Who and what affected your decision to wean when you did?

[jotravers]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a mum of a toddler, and a student, and after weaning my baby I decided to do my dissertation on why people wean the way they do. I have put a questionnaire on the media requests page (i.e. I paid the fee!) and I would really love it if I could get your answers. I think that the information I was given from health visitors etc didn't take real life into account so I want to hear what other real people think too.

My original post is at www.mumsnet.com/Talk/media_nonmember_requests/1422893-A-survey-about-weaning-your-baby

Thanks so much for your help!!!!!!!!!

Can you do the link again jo?

Incorrect advice from a health visitor. Ds was 12 weeks, I was advised to wean him as he was a big baby. 2 weeks later I was told to give him weetabix. I wish I'd have had mumsnet back then.

Link

Aren't I nice?!

Primarily DS did! We weaned at 6 months, mostly because he wasn't bothered before then. He was happy with milk and not interested in our food etc.
I did ask the HV but she gave some very vague advice about DS being a big baby so it didn't really matter

We weaned on purees, but gave finger foods quite early. I'd done some reading about BLW (on Mumsnet and other places) and was interested in the concept but not really brave enough to try it. As it was, he ate anything and everything that was put before him so he probably would have been fine but I was nervous about not knowing how much he'd eaten etc.

Wigeon you are indeed lovely. There, do you feel better now?

Thank you JiltedJJ!

Have completed the questionnaire. Just a couple of points:

It would be useful to have an option for "maternity leave" under q12 about employment status, or a sentence saying "please put your usual working pattern if you are on maternity leave".

As the NHS advice is "around 6 months" to wean, rather than giving an number of exact weeks (see here for example), none of the options are technically correct because both the option "21-25 weeks" and "26+ weeks" are "around 6 months".

I second Wigeon's points.

And also want to say this sounds like a very interetsing topic for dissertation, will you come back and tell us your findings?

It might be useful to say what age children you're interested in hearing from the parents of - dd is 4 weeks and I got the 'thanks, that's all we need' from the first screen, but as ds is 3 1/2 I didn't feel he counted as a 'baby'.

FWIW he had his first taste of food at a family party buffet the day before 6 months, which was the first time he'd tried to touch any solid food (a raspberry!). I waited to 6 months as per guidance, as he was growing well with 98% breastmilk (yes, I was an obsessive geek and calculated how much formula he'd had...), milk has more calories than most food per volume so I didn't believe solids would help him sleep, and after having nephews aged 7 and 9 months stay, I was happy to postpone the mess of weaning for as long as possible!

I got loads of conflicting advice from HVs etc, including a dreadful seminar on weaning that confused everyone - the only useful bit was the HV who sighed and said "you GIVES them FOOD" when I asked about how to wean! In retrospect, anyway. :)

I've filled it in. I think DS tried an apple at around 25 weeks. I'm not sure if being a more or less full-time mum counts as being unemployed? I certainly don't feel unemployed even if I'm not earning money!

Hi Mums,

It's great hearing all your stories. I will definitely let you know the findings. I should have all my data analysed by the beginning of May fingers crossed, but I'm happy to give you early results as and when I have them.

Here is the link again in case it wasn't working.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/media_nonmember_requests/1422893-A-survey-about-weaning-your-baby?msgid=30539387#30539387

J x

Working link

Jo - to make web addresses into hyperlinks, you put at the start and then at the end of the link. Then the whole web address appears, like this:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/media_nonmember_requests/1422893-A-survey-about-weaning-your-baby?msgid=30539387#30539387

If you want the link to the web address to say some words, then you do www.webaddress.com Some Words Here

like this http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/media_nonmember_requests/1422893-A-survey-about-weaning-your-baby?msgid=30539387#30539387 Some Words Here

See the instructions below the "Add your message here" box, under "Links".

Widgeon, where have you been all my life?!? Thanks for the tips :)

You guys are brilliant!

So far I have 50 responses but I really need to get about 150 to get really good quality data, so if you know anyone else who might fill it it, please send them the link!!

J x
P.S. Have added a line about maternity leave in the employment question.

Fantastic! Thanks Everyone I'm still about 20 responses short so if you know anyone who might like to fill it out, please forward them the link!

One of the really interesting things to come out in the early results is that almost nobody found advice from their partner's mother important in the decisions they made about weaning. From my personal experience, I know that Mother's-in-law tend to give a lot of advice too!