WILL I BE SHOT AT DAWN!

[mish2]

I have read all the advice on weaning and know all what goes with it, i weaned my dd at 14 weeks 4 yrs ago ad she is fit and well and healthy. My dds is 15 weeks and 15lb and does not take his milk well, he fights each feed and i have tried everything, if left to his own devises he will take anyhting from 3 -7 oz per feed but generally only the 7 if forced - averaging about 28oz in a 24 hr period with one or 2 night wakings. He is a happy chappy until feeding and it has become so stressful that yesterday after a 11am fight and condecding at 2 oz i made up some baby rice and offered him it - he loved it and was like a bird. Should i cont today and until 17 weeks with just baby rice at one feed or should i just go for it? I am taking to get weighed tomo. I expect some of you will be quite alarmed at starting to wean early but you havent been fighting my son for 15 weeks!

[bigbird2003]

If you read the guidelines, the emphasis is on breastfeeding for 6 months being the most important thing, not the introduction of solids. Everything I have read is saying there are no risks to exclusive BF for 6 months, I can see very little about risks of introducing solids under 6 months.

Parents should be advised of the risks
associated with weaning before the neuro
muscular co-ordination has developed
sufficiently to allow the infant to eat solids.
Solid foods should not be offered before
four months However, if an
infant is showing signs of being ready to start solid foods before six months, for example,sitting up, taking an interest in what the rest of the family is eating, picking up, and tasting finger foods then they should be encouraged**introducing solids before sufficient development of the neuro-muscular co-ordination (to allow the infant to eat solid foods) or before the gut and kidneys have matured (to cope with a more diverse diet), can increase the risk of
infections and development of allergies such
as eczema and asthma.
Certain foods are more likely to upset a baby
or cause an allergic reaction than other foods.
These foods should not be introduced before
six months

(And yes Amelia they are)

[AitchTwoOh]

amelia, the thing about MN is that there are a lot of clever women here and they do not always agree with each other. to be perfectly honest i don't think anyone has been horrible on this thread, so perhaps that means i have grown a tougher hide. don't worry, yours will grow too.

with regards to Bigbird and BLW, we must remember that the 'if they can pick it up and eat it all by themselves' theory is just that, a theory. although it is worth noting that the majority of the children involved in the reesearch did not pick up food at 4 months. funnily enough, they did so at 6 months and later, which chimes with the WHO guidelines again.

i suppose at the end of the day what i don't understand is why, when there is at the very least a big fat question mark hanging over weaning before 6 months, mothers would take the chance... first do no harm and all that.

[QueenDave]

Exactly, lockets and aitch.

[amelia02]

Clearly need to go and let hormones settle and skin thicken!!! God, thought, imagine if you'd just had a baby and were a health visitor and logged on ... you'd want to throw yourself off a cliff!

[mish2]

The guidelines have only changed in last few yrs to 6 months so surely the impact of weaning at 6 months will not be discovered till these 6 month weaned babies are in adulthood and beyond by which time another report will have decided delaying is dangerous and causes x y and z and b4 you know it we will be back to weaning at 12 weeks - i would never put the health of my babe at risk as would any of us and i have seeked medical advice as is suggested on all literature and the rest is left to my conscious and the needs of my child as and when we see fit and are ready.

Yes I have felt a little intimidated and this will be my last posting ever. I never realised i would get such a response, i was looking for support and friendly advice. Maybe some of you should spend more time with your children than sitting on the iternet all day waiting to pick fault with the world.
Goodnight

[QueenDave]

You are welcome

[bigbird2003]

I didn;t mention BLW!?

I was showing part of the guidelines that allows for children under 6 motnhs being developmentally ready. Some do, my daughter did. Granted she was a bit of a freak but she is why I won't take recommendations as gospel. She is the same daughter that didn't want to sleep on her tummy when the guidelines stated all babies should. She had a miserable 2 months being forced onto her tummy. In the end I compromised and let her sleep on her tummy for naps and side at night. At 4 months old the guidelines changed and back to sleep was recommended. by then she was almost crawling and slept how she wanted to. That's when I realised guidelines and recommendations are just the average not the law
She was (and still is) very advanced, she has been early with everything (including breast growth and monthlys and now at 15, wisdom teeth have come through early) Her body, mind, intellect are and always have been advanced.

Out of 4 kids I have a complete range of development. My son lives life behind average in all aspects and he didn't have solids til he was 7 months old (exclusive BF) I wouldn't and didn't give him things he wasn't ready for (weaning being one of them)

I just do not believe every baby is at the same stage at 6 months and I will always believe in parent led parenting, being given advice and recommendations, digesting it and following your instincts

[Greensleeves]

Of course you won't be shot at dawn, this is MN


















































might be able to fit you in around 10.30-ish, while most of the toddlers are napping

[MrsBadger]

Mish2, please don't leave on account of this thread.

