weaning early

[HJ06]

My ds is 14 weeks old, and for the past week he has been hungry all day,feeding every hour or so and and started waking every 2-3 hours at night.
he has only put on 4oz in 10 day, where as he has been putting on up to a pound on in 10 days.
He has been crying none stop from been hungry and tired. I gave him a teaspoon of baby rice for the first today and he was like a different baby, back to him happy self.
Has any body had this, what did you do?

You really can do it, HJ - breast milk has loads more calories in it than any food a baby of this age can handle right now anyway, so even if he is hungry, weaning him won't solve the problem. There's nothing magic in rice or any other food that will fill him up more or do him more good than good old fashioned breastmilk. It's the perfect food for him - changes all the time to suit his needs as he grows - easy for him to digest - doesn't cause allergies or other health problems as early weaning can.

It is exhausting having a hungry baby of this age, but faffing around with purees and god knows what will only make your life more complicated at this stage. Your milk is just right for him and well done to you for your concern to do what is right

Here's a useful link to refer to for when they are all mithering on at you

thanks for all the help, and just think of all the cake and chocs i will be able to eat, and still be loose weight.

that's the thing HJ06, a 5 month old who is exclusively bf really gets the weight to drop off you.
I never lost much to begin with, but as the baby gets older the weight really falls off.

lost most of baby weight, just things like skin tight size 10 jeans, and still a bit round my waist will not shift , but then i make a cake filled with buttercream at least once a week.

changed name from HJ06.
What i would like to know is why you can buy anything and everything in a jar for a baby from 4 months, and what the hell is in it?
(i dont plan to give ds jars as i love to cook and dh is a chef)

For no reason other than money, money, money! (Love the new name, BTW!) They're allowed to get away with it because the 6 month thing is a guideline and not the law. (And if it were the law, there'd be whole departments in C&G, Nestle, etc dedicated to getting around it! IMHO. Allegedly.) Greekgrrl is right you know. It's pretty easy to wait until 6 months. The toughie is combating the in-laws and out-laws. My mum was convinced, absoluuuuutely convinced, that DS was being starved. I could not mention sleeplessness or weight without seeing her brow furrow, and she'd say "well, if you had him on solids...." I stopped mentioning in the end. And if anybody raised solids, I'd just say 'not an option', becuase there was no point trying to argue coherently with them. FWIW, they still think I was wrong, but they're older and wiser and don't say it out loud any more! And it was bliss not having to puree. Just think: you'll only have to make one meal at each mealtime. Baby will be able to eat everything you can (bar honey and whole nuts of course). When I hear about the palaver that my friends went through - blending, freezing, spoon-feeding. Evenings spent doing all that when they could have been sleeping, or reading, or MNing! I can't understand how anybody could ever think that's easier than whipping out a boob for six months, and then giving the baby bits of what you're having yourself. (Rant over now!)

Thanks girls, have been felt a bit pressured by friends who are all weaning early (4.5 months). Reading thread has helped me decide to keep on BF until 6 months. I think hardest thing about being new mum is having confidence in making decision which is right for you once you have listened/read/told "advice" from HV's, google, in-laws, baby books and mum friends. Would love my son (19 weeks) to sleep through as hate being tired all the time but realise babies cannot be programmed and change constantly.

Newbie mum, your friends who are weaning early to make baby sleep through may be sadly disappointed! DS was sleeping through 6.30am-6pm from 4 months but since introducing a few purees and some rice at 6 months he has been waking up 3 times a bloody night as have the other newly weaned babies at my mum and baby group - aarrgh, life on just breastmilk was so much easier!!

My baby boy is nearly 15 wks and he has been on baby rice since 8 wks old. He is not disporportionally big, but he is hungry. I weaned my daughter at 17 wks, she is now 2yrs 7mths and very very healthy and active, and very slim!!!!

How can we say not to feed our "individual and unique" babies when they are starving hungry, when only a decade ago the government advice was to wean at 4 mths, and just 5 yrs before that (our generation this is) the advice from experts was to wean at 12 wks!!!!

Our babies are not text book, they are all different, and i think there is alot to be said for "mothers instinct", which is a powerful tool, and its only doubted when you go on websites that tell you are doing harm to your baby by doing what you feel is best.

My 15 wk old is a happy content baby, still needs a feed in the night (so you can see i am not feeding him rice to make him sleep through) whereas before his little amount of rice he was a crying miserable baby.

Basically, i would say follow your instincts and do what is best for YOUR baby, not everyone elses!!!!

x

Why on earth bump an old thread with a post like this, unless one was attention-seeking, especially twice?

I didnt realise what "bumping" was, or what putting a post on did, and it was certainly not attention-seeking, i set out just to offer my side of what i do. I find all of you ladies bullies, and you have made me feel very disheartened and upset today.

I have learnt to never go against the trend today, and feel very saddened by this whole ordeal.

No one has bullied you, daisy....mumsnet debates and discussions can be robust, but if you genuinely feel bullied then you have the option to report any individual post.

You must have deliberately searched way down the list to find this thread, which began more than three years ago, or else you searched archives in order to comment and to resurrect the thread, and you did this twice with two threads, one dying and one dead.

This is unusual behaviour, and the usual explanation for something like this is trolling (deliberately being provocative and making up scenarios in order to do so) or, as I said, attention seeking. I gave you the benefit of the doubt in assuming you were not making this story up, and went with attention seeking

So if I'm wrong, what is the explanation of your posts?

The simple explanation is i "googled" early weaning to learn more and to see others experiences / opinions, and it the top 2 search results were those posts, i never even knew the date they were posted, its only now and i see they were years ago!

Ah, I see, thanks for the explanation of how it happened.

I still don't understand why you would come on to a thread and not engage with the debate and just tell people to do what their instincts told them to do!
But sorry for saying you were attention-seeking.

I also googled early weaning and found this thread, just read straight through all the posts and didn't even notice the dates! It's really helpful to read people's experiences/opinions when making your own decision about things, esp as a first-time mum. But some of us only come on here occasionally and don't know/understand all the etiquette involved...just because a thread is old doesn't mean it's not relevant, or that it's 'attention-seeking' to add to it. Thank goodness for mumsnet keeping all the old stuff on for us newbies to look at, i say.