whats age can bays go to solids ?

[shazzaronnie]

i've been told four monhs u can put ya baby on solids any advice please?

Current government advice is 6 months.

But it is a hotbed of contentious issues, just look at some of the older threads on weaning.

It is recommended that a baby go on to solids at 6 months but DS was 4 and a half months - if he/she is ready for it then go for it. A way to tell is if they're getting hungrier earlier between feeds and waking up in the night when they previously slept thru. Baby rice is a good starter cos it tastes the same as milk and you can make it as runny as you like.

The recomended age is 6 months, i weaned dd1 at 4 months because that was what the reomended age was at the time, i have just started weaning dd2 who is 5 months after advice from my health visitor. I would hold off as long as you can.

I agree everyone will have their own opinions on this one - trust your own instincts, its your baby after all

O yea and government/health officials change their minds as often as (I hope) they change their pants about timescales!! I used them as a guide, not as a rule.

But the reason they recommend 6 months is because the baby's gut is not mature enough to take solids eralier according to studies. This could lead to healthproblems and allergies later in life.
I know HV's will tell you 4 months but to my knowledge it was never 4 months but between 4 -6 months.
Government guidelines and WHO say 6 months so I would go by that if I was you. Baby waking in the night is more likely to be because of growthspurt.
You might wanna look into BLW as this means baby will only eat if he is actually ready, but I stil wouldn't offer him foods before 6 months.. Good Luck! I know it's hard to resist peer pressure but they are wrong...

If I had a screaming child etc (and i dont know if you do) and wanting more and more milk, id wean them. I weaned mine early.

And lets face it the gov and WHO may well change there advice next year............was 4-6 mths ........now 6mths............what next, ooohhh leave it til 7/8mths....

go with oyur instinct.

why bother starting before 6mo? If you wait till then they can have normal food, inc dairy and gluten (unless allergies in family), and you don't have to faff around with purées.

this thing will kick off soon....

I think it depends on the baby.
Ds was 9lb 12 at birth and drank a lot of milk, he had 9 oz bottles at 6 weeks old. He fed every 2.5 hrs and it was hard work. At around 5 months I started to wean him slowly onto very simple foods like mashed up veggies. Just started with one meal a day and kept milk the same to start with and he slowly needed less milk.
By the time he was 6 months he was having 3 'meals' a day and feeding every 4 hours.

If baby is big or not is irrelevant. The reason WHO changed their guidelines was because of studies that indicated babies weaned before 6 months suffered more allergies and other healthproblems not necessarily immidiately (so you can't say I weaned LO at 4 months and no problems) but in early adulthood. I don't understand why anyone, knowing the facts, would wean early if they had their baby's best interest in mind and not just trying to keep up with their friends.

archiesmummy - I was weaned way before 4 months. I have no allergies to any foods.
If baby is hungry - feed it!

And a lot of people who were weaned before 6 months DO have allergies. I'm just saying there is a reason the guideline is 6 months...

Alot of children have allergies regardless of when they are weaned. The only person to decide when to wean is the parent.

I know what you mean about keeping up with the crowds/friends as I remember a woman at a mother and toddler group who started to weaned at 15 weeks. I never understood why, she just seemed in too much of a hurry. She was also breast feeding and formula feeding at the same time. I didn't say anything, it's not my place to.
She kept saying to me 'is your ds eating solids yet?'.

i think that, in generations past, it was seen as a development milestone to be reached asap - the same as "mine's walking" "mine's talking" - it was a case of getting them to eat as quickly as they could. maybe some mothers still feel that pressure?

Latutteuse - think you may be right on the mile stone thing.

IMO why hurry to wean them? Wait till 6 months and see if they're ready then if not wait a bit longer. I started my ds at 6 months and he wasn't interested at all it's only now at nearly nine months that he's started to enjoy his food unlike with my dd I didn't bow to pressure and stayed relaxed when he didn't want to eat and thought he'll eat when he's ready and he has done. If the baby is still hungry before six months give them more milk, milk has more calories than food anyway so i can't understand that argument.

I knew the facts but made my own choice. It had nothing to do with my friends - only one of them has a baby anyway and she weaned her at three months on advice from HV! That I did not entertain.

I am in such confusion about weaning - I have a 17 week old boy, he's a big chap at 18lb and up till now he has been exclusively breastfed. 3 weeks ago he started waking up in the night, previously he was sleeping right through. For the past 3 weeks he has been waking up every 1-2 hours and won't settle until he has had a feed. I have tried everything else, ie teething powder, changing nappy, putting mobile on, even leaving him for a while, but nothing works except a feed. Surely this isn't a 3 week growth spurt? Yesterday I tried him on 3 teaspoons of very thin babyrice mixed with breastmilk and he loved it - took it straight down, no spitting it out, wanted more, but I refrained as I am so cautious about starting him too early. this to me sounds like he is happy to have some semi-solid food, but as I am a nervous first time mum with no previous knowledge to go on, how do I know whats best? I have one mum saying I should have started him on it ages ago and a mum-in-law telling me he is far too young and will hate it!! HV not much help either way - please, please, does anyone have any suggestions? there is no history of allergy in my family and I have one very demanding young baby and I am exhausted from all the night feeds! thank you all xx

Aggiemum, he's having a growth spurt - he will settle if you keep feeding him just milk. DS1 and DS2 both did this. DS2's just started eating anything like a quantity of food (and still bfeeding LOADS) and he still wakes at night - and DS1 slept beautifully at night between 4.5 and 7 or 8 months on pretty much just milk - they're all different.

But at 17 weeks, they get interested in life beyond feeding and sleeping - so they get more wakeful. He may very well settle again whatever you do - and if you use baby rice, you'll think it was that that did it. But it'll just be that he's over his growth spurt. He may also not settle as there's fewer calories in baby rice so by feeding him that you're actually lowering his calorie intake.

Weaning early is a faff, has no benefit for the child and may cause harm in later life. It is beyond me why people do it.

Our baby is 20 weeks old and is still sleeping through happily and isn't taking milk more than normal. I am still getting pressure from my parents to start weaning, so that he will get used to the spoon which sounds dubious to me.

Also random old people have started commenting on it, we were on a steam train the other day and this nice old lady was really upset that I wouldn't take a digestive for him.

Thing is I am basically lazy and formula is easy whereas pureeing etc sounds like a lot of faff. I am well happy to wait until 6 months provided he doesn't start waking up.

I'd leave it as long as you could.

WHO guidlines say 6 months.

that is all i am going to say on the matter

it is my personal opinion that everyone who is thinking of weaning before the recommended six months should read the WHO guidelines and the extensive scientific research that led to the guidelines being drawn up.
and that's all I have to say on the matter.

LGJ

Settles down with a good book and some popcorn and waits for this to do a Suzy Wong. (Copyright)

In answer to the OP. It is 6 months, and has been for some time. Please read the WHO guidelines; they are unbiased and informative.