Dd is 22 wks and Hv has advised to start weaning , Not sure I need to yet.

[bensmum4]

Went to see Hv as I think Dd may have a milk / lactose intolerance, and she has advised to start weaning , dd is nearly 22 wks and although she still wakes for night feeds and only goes 3 hours between feeds I'm not sure she is ready for weaning. She is exclusively bf ,although I would like to introduce some kind of formula soon as well.

Wht do u think she has a milk intolerance?

You know best.

What reason did she give for advising that you start weaning?

There's no rush to start; don't let the HV push you into something you're not happy with.

She was a very unhappy , colicky baby and didnt get better after 3 months, so I cut out all dairy produce and hey presto, happy baby, forgot a couple of times and back to screaming baby, maybe just a coincidence but I'm convinced enough to stay dairy free,and I love chocolate and cheese,I asked for advice as I would also like to know for sure if its milk protein or lactose or my imagination.
I think the idea behind weaning is to see if it settles the small amount of vomiting she still has after every feed and to introduce some formula to see if there is a reaction to that.

My HV encouraged me to start weaning DD at 5 months as her weight was not following the 'correct' centile path (very gradually falling from 50th centile).

I reeeeeaaaally regretted it. DD was showing none of the supposed signs of being ready for food. She certainly wasn't demanding more milk than usual. Quite the opposite.

I found weaning quite a stressful experience as a result. DD was just not at all interested in any food, and I became increasingly neurotic about her intake. None of this was helped by useless HV saying things like 'My DS was eating 3 weetabix for breakfast be this age' (6 months). Stupid old bat [bitterness emoticon]

I wonder if I'd left her til 6 months or older whether she'd have been keener on the whole food thing, and I would have been spared many many months of heartache and worry.

So my advice would be stick to your guns. If you don't think DD is ready for weaning, she's probably not.

Surely you don't need to start weaning onto food though, even if you do want to start her on some formula?

In fact, if you have worries about allergies then wouldn't it be better to introduce the formula first and establish whether that's OK, before adding food as well?

If you want to hold out until 26 weeks before you introduce solids then do so - it's only another four weeks down the line, when all said and done.

HVs can get very hung up on doing it by the book, so if her guidelines say (or she thinks that they say) 'babies should have started solids by 6m' then that may be why she thinks you should start solids. But unless you think that your dd is ready, then there's absolutely no point - especially if you think she might have intolerances.

Is your dd showing any of the classic signs of readiness? Does she watch you eat, follow the food from the plate to your mouth, try to grab some herself? If not, then she may not be ready for it herself.

As for affecting her feeding pattern, well I think the jury's still out on that. Some people say their LO started sleeping through when they introduced dsolids, others not.

Wigwam...there is a dearth of real research on this, but if it came to a toss up between formula or solids for a 22 week old, who absolutely had to have something other than breastmolk (and I think the HV is being daft in this case, but no surprise there...)....then for a baby with known intolerance issues, some bland solids would be a better bet than the processed foreign protein of formula.

This sounds disaparaging about formula - not meant to be. The foreign protein is 'cos it's cows milk, and 'foreign' is a technical term, and it is processed (ie it goes through a manufacturing process to, for example,skim the milk, adjust the whey-casein ratio, get 'stuff' added to it ).

Foreign proteins are known to be a problem to some allergic people, so would be a good idea to steer clear.

Yes, I see your point, TikTok.

I think I was basing my comment more on the fact that bensmum had indicated that she wanted to try formula sooner rather than later, and I had assumed that from an allergy point of view it would be better not to do both at the same time - which appears to be what the HV would do. Obviously introducing the formula could bring allergy problems of its own and compounding that with possible reactions to other food seemed like a bad idea to me!

Bensmum, why do you want to introduce formula? Exclusive breastfeeding for a little longer might be an easier bet all round, if you felt able to continue with it.

I want to introduce formula for maybe once a day as iam returning to work when dd is 6 months old. I have been trying to express, but with dd still feeding quite often, tiredness, other children and lots of other pathetic excuses I cant see me getting enough to see her through the time i will be away.

Hum, so your HV didn't really help you with your actual request - no referral for allergy tests, no prescription for a milk free formula (BTW if she's fine with breastmilk then that has lactose in it), and a suggestion to introduce food to a child that has already shown sensitivity.

Hi

See if there is a BF support group you can go to for more informed advice as they people that run them are much more up to date then the average HV. I have found ours really helpful.

Ruth