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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

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Original poster

when to start?

7 replies

magicfairy · 07/01/2007 08:22

Ds is 17 weeks but big for his age (Over 17lbs), he has recently started to become unsatisfied with his feeds, and wants to feed more often. I think he may be teething, but dont know if this would cause him to want to feed so much more.
Am confused as when you are supposed to start weaning, health visitor says 'they' now say between 17-20 weeks and feeding counsellor says still breastfeed for 6 months, when did people have the most success?

OP posts:

Quootiepie · 07/01/2007 08:24

26 weeks - milk has more calories than solids anyway xXx

colditz · 07/01/2007 08:25

Your HV is just plain wrong. "They" say not before 26 weeks.

hertsnessex · 07/01/2007 08:25

mine were around 4mths. (someon will shoot me im sure!) but go with what ever your gut instinct is telling you.

agalch · 07/01/2007 08:27

Hi magicfairy

My dd2 is 23 weeks and i'll be weaning her at the end of January.She went through a phase of feeding more frequently as she was hungrier.

I would wait tbh,the older they are the easier it is to wean.I weaned ds1 and ds2 at 3/4 months as that was the reccomendation back then and it was a nightmare.Didn't settle them at all and they had upset tummies with it.

Dd1 was 26 weeks and took to it really well.I have done all my purees etc for dd2 but will be trying the baby led weaning instead i think.There are loads of threads on this on mumsnet.

Good luck anyhow

percypig · 07/01/2007 08:44

Definitely wait till 6 months! As others have said milk is more calorifically dense than most solids, so giving solids won't fill your DS up more. 6 months has been the guideline for some time now, and quite apart from the possible allergy/damage to digestive system risks associated with early weaning, waiting till then is easier...then you can go with blw.

This means you simply give them the opportunity to eat by putting suitable 'adult' food in front of them and letting them play with it, wave it near their mouths etc. Eventually (in our case after about 5-6 weeks) they'll be eating anything and everything.

Original poster

magicfairy · 07/01/2007 08:48

thanks all, very helpful, i am planning on waiting for at least a month yet. Its just upsetting when he doesnt seem satisfied after a feed! also he is still waking every 2 hours at night for a feed, after an intial sleep of 6 hours, thought maybe filling his belly more i may get more sleep?!

OP posts:

Twinklemegan · 07/01/2007 23:29

Hi Magicfairy - this must be the 4 month growth spurt surely? People used to wean around now because they thought milk was no longer satisfying the baby, but it should settle down again in a few days. I actually started my DS at 20 weeks for various reasons, but I've been doing it really slowly and he's only on one or two cubes of veg puree a day. I wouldn't have thought such small amounts of solids would have much impact from a satisfaction point of view, milk having more calorific value. So I wouldn't do it for that reason alone myself.

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