If you read the original posts addresed to you (rather than the ones later in the thread discussing weaning in general), I think you'll find you did get friendly help and support before the non-personal conceptual debate kicked off.

And you did know when you posted that 15 weeks was jolly early cause you said so .

[QueenDave]

why did you want to start weaning before 6 months though?

What benefit did you feel it was giving to your baby?

[FrannyandZooey]

If I was looking for support and friendly advice I would not start a post saying Will I be shot at dawn

but that's just me

[QueenDave]

Oh yes, and what MrsB said too

[jampot]

In response to teh thread title

"no its too early, WHO recommend waiting til NooN"

well i thoght it was funny

[QueenDave]

Although Franny also has a point.....

Me? flaky? Let it not be said

[QueenDave]

Jammy - I'm just wondering just who Dawn is.

[bigbird2003]

Me personally.....no1 child I went with the flow, from 3 months was the way then and she was weaned between 4-5 months

No 2 child (the weird one) Would sit and grab the food and put in her mouth, open her mouth when I was eating and she wasn't a huge fan of milk. My milk dried up over night (she was admited to hospital suffering from dehydration at 7 weeks as I didn't6 realise my milk had gone and before anyone jumps.....LLL and BFC agreed it had gone and were just as perplexed) She only ever took 2 ounces of formula about 5 times a day. Ended up spoon feeding the milk to keep her out of hospital. She didn't start on purees, she went straight into mashed and finger foods. She also stopped the bottles at that time and drank from a beaker

No3 was happy with BM and had no interest

No4 doesn't count as that one is disabled

If a 4 month old rolling over and commandoing to and eating skips and bread off the floor, I think you can say she is ready

[terramum]

Mish - coming to this late - but wanted to respond to your last post...I hope that you are still reading....

The guidlines from WHO that recommended solids started from 6 months changed over 10 years ago (1994 iirc) but werent adopted by our government until 2003 when maternity leave was changed to 6 months...its also worth so we have had quite a few years to look at the impact of this change....its also worth noting that until the prevalence of artificial milks the reccommended solids age was 12 months so to say that we will be going back to 12 weeks is an unlikely one....if anything the age is likley to get old imo.

[colditz]

Oh for God's sake, I don't play with my bloody children at nine o clock at night. If my children want playing with at 9pm, it's tough titty, I'm afraid.

And reporting facts isn't horrible. You GOT support, and you GOT advice, just because you didn't get it festooned with tickers, kisses and Huns and Babes and Sweetie-Darlings doesn't mean the advice is any less bloody valid.

If nobody cared about you weaning too early, nobody would have posted, and you'd have been none the wiser. So what would you rather? To have people who care respond, or no response at all? I'm sorry we didn't tell you what you wanted to hear.

[terramum]

Apologies for bad grammer & spelling - it seems DS has been dribbling crumbs into my keyboard & my keys are sticking somewhat & I didnt proof read properly!

[hunkerdave]

A timely link - well worth reading, IMO

[AitchTwoOh]

By bigbird2003 on Tue 20-Feb-07 18:33:18


"Just read some BLW guidlines too, if a child can hold food and purposefully put it to mouth and eat, can sit up unaided and shows interest in food then they are more than likely ready to be weaned.....so my 4 month old that did and could do those things ( and say yum and walked at 7 months) WAS ready to have solids (she was 3 weeks late hence her development was advanced)"


as you can see you did mention it, bigbird. and i wasn't disagreeing with your theory that your child might have been ready. i was just reminding you that it's a theory, that's all. without the benefit of having stuck endoscopes down the gullets of thousands of tiny babies it's all theoretical. my point is - why take the risk if you don't have to?

[Twinklemegan]

Mish2 - you recently posted a thread about formula brands and I think you were pleased with the helpful advice you received (?) Not all threads on MN are like this one I assure you. But there are certain topics that will always be contraversial - weaning age is one, the endless breastfeeding/formula feeding debate is another. These are topics to either avoid like the plague or actively seek out depending on how argumentative and thick-skinned you're feeling at the time.

[AitchTwoOh]

and mish, i think you are being a little pouty for your first post, don't you? you started off the thread saying 'will i be shot?' - so you know that this subject arouses strong feelings.

15 weeks is too young by any modern guideling. you do what you like, though, it isn't you who'll pay the price if you're wrong. if we're wrong, however, we at least have the comfort of knowing that we're not going to do anyone any harm.

[MrsGoranVisnjic]

I have my doubts over the veracity of this post

its a typical thread that will flare

again and again and again we see it

yawn