Uneasy about my babys readiness

[scarletmonkey]

Hi all,

I hope you can give me some advice, my LO is 21 weeks and is showing all the signs of being ready for weaning (sitting unaided well, co ordinated grabbing of objects and going in the mouth etc). The HV has advised he's ready for some solids. I've given him a little baby rice mixed with BM (he's exclusively BF), which he's taken and swallowed no prob.

So that's all fine, but, i dunno there's just a BUT inside me somewhere. I'm not 100% convinced i'm doing the right thing, despite HV advice, and everyone around me telling me he must be hungry. His centiles have been dropping from 98th (10lb 2oz, big lad!) at birth to 75th at last weigh in when HV suggested he was ready.

He's been waking and feeding in the night suddenly which again, everyone is telling me means he's hungry for more than milk now. But, he's also teething, so i'm not sure if he's waking with hunger or pain, though he does go to sleep after a feed for another few hours. I really wanted to wait until he was six months.

I want to do the right thing by him. I don't want to leave him hungry if he's truly ready, but i also didn't want to wean before 6m because of the potential problems it can cause. I don't know what to do for the best!

Solids aren't actually much more filling than milk, and I'm afraid even babies on solids can be waking through the night.

I found a lot of pressure from various sources to wean earlier than 6 months, but if you don't want to it can be difficult.

I ended up doing BLW (there's loads of stuff about that on here), which kind of meant that if DS could pick it up and put it in his mouth, he was allowed it, (obviously there's a bit more to it than this!) which took the pressure off me making the decision on how much to feed him at what age.

Looking at DS' peers, (I'm still in touch with my antenatal group) at least one was weaned before 6 months and she gobbled up all food given to her and seems to have done well with it - she also crawled, walked, talked and was potty trained significantly earlier than the others.

Personally, I would say that you know your child best and if giving him solids feels wrong at this age then wait a little longer.