9 weeks old & being weaned!!

[CourtneyA]

Ive heard from a friend that her friend is weaning her baby at 9WEEKS old!! Am slightly concerend as the baby is being given things like baked beans and meals that the mum is eating but mushed up.
Am i right to be concerned? my fear is that the baby will become really ill as they can not cope with the food its being fed.

If you know who it is, call their doctor or health visitor. That baby could choke. The parent is obviously thick and will need it explained to her by a professional. Good luck OP, you are right to be concerned

It's the salt content that is dangerous - the kidneys of such a young baby won't be able process the salt in baked beans...

Thanks for your replies,
At least Im not the only one who thinks this is highly dangerous. The mum is claiming that the hungrier baby milk is not satisfying his hunger and that she has to feed too much!!

in my opinion she is just being lazy and is trying to find an easy way out of it!

Nevermind just the salt content in baked beans, giving a 9 week old anything apart from milk could do their immature insides real damage.

Could she be suffering from PND? I can only think that you would resort to that (for that reason) if you were desperate for your baby not to be hungry/stop crying.

She says baby is hungry, increase amount of formula/frequency of feeds. She needs to be told this. You need to call her HV because this is very dangerous for the baby.

My cousins wife comes from the phillipenes and also claims her 3.5mo is hungry and this is why she has put him on solids (this is what they do where she comes from)...I saw her feeding him cream from a cake and ice cream. I had to walk away. I later tried to explain to her that she she try increasing feeds but she says that where she comes from you teach babies to grow up fast! Crazy!!!

My sister gave her 3 month old cheesecake. I can't bring myself to ask if she's planning on doing the same with baby 2.

In my opinion she is just being lazy and is trying to find an easy way out of it!

I don't think you have any right to assume that about someone you've never met. She might just going utterly crazy from lack of sleep (been there myself) and/or struggling with BFing, and is a bit ignorant and receiving bad advice from family/friends. She does need to know that what she's doing is very dangerous, but understanding might get you further than judgementalism.

That came out a little blunter than I intended! But I can imagine a scenario where someone is really struggling with sleep loss or PND and is being bombarded with "I weaned at 9 weeks and it didn't do mine any harm" type advice from older relatives.

There are people out there who are generally ignorant to safety advice. People wean at 9 weeks, drive round with their babies not secured in a car, Etc.

They claim to have done it with their previous children, that it was done with them, that of course they dont need to speak to their GP about it.

It fucks me off that parents dont arm themselves with information that is so so so easily avaliable in order to keep their LOs safe from harm.

If she is a friend of yours, I think it is important that you speak to her about the dangers weaning at 9 weeks can cause. Obviously if you dont know her it'd be odd to just randomly approach her. What did your friend say about it?

At 9weeks old, her dc should be having milk as much as he needs. Shame in her for putting his body through this just to make life easier for her.

The hospital weaned my DD at 10 weeks (she's 5 now) because she wouldn't take milk and was so under nourished and lacking in vitamins, that was only a few spoons of a baby food jar 5 times a day.
I'd read so many things that said not to as it could harm her, but figured if the hospital were making me do it it couldn't do that much harm
I'd be concerned if he had told her to feed her beans tho, I'd personally mind my own business but I'd your that concerned speak to someone. !!

It's the beans that are the real concern here. They're full of salt. There was very sad a case a few years ago when a baby died when its well meaning but clueless parents fed it ready brek and homemade purées loaded with gravy etc. salt poisoning.

FWIW I was weaned at 6 weeks. Quite horrifying but it didn't do me any harm.

penalty that case is over ten years old.

there's no added salt in ready brek - it contains less than 0.1g of sodium.

No, it shouldn't be given to a baby less than 6 months old, but then a baby less than six months old shouldn't be weaned anyway.

courtneya I agree with others here that you should do something with this knowledge. either get your friend to speak with the mum directly about the harm she is causing, or go through SS/HV team if you have to. it's very dangerous to do nothing.

I have pnd & was struggling enormously, however no matter how desperate would not have started weaning early! I don't think any educated mum would, I would think she doesn't know any better. However no idea if there's any way you can change things. People tend to be pretty determined that their way is the right way & you don't actually know her. Get a leaflet to pass on to her?

Not everyone has particularly high literacy or education levels. Some people will always be more swayed by what their DM or the woman down the road did forty years ago than current guidelines. It doesn't necessarily mean they're intentionally evil.

"It doesn't necessarily mean they're intentionally evil." - Thinking entirely of my sister, whose son had no nutritional issue like the poster above, my response to this is "no. Just stupid."

My friend was also very concerned so involved the HV who i think has gone on to involved SS.

Somewherewest - I wasnt being judgemental as after posting this I spoke to my friend who had seen this lady and she said she wanted an easy way out and couldnt be bothered with sterelising soo many bottles!

I hope SS are able to give some support. I feel so sorry for that little baby. The early days are hard and with FF it can feel like you are constantly washing and sterilising bottles, but there's no way around it. The mother clearly needs support from partner, SS, someone.

how hard can washing and sterilising bottles be? I am BF but using a little formula and some expressed milk to share out the late evening/stupid o clock in the morning feeds. It takes me all of about five minutes to wash breast pump parts, storage cup, feeding bottle etc and to pop these in the steriliser and stick it in the microwave. I assume a 9 week old is on about six bottles a day so really, this job can't take up more than 10 minutes of time. Anyway surely weaning makes a shit load of mess in your house that you then have to clean up - way more time consuming than washing a bottle.

Don't 9 week olds still have that tongue thrust reflex to prevent them from swallowing food?