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?

Oh and my 12 week old watches me eat, doesn't mean he needs food. Also heavy babies need more milk not food that doesn't have as many calories. Both my boys are/were large but they did and will manage until 6 months at least because the milk is all they actually need.

Not being funny, am genuinely interested to know why weaning early is abusive. My only child is 5 now, so I forget a lot of the issues around this. Can you enlighten me? thankx

Oh that's so sad.... I was joking about the something to do

There are people on MN who say they know the guidelines, they know the research, but they don't think it applies to them and their baby because "mother's instinct" knows better, for some reason.

I don't think it's worth the risk. In fact, wait a few short weeks and there won't be anything like the same risk (I hesitate to say "no risk" because I know that someone will post that they waited to 6 months to wean and their child is allergic to air or something).

NightyNight, I know bfeeding can take it out of you. It's done it to me twice. Demented with tiredness, I was. But I didn't think a bit of carrot would make the difference, because I'd read more than you might have had access to at the time you weaned - that's the difference. I'm not being smug, just really trying to get the point across that I'm talking about the present and future, not the past.

oh god frayedknot I remember being told something about would effect speech if couldnt take a spoon by 5mths or something and panicking. Wouldnt mind DS is still under a SALT..lol

Thing is Hunker this is one thing that could damage a child's health/development. There are loads of other factors such as crap diet in toddlers, drinking in pg, smoking when pg or around yr children, the list is endless

Sorry, think tinkerbell has answered my question before I'd finished typing it...

Sorry I didn;t realise you meant if they are fully innformed about the risks an still choose to go ahead anyway.

well, I suppose it's like some parents seem to think their kids don;t need car seats despite knowing they might go flying through the windscreen if they have to stop suddenly.

I think that if you do something that potentially will cause your baby to develop Crohn's Disease and have a stoma, that's pretty abusive. Aitch - your friend says she's seeing was it 12mo babies with stomas now?

If you did to the outside of a baby what weaning this early can do to their insides, it'd be called abuse. Just because it is done with a spoon and a pot of something mushy, doesn't make it less abusive, IMO.

And to reiterate, I'm talking about present and future babies of under-weaning-age.

don't understand your point, frascati. aren't we supposed to trying not to harm them?

Exactly frayedknot. Child could have been weaned at correct time but mum smoked when pg and doesn't use a seat belt....

Frascati, yes, there are lots of things that will damage a child's health. But I'm not sure I get your point?

What about not smoking when pg, using a seat belt and not weaning before 6m?

Aitch ~ of course. I wouldn't do any of those things and weaned my then huge son (who was starving) at 16 weeks when I was told to.

as i recall it was 18 months. there are lots of factors that might cause crohns, and early weaning is one of them. so, while it's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to avoid i don't know why people don't. although as a blw-er i'd have to say that if a future child of mine did swipe my food and eat it at, say 5 and a half months, i probably would let him.

tut tut Frascati did you tell your social worker?

I am just pointing out that parenting is alike a puzzle. You look at the bigger picture before you judge.

Well, yes, but I'm a subscriber to the whole "if a baby can get some food into with their own hand, move it to the back of their throat and swallow it, their gut's probably ready to digest it thing too, Aitch

why do you get so worked up about it though?

for the last time [optimist]

I'm talking about in the future. Not past babies.

If you are posting on here about what you did with a child who is older than, say, 6m, stop it. It's irrelevant. Thank you for your time, but stop it.

[useless plea]

well, words like starving i don't think are particularly helpful actually. he was hungry, presumably. and at the time i presume you were following the guidelines to wean at 16 weeks. but hunker is talking about now, at 6 months, and given that most if not all babies have a growth spurt at 16 weeks that is satisfied with more milk, then the risk is easy to avoid is it not?

Because I see posts on here from women who say they're about to feed their baby wallpaper paste at 12 weeks and I worry for their children.

If baby was starving why not give more milk? Milk has far more calories than tiny amounts of food.

Because she cares.