It's not rocket science - "it may cause harm to wean early, it does no harm to leave it till 6m" - WHY do people still want to shovel baby rice in at 12 weeks (or earlier)?

[hunkermunker]

I have come up with some ideas as to why people wean early:

they have competitive baby syndrome and are annoyed someone else's baby rolled first, so they want to get theirs onto steak and chips via baby rice and one fruit or veg a week for months

Well, an idea. Any more?

also true, kami.

whats wrong with formula

Oh FFS - I'm fed up of apologising now. Take offence, don't. It's all the same to me. I'm sure someone out there would like to post on how their baby is allergic to babyrice too.

Is this a discussion on weaning or whining?

i think if you smoke around your baby your doing alot of harm to his/her health

oh ok. another time maybe

my baby has been on formula since she was 5 days old, she is very healthy and never been ill and always been a good weight

to go back to the op: because people need sleep, and babies do tend to sleep better at 5 months if weaned. sleep deprivation may cause harm remember.

tinkerbelle.

i think its ok to wean very slowly at 5 months as i did, its not like the baby is having 3 big meals aday!

is this now a thread about bf v ff?

kamikayzed - I'm pretty sure SP meant sleep deprivation causes harm to the mother not the baby!!!

kami - havent we covered all of this though? i have been on this thread since the start. obviously formula is not harmful as food to babies tums under 6 months, otherwise there would be a hell of a lot of very sick people out there.

kami, have a look in the weaning research thread and a link about HIV in South Africa. it's not utterly direct, but it has some bearing on your question.

Solids don't tend to make a difference to sleeping habits though....I mean, it's calories the Baby needs not "filler"...
yes, sleep deprivation is tough, BUT it's still wrong to give your Baby somethng that is potentially dangerous for it, if not in immidiate terms then possibly longterm!
Also, to those that ask what's wrong with Formula...well..where does one start? And I have given formula and at the time that was my choice, and with ms at that time it was even a fully informed choice (well...o.k...I would have preferred him not to bite me every single breastfeed about 13 times a day and for a month straight, but that is a different animal altogether..., I meant, I gave Formula dispite knowing all I do about it, lol)...Formula is an artifical food, generally based on cowsmilk, which is meant to feed calfs, that have several stomachs more then us humans...and that is just for starters...!
Not making a judgement, just stating a fact.

nally = bad mummy

kamikayzed - oops, sory, am with you now
My lo was much more settled once we started on solids at 5 months than she was before then. She was FF anyway by then so I'd probably already done her a world of harm

Haven't read all of the thread, but dss now 7&4 both were weaned around 12 weeks. Both heathly, and eat a wide variety of food.

I don't see it as irrelevant to the the discussion, as neither of my sons have gone on to develop any problems, so can't work out why would wait until 6 mths.