Best way to give my sister advice on weaning? Or just butt out??

[Species8472]

My younger sister is fed-up because her DS2 seems hungrier and wants more bottles now at 4m. Some of her FB friends have said to start him on solids, they were advised to wean at 3.5m, 4m etc. I very gently let her know about the research advising 6m, and her own HV has advised 6m. One friend is saying that just because milk has more calories that won't necessarily fill him up more than baby rice or purees, and that obesity can stem from over-feeding milk (he is ff). Sounds like bs to me, but I'm no expert either.

I bf and no nothing about ff. I don't want to go on at her, but don't want her to take bad advice at face value either.

know. D'oh.

I would let her make her own choices, there is loads of information about when to start weaning and, like you said, her hv has told her what she thinks. You don't want to cause any friction and telling someone (however nicely) what to do or not to do with their child can only lead to problems. Plenty of people wean early for lots of different reasons, whatever she does I am sure her dc will be absolutely fine

milk is more filling , calorific and safe for babies of his age. if he is overfed on milk, he'll bring it back up. it is normal to have a growth spurt around 16 wks and 20 weeks and more mikl will fill him

is he draining a 9 oz bottle every hour?

even if he is hungrier, unless he is showing physical readiness for something other than milk, it's not the best idea to offer solids

also, how will one teaspoon of baby rice or pureed apple be more filling than a bottle of milk?

it makes more sense to up the milk, not add food, he's not going to take neough food to negate the need for more bottles anyway

I can sympathise with you, my sister has a baby 6 weeks older than mine. Her DS is dairy intollerant and has other gastro problems but insisted on weaning him early. I did try to tell her about the 6 month rule, but it's her third baby so she's just going off experience.

She was in abject horror at the weekend when we met and I fed by DD a load of finger food with not a spoon in sight.

It's different ways of doing things. I weaned by DS at 5 months on puree's but trying something different with my DD as she doesn't like the spoon much.

I would give advice very carefully if my sister is anything to go by. Just be there to offer support if needed.

Thanks. Yes, I haven't said anything else to her. I couldn't help getting drawn into her FB discussion as she was getting some very dubious (IMVHO) advice. Her DS is having 9oz bottles, but doesn't sound like it's as frequent as every hour; sounds like he's waking a bit more than he was, but he's about 4m so classic time for that.