INtroducing food, DID it do YOU any harm?

[dabihp]

lots of threads, on when, and new advice etc etcc....

So, Back in trhe day when they new no differnt (before steralisers and disposable nappies)

When were you (or your parents) given solids, and what, and did it really do you any harm???

I was weaned on mashed potatoes and custard, and it made me really fat.

How can you tell 'harm' though? You can't see your own arteries!

I was bf - and weaned on the 'proper' food at about 5 months old - I'm a fat short arse now.

My older brother was bottlefed, and had his first solids (Wheetabix in his bottle ) at about 6 weeks old - he's now a 6ft lean bloke........

AND - I was the 'sporty' one at school - he used to bunk off. I'm now completely unfit - hardly managed to run for the bus, and he runs a couple of marathons a year, and frequently goes on 50miles+ bicycles rides for "pleasure".

Something went wrong somewhere I think........

I was b/f for 6 months but started on solids (baby rice) at about 6 weeks. I think I was fed loads of jars and after my mum stopped b/f'ing I was given cows milk. I am hale, hearty, no allergies and, beyond mild colds, never ill. However, this is pretty meaningless really ....... I was just lucky I guess.

I was bf until 7 mths
sadly my mother smoked throughout pregnancy and I had the legacy of pneumonia, pleurisy, my brother had constant ear infections and glue ear and grommets.
but as adults we're all spectacularly healthy really, we've all had our hearts checked as my dad died if MI at 49 so we've all gone private to have ours checked - one brother is higher risk and hs modified his lfestyle accordingly and halted and even fixed some of the artery clogging hue had started. more down to his diet or ecstasy and mcdonalds and vodka in his early 20's methinks....
my mother fed us all from adele davis books, no sweets, cheese sarnies milk in our drink bottles, fruit and homemade treats, solid well cooked evening meal with dencet pudding.

We're all slim and within healthy weight range - none of us really has to work at it tbh.

I was bottlefed, and given solids from six weeks or so.

I have asthma, excema, and an antibiotic allergy. Oh, and IBS. I tend towards being a bit heavy, but not so much as my (breastfed, but given solids early) sister.

I don't think this sort of anecdotal evidence is really useful, though.

but NQC its fun to hypothesise tee hee

I was tested for anorexia at 4 because I was so thin, and refused to eat. Had SMA from birth. I'm now too fat, unfit blah blah but I blame this and my earlier scrawniness on my mother's odd attitude to food. She would literally feed us until we vomited if we let her.

My brother was obese as a baby because he lived on sma and chocolate pudding from the age of 8 week! He is now a very fussy eater with loads of allergies, and is quite thin, and has been since he was 3.

My sister was fed sma from birth, was always a large child, and is now a large teenager with a weird attitude to food.

It's all about the attitude to foods, I think any extreme diet should be banned for kids unless they physically need it. My dad had cholestorol problems when I was 14, bro was 9 and sis was 4. We were all banned from eating eggs because of the cholestorol content.

My parents got so naggy that I eventually refused to eat in front of them. My sister is the same. My brother came under no critisism because he was a thin child.

neither me nor my sister like to eat in front of our father, but we just tell our mum to shut up, because she is just as fat as us

Not so much weaning but I was fed plain cows milk in a bottle at 6 weeks and then spent 3 months in hosp with massive allergic reaction and gastroenteritis. Had excema badly all through childhood and now have asthma and lots of allergies. Also had quite a serious auto-immune blood disorder when I was 12 and now have impaired immune system. Big sis however was given the same milk and weaned at 6 weeks and has hardly ever had a day's sickness in her life. You just don't know which children might be susceptible.

yes, it did, but that is because allergies and food intolerance runs in our family.

my mother drank cows milk and ate cheese religiously through her pregnancies, weaned us onto cows milk at 6 months, and we had to drink a pint of cows milk every day as children, even though we hated the stuff.

Ended up with headaches, runny noses, aching limbs, depression, candida infection and multiple food allergies/reactions. even today, I cant digest cows milk.

