6 months - am I the only one waiting?!

[exBrightonBell]

Although the guidance is very clear to wait till 6 months, nearly everyone I know with a small baby has started weaning sometime soon after 4 months. I don't understand why people are so keen to go against the advice being given to them. My ds is 5 months, but it feels like I am the only one who isn't giving solids. It's not just me, is it? I'm planning on trying BLW if that makes a difference.

i waited with both mine, they both sat up/picked things up etc at around 6 months anyway. DS1 started a few days before 6 months and DS2 about a week after. DS2 was actually sitting quite well before 6 months but i was too busy and possibly lazy to start any food.

DS1 had a mixture of mush and finger food and was on 3 little meals a day within a month or 2. DS2 wouldn't touch a spoon for weeks so just had bits of pasta, toast, veg etc. he's 8 mo and still not overly fussy about missing meals.

most people that i know who have weaned earlier have wanted baby to sleep more, or just decided the baby was ready for some arbitrary reason.

others my MIL think that guidelines of around 6 months only apply to 3rd world countries. my own mum said in almost every phone call when DS1 was tiny about how he'll sleep better once he's on solids. it's made bugger all difference to sleep for either of mine. I got less hassle about DS2 eating, mostly because he is rather huge anyway!

I wanted to wait with both of mine - but both showed signs of readiness much earlier than 6 months. As we were doing the baby led (aka deeply lazy) approach though, I figured that putting food in front of them was not true weaning - if ready, they would eat it; if not, they wouldn't.

Sure enough, DS was ready from 21 weeks, ate everything in front of him from then on - but DD (who was sitting and grabbing at stuff much earlier than DS, at 19 weeks) wasn't ready until more recently, so closer to 24 weeks.

it has made bugger all difference to their sleep btw, but makes our meal times quieter, as we can lob food at them, and leave them to their own devices whilst we eat our hot meals. win-win really!