If your baby was early do u have to wait longer to wean them?

[CherryPie3]

Just wondering as ds2 was born at 36+1 - willi have to wait until he is 7 months old to start blw or will he still be ok at 6??

Never done blw before so really wanna get it right!
:)

Thanks xx

CherryPie, I had exactly this question with DD (born at 35 +3). The health visitor told me that weaning is not adjusted for prematurity and provided appropriate milestones have been met (sitting up without support, adequate grip, no tongue reflex) then BLW would be fine.

So she got her first bits to hold and lick at about 5.5 months. She's now nearly 7 months and tucking into her solids like a little trooper. The only point I would make is to take your time introducing new food groups: in hindsight I gave her too much dairy at the same time as introducing her to formula (exclusively BF before) and she now has some small eczema patches which may, or may not, be related.

Hi there. My DD was born at 31+1 and we started BLW when she was 27 weeks old.

There's not much advice out there for prems. Bliss advise you wean between 5-7 months actual age. My health visitor said there was no formal nhs advice so I should just go with my instinct. Our paediatrician said that DD's gut is the same age as her because it has been processing milk since she was born, so no need to correct her age when deciding when to wean.

We decided to start BLW once DD could sit up in her highchair and could competently pick up food and bring it to her mouth.

I don't think you can BLW too early, because if you try and the baby isn't ready, they just won't eat anything, as they won't physically be able to sit up and bring the food to their mouth. Hope that makes sense.

In your case, if you think about it, if your baby had been born just six days later he would have been considered term. So I think you go with your gut, and do it when DS physically seems ready.

If you are anxious about things, you could start him off on 'early weaning' foods like sticks of carrot?

HTH

That's brilliant thank you both :)

He's 24 weeks now so really can start testing him with little things now, most things seems to make him retch tho tbh. The only thing I can confidently say he likes is fromage frais (sp?) yoghurt.

He's definitely not at the right stage yet, he still isn't quite sitting independently yet although he does have a competent sitting position in his highchair. I don't think he's quite ready yet, so we're just gonna keep introducing flavours to him for the time being and then properly start blw mid January - or that's the plan anyhow :) He'll be about 28 weeks old then.

Thanks again for your answers, sorry it took me so long to get opine again to check xxxxx

Last line should read online rather than opine x

Both my DCs were induced at 37+0. Neither could sit up by 6 months, but I weaned them both at a few days over 6 months - the gut has been active with milk taken orally since birth - I think that's the point - rather than them being fed through the umbilical cord in utero. I would just point out that neither of mine sat properly until 10/11 months so I don't think it is a prerequesite for weaning.

DS2 was born at 35+6 so very similar - I've found he was a little behind his (on time) brother in milestones so I went very slowly from 6 months. He wasn't really sitting properly at that point and didn't look as competent as DS1 was at that point. He's now 10 months and is only really getting the hang of it now, but there's still loads of food on the floor! That's part of the beauty of BLW, you can only go at their pace so they show you when they're ready.