stuff, heating jars etc - it's all a con by Heinz / Farleys / Annabel Karmel to make us spend more cash.

You can find the NHS advice leaflet on starting solid foods here.

The NHS recommends giving babies nothing but breastmilk for the first six months, and continuing breastfeeding alongside solid foods (see here).

I agree with MrsBadger - I'm doing baby led weaning (BLW) with my now 7 month old, which is where you skip the purees and just give them finger food. I've just come back from a week's holiday with him and he has loved eating all the things we've been having. It has been great fun for us as well as him.

I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a really helpful board on here on breast & bottle feeding - probably some of the best advice you can get IME.

Congratulations on your bump!

Stupid question but in a restaurant how do you know about salt used in cooking food? Or is the salt on a carrot cooked in salted water for example so small it's not a risk?

Pomme, presuming you don't eat in restaurants every day, you don't worry about it - things like salt in vegetable cooking water will be tiny amounts anyway and even if you did give your baby a chip or some sauce or something it's not going to kill them. It's the build up of salt over a long period of time which is dangerous.

I'd ask one of the staff if they use salt on the veg etc.

My own policy is that if it's one meal I don't worry too much, although I if we're eating out, I try to make sure he doesnt' eat too much salty stuff during the rest of that day. And I'd make sure I offer him a drink (water or breastmilk) with it, so that any excess salt can be easily flushed out of his system.

And I wouldn't give him things that I know are likely to be very salty.