Anyone else weaning at 14 wks?

[sleepfinder]

My DS has been taking milk only during daytime hours since week 9 - and recently he has been guzzling so much I think that he's going to explode with so much fluid.

So going on the advice of my mother, I tried a little mashed banana after his morning bottle and he absolutely shrieked with joy. After a few days of this, he is now opening his mouth to accept the spoon and swiping at the spoon with his fist (he's not getting it yet though).

No adverse effects poop wise, sleep wise, mood wise etc. Sleeping well through the nights, napping normally and not guzzling huge quantities of milk before bed.

Anyone else on a similar route?

i really can't be naffed dragging this out, need to get off this damned computer at some point.

you've already said he settled with the rice but that as you gave rice his milk increased. i would suggest it was a growth spurt. a lot of people end up weaning during a growth spurt because they don't know what to do.

finally, of course its up to you what guidelines you choose to follow, but when it comes to a baby i would always want to do my absolute best, and for me that does mean taking on board WHO guidlines and information relating to BLW which all added up to weaning at 6 months for my baby. it does not mean, for me, filling my baby with rice flour to pacify them.

good night.

I did not "fill my baby with rice flour to pacify him" yes, it possibly was a growth spurt. i knew exactly what my options were, i am an intelligent woman and did not take this decision lightly. my hv agreed that maybe baby rice was a good idea. ds was possetting up his extra milk feeds, just maybe he DID need something else. i think it's incredibly arrogant to refuse to accept that there ARE exceptions to the rule and that the way that you have raised your children is right, come hell or highwater

Blimey - I tried mine with baby rice yesterday and he looked at me like I was trying to poison him! Not surprised - that stuff is horrible! Mixed some with some pear today though and he loved it. He's nearly 20 weeks btw - I'm weaning him early partly on medical advice and I'm not going to justify myself any further here.

Sleepfinder - I do hope you've got some good things out of this thread. People can be rather forceful with their opinions on this site, but they do generally have you and your baby's best interests at heart.

Personally, I think that the issue of when to wean has a tendency to get conflated with the advice to exclusively bf to six months. Much of the argument on the Kellymom site is pro-exclusive bf rather than anti-solids IYSWIM.

My feeling FWIW is that if you feel your baby is ready it's fine to give small tastes of solids as long as it doesn't cause him to significantly reduce his milk intake. I'm just giving mine a teaspoon of solids once a day at the moment and plan to increase it very gradually.

Best of luck!

Oh dear.
More loons wanting to ram their poor TINY babies full of food.
LEAVE THEM BE YOU DAFT COWS!!!

Moondog - you're one of the most um "forceful" I would say! . If you're calling me a loon then guilty as charged. I'd say I'm taking a calculated, and small IMO, risk as a last resort to try to stop my LO from throwing up every five minutes. It may or may not work, but I have the full support of my doctor and HV (although I know they're not always right!).

maybe i am a loon, but milk remained his main source of food until 6m, by which point he was having 3 meals a day plus 8oz 4-5 times a day. just because you did things differently it doesn't mean that you hjave the right to accuse early weaners of "poisoning" their babies. as i said earlier, with my next lo i will wean as early or late as i feel is appropriate. noone knows what the future holds and, as with the desicion not to bf, i made my choice on the information i had and the changing needs of my son. i would never dream of criticising anyone elses methods of raising their LO's.

Twinkle,re thickening food to keep it down,you do have a valid point to some extent.

It can help (amd I speak as a salt with feeding and swallowing training.)

The rest are still loons though.

i don't see that. every child is different and medical advice changes all the time. until recently pg women were advised to eat liver for iron. every child is different and you shouldn't judge until you've walked a mile in their shoes. and btw i had the full support of my hv

Ah well,full support of one's HV is next only in hierarchy to a formal treaty signing with Nelson Mandela.

Am in awe.

I stand firm with the try the hungry baby formula. and see how you go - babay rice never agreed with J I did try it but he was terribly unsettled for 3 days after, even now he won't have it.

please talk to your H/V as well - mine said from 17 weeks I could wean him, it's to do with the gut/digestive system not being up to the job.

is your DS showing any signs of needing weaning?

also I do feel all this he's only supposed to have 5 bottles/3 bottles of 6oz or what ever is crap - if your baby wants more bottles you give them more bottles no 2 babies are the same. if he wants' more boobs give them to him. it's all well and good the recommendations being x amount (as my h/v tries to tell me J should have 3 bottles only - but he wants 4 so i'm not about to cut down if he's growing/thriving etc well) but they are only guidlines. I know the same can be said about weaning and they recommend 6 months - we did it at 5 months as he was ready but honestly seek medical advice at weaning so young - under some circs they do want you to, but obviously you know your circs and we don't.

Actually, at 8 weeks old, every child is not different, certainly not in terms of physiological things like gut maturity. That argument simply doesn't hold water.

i didn't realise that i was in the presence of so many uber-mothers. it must be so nice to have such confidence in your parental abilities that you feel you can attack others for decisions that they have made. i have conceded that 8 weeks was prob a bit too early and that milk is always the ideal food before 6m. i find it shocking that you feel it's ok to attack alternative methods of child-rearing. plus it may be that the doh will attribute the recent increase in allergies and food intolerances to later weaning in the future. there is a grey area when it comes to parenting and noone can see into the future

Lissie love,if you don't like what is said about your practices,it's probably better not to come onto a forum open to all and sundry.

Nowt to do with ubermothering.

Crikey.

Thank you so much Merrylissiemas, Dumbledoresfairy and saggarmakersbottomknocker and anyone else I've not mentioned, for sticking your necks out in the midst of all this seeming fury over the very suggestion of weaning at 14 wks and letting me know of your own and your own childrens' experiences of weaning around this time.

