Annabel Karmel has annoyed me!

[123456kent]

I’m only a few pages in!

• baby must be introduced to solid foods by 24 weeks? My baby was 5 months yesterday, I was going to leave it another month but she tells me I have to do this within the next 2 weeks?
• milk must be given after solids so it doesn’t fill them up before they eat? This is totally contradictory to what I’ve been told, that milk is most important
• signs baby is ready - waking in the night when previously slept through? This is just not true! My baby is waking but not because she is hungry.

I just wanted a rant that a book can be so contradictory to official guidelines! That’s all

Same as most baby books unfortunately :-/ I went with Gill Rapley's book and I'm finding it much more pleasant than most, one week into solids and we're all enjoying the messy fun!

God I hate baby books that aren’t evidence based and there’s so bloody many of them! I feel your pain

I have this book too and not a big fan either, I bought the TW version and I think someone told me she has a BLW one as well? A friend followed this book to the letter but I decided that I wanted to BLW instead and bought the Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett book along with their cookbook as well - much better!

She’s an idiot who doesn’t write her own books....

Bought all the books, ended up nigh on panic attacking as DC just would not fit the schedules noted... My amazing HV advised of depositing the 'advice manuals' into the wood burner which l loved!!

Ah, I’m a fan... her recipes are brilliant and I credit my three good eaters to her! You don’t have to follow it to the letter.. I never weaned before 6 months and was fairly relaxed about milk.. though not sure why you’d want to give a bottle first.. you want them to be a bit hungry for the new tastes. As long as babies are getting the recommended amount of formula/breast milk overall then they are getting their vitamins

I’ve been told her recipes are good - so I will be using those. It’s just the advice at the beginning. I was told on an NCT weaning course that milk should be their primary source of food as nothing else rivals the nutrition. So if you fill them up on something else then offer them milk they are losing out. I think my plan is to bf when we wake, and then breakfast an hour later. Will see if/how that works

I was told on an NCT weaning course that milk should be their primary source of food as nothing else rivals the nutrition. So if you fill them up on something else then offer them milk they are losing out.

NCT information is not wrong but it is incomplete. It is 100% correct that at the start of weaning babies should get most of their calories from milk. Milk remains an important source of fats and calcium throughout first years of babies life.

At the same time, between 6 to 9 months, solids become important for cognitive development since they are the primary source of iron and other essential elements:

www.who.int/nutrition/publications/guiding_principles_compfeeding_breastfed.pdf

Page 22 of the WHO booklet:

At 9-11 months of age, for example, the proportion of the Recommended Nutrient Intake that needs to be supplied by complementary foods is 97% for iron, 86% for zinc, 81% for phosphorus, 76% for magnesium, 73% for sodium and 72% for calcium (Dewey, 2001).

For whatever reason, some weaning advisors happen to ignore this particular part of WHO guidelines. The catchy phrase "food before one is just for one" has nothing to do with WHO recommendations.

I have also introduced all the solids meals one hour after milk but between 8 and 12 months I made an effort to offer DD more solids and a bit less milk.

“I have also introduced all the solids meals one hour after milk but between 8 and 12 months I made an effort to offer DD more solids and a bit less milk.”

Ok thank you. How do you do this with breast feeding do you know?
I suppose I’m probably overthinking this and will just see how it pans out once I start!!

How do you do this with breast feeding do you know?

The vast majority of babies reduce their milk feeds naturally. Most of babies from my NCT group did, anyway. When it doesn't happen, the general advice is to reduce and eventually drop milk feeds around lunch time. I was formula feeding and I just stopped the 11am bottle on my own. DD was not showing any signs of dropping it.

I suppose I’m probably overthinking this and will just see how it pans out once I start!!

Same here. I definitely spent too much time reading about weaning.:)