Help! Can I start weaning at 3 months?

[Nickikate]

I am a first time mum, with only 1 friend with a baby :( A few mums at baby cafe have told me I can start weaning at 3 months, (and that they have done so) but I think that its supposed to be 4 months. I would like to try it, to see if it fills him up more, and maybe (here's hoping) will help him go thru' the night - he's still waking at 3am ish every night even if he has 5 x 7oz bottles thru the day! (he's 14.5 pounds)
Any advice would be very much appreciated!

solids makes no difference
i have a one year old who sleeps worse than your tiny baby

Hi nulnulcat :)

Just read your comments. my baby has bad reflux too, sometimes it seems like he's sick from one feed to the next!

how did you get on when you weaned?

Smellen, thank you for your 2 messages. yes sounds like we're at the same place really, with baby's weight & feeds etc. My dd feeds every 4 hrs, and wakes at 3am ish even though we wake him at 10/ 11pm. I'm bottle feeding now, was breast feeding and topping up with bottle from day 1 but have now stopped breast (he was given formula when he was born as I had diabetes and I never managed to keep up with his appetite after that, I battled with it for ages and was very upset when I stopped - so enjoy it, as i'm sure you are, its such a wonderful bonding exp)
Thank you for what you said about enjoying them while they're at this stage, you are so right. There's just so much to take in isnt there? and so many differnt opinions and I think I was just thinking that maybe the milk wasnt satisfying him, but now understand that it probably is, and that I have to delay weaning as long as poss. Mumsnet is invaluable when you havent got many friends/ family with babies to call on!

nikikate i would speak to dr first but i did find once i put dd on solids things did improve, even with medication she used to throw most of her feeds up honestly our house resembled the exorcist at times and because she wasnt keeping the feeds down she was always hungry! she was certainly a lot happier on solids and a lot less sick!

A decade or two ago it was quite normal to start baby rice etc at 3 months, if you had a big hungry baby and they werent sleeping through. The recommended age then was 4 months, but many health visitors suggested it earlier. I took this advice with my two, neither were overweight, one slept through one didnt but they were no trouble to wean at that age.

Additionally, the "rusk in the bottle" which my mum had given me, was lapped up by my two without any choking (if you do it properly) nor obesity. But it must have happened to someone or they wouldnt warn against it.

My daughter waited until 6 months to wean her entirely breastfed son. He would not touch purees and still will not eat any sloppy food or gravy (he is 3). He went straight to finger foods. I put his fussiness down to late weaning.

Perhaps the moral of the story is, read the guidelines, listen to your HV and make up your own mind.

I don't understand why a baby is expected to sleep through at 3 months. Or why the 'hungry baby' isn't just perceived to be having a growth spurt - which can still be satisfied with breast milk.

Perhaps your 'fussy' grandson just doesn't like the texture of sloppy food? And why would he, necessarily? Over ripe banana still makes me retch.

nickikate I did early weaning (15 weeks) which I regret now as my son has excema. He had started sleeping through the night then started waking up. The solids did nothing to help him start sleeping though again and did nothing to help his reflux. ( Iwas told it would help both things) It just meant we had to clear up multi coloured vomit instead of milk coloured stuff.

peaches, the 'rusk in the bottle' risk is not just obesity or choking - there is a risk of overloading the kidneys. Reason is that the baby normally satisfies thirst and hunger with formula milk, but a risk totally changes the fluid/solid balance of the feed. Not good.

Weaning at 6 mths is not more likely to cause fussiness with foods - there's research on this. Many three year olds don't like 'wet' foods - it's just a preference, and not a terribly incovenient one. I have come across it loads of times. Kids like this are usually fine with sauces on pasta, for some reason. It's gravy they don't like - I don't know why.

Please help, my baby son has started waking himself up in the night because he's rolling over on to his tummy and cant roll back.he's 5.5 mnths and was sleeping thru till this happened! Any ideas how i can help? advice much appreciated.

Hi, it might be a good idea to start a new thread on this in sleep

There’s been a massive study now that days government guidelines are wrong weaning at 3 months helps them sleep more and also helps with long term health

I started weaning my baby at 3 months and she’s been completely fine and loves it she has a little baby porridge in them morning which replaces her morning bottle and then half a jar of baby food at 5pm to replace that bottle she’s never hungry and since she’s been on a bit of food she sleeps so much better and hasn’t been getting as many colds

I think if you're going to post something like that, you really ought to include a link to the study you're referencing.

I would imagine the OP's child has started on solids already, anyway, given the thread is 14 years old!