I was very careful to avoid cows milk while pg, and for my children in their first year, and hope they wont develop the same symptoms.

I was breastfed for 6 months, formula after that, and my mother introduced solids at 6 weeks. As a child I was a normal weight but am now obese - not sure whether there's a link there or not.

She smoked throughout the pregnancy and until I was about 14, and I had/have more health problems from that than from early weaning. I had pneumonia as a child, I have asthma, and constant ear infections and glue ear as a child which went untreated have damaged my ears and left me partially deaf.

was actually banking on most ppl saying 'no, didnt do me any harm'

Formula fed until around 8/9 months then onto cows. What appears strange is my mum didn't wean until I was around 7/8 months and swears this was the norm (I am 34). She smoke and drank all the way through. I am a podgy adult, wasn't as a child but was always well-built (to coin a phrase) but very active.

No problems with my health at all - disgustingly healthy TBH!

Formula only for about 6 months, and then pretty much normal food.

My mum worried a lot with my older sister, and ended up paranoid with a very fussy eater... then my grandad pointed out that in his day, they'd just fed em anything without worrying about too much salt etc, and kids seemed a lot easier - so she went with her heart more than books with me.

I am fairly healthy now - I do have eczema and asthma, but so does my mum who was breastfed. Not grossly over or under weight. Eat most things put in front of me.

I do need a lot more sleep than most people... I think its just the way my body works though.

Am amazed you can all remember that far back

mu cousin bottle fed her boys from day 1, and weaned them at 6 wks (she is very influenced by her old fashioned mother)

whereas i breast fed for a while, and weaned at 6 months

her boys are problematic with excema and blocked eye ducts and my girls are healthy.

will be interesting to see what the future holds for them all, but who says its been the diet?

well never know

I was bottle fed and weaned at 4 months (as was my brother)- I suffer on and off with IBS and have hayfever, my brother has loads of allergies - dust mites, cats, horses, rubber (!), has psoriasis and used to have asthma (although has now grown out of this).

Don't know if there is any connection though.

Oh - both of us are slim but think that is more to do with genetics than anything else (my father struggles to put weight on).

I was on mashed up rusk by 8 weeks. Have no allergies, no asthma, no health problems other than grotesquely enlarged tonsils. Don't think I can blame rusk for those!!!!

Didn't have a drop of breast milk either.

I was bottle fed, weaned at 12 weeks, first mars bar at around the same time, fruit juice before bed
I am overweight with many fillings

Not ideal and I knowing what I know now I don't think my mom would do the same

Both my brother and I were premature (mother smoked and drank throughout pregnancy).

Bottlefed from birth, weaned at 6 weeks on rusk mashed with a milk bottle then hole in teat made bigger with a nail so it could flow through, 8 weeks was given custard and mince and tatties (with proper mince not gravy). Stopped breathing and was rushed to hospital at 7 months with asthma/bronchitis. Had numerous chest infections as a child. May be related may not.

Thing I find horrid is that both my mother and father chain smoked 40 fags a day and all my relatives smoked and sometimes there would be 6 or more people in the living room puffing away in front of a newborn, I must have stank!

I think that the thing with anecdotal evidence is of course, some people will be fine if they're weaned early - and some people won't.

And some people will have allergies, etc if they're breastfed till 6 months and weaned onto organic everything, and some people won't.

But as there's no way of knowing who until they're adults (and things like breastfeeding seems to have a protective effect on things like blood pressure for the rest of your life, for instance), why not take advantage of the fact that there is research out there that's considerably broader and more controlled than anecdotal evidence from a handful of friends and family?

Personally, I'd go with the WHO over somebody's auntie's cousin's nephew's wife says any day

the most fascinating thing about this thread is all the things that our mums did!

I once heard about a m/w advising a mum to feed a small baby egg white, semi-cooked, ie still gloopy, to help it get to sleep at night. Back in the 60s. it worked a treat apparently.

what will our children think!