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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

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Original poster

sounding off about weaning advice

24 replies

dobbin · 14/09/2005 15:06

I've just got back from my gp surgery where I was summoned to a session on weaning. I was told quite strongly that I should be introducing solids now because my ds (18 weeks) will not get enough of everything from milk. The signs he needs food are: chewing his hands (he's done this since 8 weeks old), watching me eat (in fact he watches me whatever I do), waking in the night (he's just started sleeping for 12 hours).

I'm cross about this because, having been educated by mumsnet I feel confident I can feed him to 6 months without detrimental effect. I have also really struggled with breast feeding and can safely say I'm still rubbish at it but he's thriving so I'm quite pleased to have got this far.

Much of her advice was anecdotal, e.g. feed only organic food because it cures eczema, and she gave her friend's baby as an example.

When I commented that WHO advice was to bf for 6 months, she just gave her years of experience as being more valuable...

Thanks, I feel better for getting that off my chest.

OP posts:

Swirl · 14/09/2005 15:14

Dobbin its maddening isnt it. Apart from Mumsnet, EVERYONE is suggesting weaning to me for my 18 wk old DS too. The list includes my GP, my HV, parents, inlaws, husband, friends, random strangers in supermarket! If it wasnt for the support on Mumsnet I'd definitely have given in to the pressure.

cas73 · 14/09/2005 15:17

My hv with dd1 suggested weaning from 16 weeks, but 15 months later, the hv with dd2 (different hv) said the guidlines had change and is now recommened to wean closer to 6 months but not after that. Hope this helps.

Miaou · 14/09/2005 15:24

and on your behalf, Dobbin.

I was discussing weaning with my HV the other day and she was fully supportive of me wanting to wait until 6 months.

Psychobabble · 14/09/2005 15:38

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Caligula · 14/09/2005 15:41

What does the NHS suggest nowadays? The same as the WHO or not?

hunkermunker · 14/09/2005 15:47

I'm considering starting a campaign to shoot stupid health visitors. Fecking ignorant buggers, so many of them - they do more harm than good a lot of the time, I'm QUITE sure.

Dobbin, if you go and see her again, ask her whether your DS should be learning to read/do DIY/drive as he watches you do these things intently...! And you're NOT rubbish at breastfeeding!

maisiemog · 15/09/2005 00:55

What's going on!! It's crazy isn't it. I wonder what our parents were being told, they seem so keen to give our babies pork chops and ravioli whenever they open their mouths.
My mum is a keen organic food, environmentally conscious woman and she started talking about baby rice in the bottle when ds was about five months.
Who knows what I was being fed as a baby!!

highlander · 16/09/2005 12:43

dobbin, I would complain to your health centre and PCT about this HV - her advice is wrong. The best advice I was given is that 'weaning' shuld be replaced with 'tasting' until 9 months. Until then your baby actually needs very little extra calories.

alux · 16/09/2005 21:14

bloody hell. With HV's like that around, I feel sorry for young, naive and partially educated teen mums.

muppet73 · 16/09/2005 21:30

I have just been to a weaning talk this week too and we were advised definately not to try before 17 weeks and to try not to give solids until 6 months. If anyone was having problems with a baby wanting more than milk before 6 months then they would help us through it.

Also that the first couple of months was just to get the baby used to tasting food anyway and that it wasn't for the calories necessarily.

Very positive nursery nurse took the talk and felt no pressure - shame dobbin you didn't have same experience.

my dd is too doing all the signs you describe and also playing with her milk feed (I'm now bottle feeding her)I asked if this was another sign she needed food and again I was advised that she was just learning to play with her tongue and mouth and that this was just a step towards experimenting with food so no need to rush into weaning.

muppet73 · 16/09/2005 21:32

funny storey - my elderly neighbour - lovely lady - came round last week with a tub of stewed apple. my dh and I ate it with some ice cream and very nice it was too - only now do I realise that I think she meant it for my lo - that generation obviously used to babies being weaned very early on lol

Original poster

dobbin · 17/09/2005 13:09

I have really appreciated all your views. It is hard to resist the pressure sometimes. Especially this week when ds has just done 3 days of feeding for one and a half hours each time. Maybe he needs solids??? Well, maybe he needs more milk and he's just putting in a big order. I'm persevering and think/hope/pray it'll balance out in a day or so. I'd like to have the kind of support muppet73 describes just to know I'm doing the right thing.

