OK no arguing please, just tell me in simple bullet points why it's good not to wean until 6 months

[tassis]

1. the WHO say so

1. BF is a whole lot less hassle

any others?

ds adores his cutlery, has been using a little fork since about 9mo. mainly for stabbing the table initally, but now 20m he can easily use a spoon.

bread dipped in soup is excellent finger food too.

paranoi mother.... not true. ds prefers to get the spoon to his mouth himself than to get his hands dirty i just have to load it for him unless i want him to get mad and fire the bowl at his sister

(i'm not actually supposed to post on these thread though as ds decided i was subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment by refusing to feed him til 6 months and the little bugger stole food from me at 21 weeks. he's 5 months now and devoured a whole pot of brocolli last night..... by himself with his own little hands )

that's not been my experience, paranoidmum, and it's not what the (limited) research has found. the idea is to give the child the spoon to play with at the early age and they'll get the gist. in fact, the thinking is that because babies are accustomed to binging their hands up to their faces to self-feed they'll find it easier to grasp the idea of cutlery. maybe your friend is the exception that proves the rule?

certainly at one year dd is actually startlingly neat with her spoon. she's not brilliant at taking things out of the bowl herself (for example with a yoghurt pot she digs the spoon in and follows through with her hand for maximum squishy fun) but if i load a spoon up she's brilliant with it. i do let her have the squishy fun if she's going into the bath... she's got to learn somehow.

Well, you can tell the effect of weaning at 14 weeks on ds1 . Terribly damaging!

Ignoring (for a moment) all the many medical benefits of waiting until 6 months, on a purely shallow level, you can say goodbye to your clean, sweet-scented, portable little cherub. Baby weaning is messy, best done at home, and the poo it produces is frankly disgusting! Oh for the days of nice creamy yellow mustard nappies...

thanks for the summary WW

interesting to see it all written down

not sure that'd convince me to wait if I felt ready to wean

(twinkle - I like making purees too )

Having done it both ways just a darn sight easier all around.

There's also the negatives, though

1. It will not make them sleep any better if you wean them before six months

10. It will not improve their weight gain if you wean them before six months, unless it is onto lard

can someone tell me when the WHO advice re 6 months first came out and when the UK advice changed to 6 months? I tried to google to find out but it wasn't very fruitful.

hatwoman it was after 1993
as before then it was recommended at 3 months

TM - I loved puree-ing. It satisfied all manner of primal urges. the urge to feed and provide. the urge to spend lots of money on Waitrose finest organic. the urge to build up a store. whatever urge it is that takes satisfcation from seeing neat little cubes in all different colours. the urge to do something by the book without it actually being that hard.

what was? uk advice or who? as recenbtly as 2000 UK advice was 16 weeks

either, all i know before 1993 I could wean children at 3 months

Before 1960 all of my family had no nonsense proper food, breast fed or bottle fed. Non of us (there's 7 of us!) have any allergies, we're all healthy and not grossly overweight and who the F.. decides on all this crap?! I have mums I see with babies that are guzzling milk and daren't, yes daren't give them any food before 6 months ( no, not even a day!) in case they roll over and turn purple or whatever. Every time I've had a baby, the sleeping positions change. It's all faddy crap and if I have another baby, I'll listen to friends, family and my instincts. Mums are being made to feel guilty and insecure about food FGS...there's mofre important stuff in this world to worry about. I bet kids in Africa don't wait until 6 months!I think you're a lovely mum to be worrying so much but relax.

jollymum- in most traditional cultures they wait til the baby crawls over to the food and eats it, a clear sign baby is ready. prior to that baby is strapped to mums breast.

jollymum, who's worrying? not me!

Dizzy, right, well where we were brought up, strapped to the breast wasn't possible!!Think Eastenders, loads of kids, back doors not locked and cheerful people! And how come all those traditional cultures have been around for thousands of years and sudden;ly the HV's have decided, or the Gorvernment, or whoever, that it's time to change?

i weaned v early, on the advice of the hv and ds is fine, hes a happy healthy bonny lad. most importantly, hes healthy, hes never so much as had a cold. i trusted my own instincts which is what you should always do. there has been a marked increase in allergies and intolerances in the past few years, who is to say that thats not because children are being weaned later.

if dh and i have another lo i will wean when i think he/she is ready, not before, and not after.

Tassis, I wish sometimes I could have a baby to "try" this out on. Jealous of your little one! Much too old for more babies now. LOLxxxxx

yes, because parents in developing countries all have blenders and ice cube trays. I wonder how people managed before such things were invented.

it's not a sudden change. have you looked at the WHO's articles about infant feeding?

The government here haven't been able to fully support weaning from 6 months until recently mainly because their maternity leave legislation didn't support it. we're now seeing paid maternity leave increase to 9 months. 6 months doesn't quite cut it, as many mums take a month or two off before giving birth.

SIgh, it's not because they are being weaned later. On the one hand people are saying these guidelines are so recent and a fad and only changed recently and now you're saying they are to blame for allergies we see today.

THe WHO say that there are no proven disadvantages to weaning at 6 months.