weaning

[shelbelle]

My health visitor has told me to stop feeding my baby,baby rice because the government guidelines are that you should wean them at 6mths he is 4mths and loves every spoonfull what should i do?

Be grateful you have a HV that talks sense?

I am not slating my hv maybe i should have worded it beta.But i cannot see what is so wrong in giving MY baby a little bit of rice come 12o clock as that is when he is more hungry i havent stopped giving him milk at that time he will be given it up until he decides when he doesn't like it anymore.Why sell it on the shelves and be on the packets from 4mths an ova if ur not supposed to give it him anymore.My other 2 boys who are aged 9 an 10 ,i was told off for not starting weanin them at 4mths.No things change but i cant see what harm it is doing for my babe.

here is a link that explains why you should wait till 6 months to wean. I know a lot of people do wean earlier, so I guess it's your call.

I started my DD at five months...Her digestion coped with it fine with no adverse effects so I went with it. If the baby rice was going to be bad for your baby at 4 months your baby's body would figure out a way of telling you. I think there is a lot of importance on making sure your baby gets enough milk at such a young age and there is a worry that introducing solids too early may disrupt that and they will take less milk. If your is taking just the same and all is going well...then it simply is "going well".

What should I do? Don't ask a HV for advice if you think everything is going fine.

There is nothing wrong with offering your 17 weeks old baby rice and other first stage foods.

THe government GUIDELINES say 6 months but no earlier than 17 weeks. This is adopted wholesale from the WHO guidance which is based upon largely superseded allergy studies and the belief that a breastfed baby (and the WHO work on the basis that all babies are breastfed) who is weaned prior to 6 months will drop their milk intake to such an extent that the mothers supply will be threatened and she wont be able to BF for the full two years they would like to see.

Both the British and American dietetic societies agree that weaning should take place between 4 and 6 months and find no evidence that babies introduced to solids before 6 months suffer a higher incidence of allergies or other gastrointestinal issues.

www.bda.uk.com/publications/statements/PositionStatementWeaning.pdf