As you said Merry, I wasn't after approval, support, affirmation, anything at all, other than simply hearing details from any other mums who were perhaps doing a similar thing, or had done so in the past. I understood there may not be too many...

I'm very sorry you were in the firing line for the criticism which I think was probably meant for me.

I do understand that as this is a discussion board, any post is likely to get a range of people commenting and with that sometimes strong emotions and some strongly expressed opinions emerge.

I did take advice on the weaning, my mother is a paediatric consultant, so at least as qualified as any health visitor in terms of child care. I personally believe than ANY guidelines for anything at all, are about "standardisation" and in reality, not everything or everyone fits the "standard" or the "norm" that's what makes the world a varied place - and truly not always with devastating consequences.

I shall try and avoid being contentious in future here, as it seems people have had their feelings hurt on this thread and others have contravened the terms of the Mumsnet ethos in hurting them.

Happy Holidays

I find it hard to see how people can justify weaning at 8 weeks. Or why you would want to feed a baby who can't even support it's own head with solids. I really don't see what is wrong with milk and especially since it often seems to be people who have sleeping babies.

sleepfinder you were very lucky to have a 9wo sleeping through which is probably why he needed to have so much milk during the day. I also don't understand what you mean by the effects of too much fluid.

Poor ol' sleepfinder....where is she? Down the greengrocer's buying more bananas?

Of course a 14-week-old is likely to enjoy the taste of bananas after 14 weeks of formula - not a bit surprising!

Of course he is going to learn to open his mouth in response to the spoon - this is a learned reflex.

Of course the effects of this can not be ascertained now or ever, in an individual case. But we know enough from research to suspect it is a bad idea, without being able to quantify the precise risk.

I have plenty of examples in my own family and dh's of digestive and metabolic problems - some very serious - in people who were weaned early (I ask these things) but this isn't proof of cause and effect.

But there is a study of a large cohort - the Dundee study if anyone looks it up - which shows specific risks of later heart disease, not digestive problems, if solids are given before 15 weeks which apply to both formula and breastfed babies. There's a press release about it here The greatest risks of early solids were in the formula fed group, so it may be even more important not to wean early if you are not breastfeeding. The results in this study showed early indicators for heart and ciculatory disease, which would not reveal themselves until adulthood.

None of this is comforting, I don't suppose, for mothers who have given early solids, but this is a discussion board, after all.

X posted with sleepfinder!!

There's me thinking that if you post on a message board you are going to get views - you might not like them but there you are!

As a first time mum, I had little idea but was pretty sure the world -and advice - had changed since my mum and even my sil had babies. This is why I have found mumsnset absolutely invaluable.

As a second time mother, I feel that I can even give advice myself now.

However, I have always took notice of the current guidance and research as advice is always changing. To ignore the current advice and guidance in my mind is at best negligent!

So, you early weaners - you know what the advice is - the babies gut isn't ready - so if you want to fuck up your darling little bundles of joy - then go ahead. They may be fine for yonks but may well have problems when they are a lot older - your choice - be prepared to explain to them why you weaned early irrespective of the current advice.

Your children may think you are dizzy bints - and I happen to agree!

Haven't had time to read all the posts, so sorry if I'm repeating anyone.

Anyway, if he is guzzling milk at 14 weeks, it sounds to me like a natural growth spurt which is expected at around 3 months. Will not bother repeating current recommendations as I see you have already been informed of those.

Can anyone find the information on the statistical risks of weaning early? by which I mean out of a sample of so many babies, what percentage are predicted to get the various conditions and diseases that early weaning can cause, and how it compares to the risks for the same conditions in babies weaned after 6 months. I think that would be the most helpful information for anyone trying to decide when to wean. If it was a risk of, say 1 in 1000 for allergies or whatever in a baby weaned after 6 months, and 2 in 1000 for a baby weaned early, then some might say the benefits (whatever they are) might outweigh the risks. However, if the risk increased dramatically to something like 1 in 50, then one might decide that it was too great a risk.

It's very easy to talk about the risks of doing something, but you need to know how much of a risk it is. Given that for many decades people were weaning at 3 and 4 months, and probably the majority of those people don't have any allergies, bowel conditions etc etc, then it could be that the risks are not that high. Of course, the WHO amd NHS etc will want to reduce any risk, however small, hence the changing guidelines. Everyone will probably know someone with a problem that is put down to early weaning, but equally everyone will know someone who was weaned early and is fine. That's why the statistical info would be helpful.

I want to emphasise I'm no expert, not trying to be inflammatory or put myself in one camp or another, just trying to add a more factual aspect to this debate.

Just out of interest, my ds is four and a half, and the advice I was given (on paper and from HV) was weaning after 12 weeks (3 months). When did this change - I guess it must be in the last 3 years or so!

Have to say it does feel weird when the advice I had a few short years ago is now SO contradicted and I now worry about long term effects on ds! Which I know is pointless as it's done now..but there you go.

Um, that's weird information you were given. My DS1 is 5, and when he was little, the advice was to wean somewhere in the 4-6 months range. (WHO was saying 6 months then, though.)

Your mother, the person who gave you this information, is a paediatric consultant?

Crikey. I wonder how many other mothers she's given such flawed advice to?

Quite WW just about to spill about that one myself.
Our paediatric consultant rung up and BOLLOCKED my HV for suggesting early weaning as dd was low weight gain.
He is a specialist in autism and dietary effects, gut issues resulting in other behavioural problems and is truly truly qualified to lambast early weaning

When DS1 (now 7) was a baby, the advice from HV was to start weaning at around 16 weeks/4 months.