Weaning

[skyberry]

I am so fed up with going along to baby groups, friends houses etc and finding everyone has weaned before the recommened 6 months. Does anyone wait till then?
I feel like i'm constantly being judged for waiting. DD is 21 weeks and breastfed. She shows no signs of needing to be weaned. Yet people offend imply that developmently shes behind or small for her age etc. She is content with breastmilk (feeds on demand but approximately feeds 3 hrly in the day) and is on 75th centile.

She doesn't sleep through the night but in my opinion this is normal for a baby at this age. She dream feeds at 2230hrs then has a feed at 0530 ish.

Do people not worry about the health implications of early weaning. Health professionals don't say this for no reason. Obviously i'm aware there is always an exception to the rule and that some babies will be ready before 6 months bot surely they should be in the minority not the majority. Sorry rant over.

DD1 - weaned at 22 or 24 weeks.
DD2 - weaned at 25 weeks.

The guidance is "around 6 months" rather than "exactly on 26 weeks to the day", so I felt I was sticking to the guidelines. I sure you will find loads of people on here waited til "around 6 months".

Neither of mine were sleeping through then, and weaning made absolutely no difference to their sleep either. From what I've read, there is no scientific evidence to show that weaning will help them sleep better.

I didn't know that weaning would help even if your baby was "developmentally behind"?! I don't know what these people are talking about.

6 months here for DD2. It went much better than with DD1 8 years ago. She is such a brilliant eater now.

You are doing the right thing

Wigeon I totatally agree with you about the round about 6 months thing.My DS was weaned at 24 weeks. I guess i'm refering to early weaning. there are just so many people I know or meet who wean around 17 weeks.
Which is surely to early for most. How they even to do it amazes me. Don't young babies have a tongue reflex thing?

24 weeks for me. I'd say that's around 6mo. But I found I was the latest to wean my DD in my NCT group.

27 weeks for me and he is thriving.

Spoonfeeding overrides the babies gag reflex etc.
For some reason mums cannot wait for weaning to happen unlike all the other developmental milestones, they 'see' the 'signs' that say baby 'needs' to wean and start irrespective of guidelines or if baby is doing just fine on their growth patterns.
Stick to your guns, nothing wrong with your baby.

6 months here but most her age had started earlier than that

Some people may have had to wean early I certainly did my DS was draining almost 50oz a day by 20wks, hungry every 2.5hrs, he started waking more in the night etc his tummy was immense and I don't think he could have taken anymore milk without it hurting him.

Luckily he could sit well then and the first time I gave him some baby rice (which coincidentally was pretty much the last time as it was a waste of time) he grabbed the spoon and would not let go.

The 6 month guidelines are great but they are just that guidelines they aren't going to fit all babies!!

figgy i think they say if your baby is having over 40-45oz of milk a day to start weaning, as yes they can have too much milk, i dont remember where it tho.

i dont htink 20wks is that early either tha tis 5mths? some babies of that age are sitting up, have the hand co-ordinationg to feed themselves a bit etc as your ds could so he was obviously developmentally ready.

6mths is a guidline, all of mine were 6mths when weaned, two didnt really get started properly till nearer 7-8mths as they werent interested.

i do know lots of people that weaned at 12wks etc, but in the end you can only do what you think is best for you OWN baby and let others get on with what they are doing.

i would just ignore comments or say you want to wait to make sure she is ready and point out that she is obviously thriving on your milk alone :)

Without knowing y they are doing it , it's a little unfair to keep criticizing people. If mine had lasted til 6 months that woulda been great but when your baby is bloated like crazy and bringing up all her milk because she's hungry but physically can't take any more milk you kind of have to
Make a decision as to whether to have them constantly so full they are sick or give them a few spoonfuls of something that will actually fill them up. Every baby is different and people just try and do what's best for their baby. There could ve any number of reasons behind it. :)