OP posts:

frannyf · 17/09/2005 13:17

Dobbin, I do feel for you having had similar advice myself. I wanted to wait until 6 months but did not quite manage it before caving under all the pressure. Bigger babies need more milk and it's hard on you sometimes to be the sole source of nutrients, but your milk does give everything that's needed. Try reading on kellymom or Dr. Sears' websites if you feel you need reassurance, I always found I was really unsettled after getting crap advice even if I knew it was downright wrong. We all want to do the best for our babies and someone suggesting you are doing it wrong is so demoralising.

maisiemog · 17/09/2005 22:28

Dobbin, you are doing a fantastic job and the very best for you little one. It is hard in the early days, but eventually you will come out the other end and be proud of yourself.

aprilmeadow · 18/09/2005 23:16

I had a HV (not my regular one) scowl at me when i asked about weaning. I told her that i wanted to start weaning when ds was 17wks(is 21wks now), as i am due to go back to work in oct and wanted to get him started rather than letting the nursery. She lectured me on all the negatives blah blah blah, and said not to start until 6mths. The following week i went to see my GP and whilst there i asked him what he thought, and he was all for it.

I thought about it for a week or so and decided to try him on some pureed sweet potato - had stocked up the freezer with a whole heap of pureed fruit and veg - and decided that if he liked it i would continue, if not then i would wait a bit. The up shot, was that he loved it and gets so excited when he sees his bib come out the drawer.

As I was told in my ante-natal classes - 'this is your baby, and only you know what is right for him/her'.

If your bubs is gaining weight doing what you are doing, then great. You will know when the time is right

tatt · 19/09/2005 06:46

dobbin you can't be rubbish at feeding because you're still doing it when a lot of women find it too hard. That makes you a success If you can feed until 6 months you will reduce the risk of joining us on the allergy section and your health visitor should really be reported. Late weaning is generally considered a better protection against eczema than organic food.

When I introduced my firstborn to baby rice (before 6 months as the advice was then) she wolfed it and I felt like a terrible mother for holding out longer than my friends. Now I wish I'd held out longer.

When you do start rice and then pear are good foods

lockets · 19/09/2005 07:31

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lockets · 19/09/2005 12:55

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tatt · 19/09/2005 13:23

health visitors are bad enough without having one as a mother-in-law! Iron levels in breast milk aren't enough long term but that's taken into account in the official advice.

Kidstrack2 · 19/09/2005 13:46

Its a bit sad really when our Health Profesionals i.e Health Visitors can't even give us the correct advice about weaning our babies on to solid foods, I thought they were all trained in the same way, obviously not when they give us thier own personal opinion and not the medical advice we so much need to know. I went with the flow so to speak with my 2kids and my ds was weaned at 16weeks and my dd was 23weeks.

hunkermunker · 19/09/2005 13:48

OMG< Lockets!

Iron levels in breastmilk are perfectly fine - it's extremely "bio-available" which means the baby only needs tiny amounts as they process it all. Iron added to formula (and follow-on, unnecessary stuff) isn't as digestible, so whilst you are feeding your baby more iron, they're excreting more too.

I'll come to lunch with you next time, Lockets

lockets · 19/09/2005 17:32

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Marie12 · 19/09/2005 18:05

dobbin, you are NOT rubbish at breastfeeding if you have kept with it all this time - well done, you should be proud of yourself!

maisiemog · 19/09/2005 21:24

Lockets apart from anything, she sounds like a nosey old wotsit, it's hardly her business how you are feeding your baby, she's not YOUR HV (thank goodness).
Is she still practicing? She sounds like she hasn't done any further training since the 70s (the 1970s not the 1870s, mind you.... )
I also read that the baby's own iron reserves don't begin to deplete to a level where additional iron is required until 6 months, and as Hunkermunker said, the iron in breastmilk is the most easily assimilated for a baby, so why that woman thought breastmilk was inadequate escapes me.
I think you should arrange another lunch and calmly tell her that you would prefer to listen to the latest information, as she is obviously not aware of of current medical advice. Meeeiaow!! Hee hee

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