Can someone please remind me why I'm waiting another month to wean my 5 month old dd.

[cupcakes]

Need advice on this one. dd2 is 5 months and one week. Till a week ago she has slept through from 8pm to 6am for a couple of months. She is now waking twice a night for a feed (she is exclusively breastfed).
Everybody I know is recommending I start to wean her but I had decided to wait till 6 months with her (I haven't spoken to my HV but I know she'll say I should wean as she told my friend that bf babies rarely last till 6 months old on breast milk alone).

I'm pretty sure I am doing the right thing in waiting another three weeks but am having a slight crisis in confidence. All thoughts gratefully received!

If you're having a crisis of confidence, cupcakes, my post probably won't help!

I would consider some solids at this stage. Many people seem to be critical of HVs on Mumnset, but surely they know something of what they're talking about?

Because starting solids has bog all to do with sleeping through - if she's hungry and needs more food a tiny bit of veg ain't going to replace 2 night bfs.

Of course breastfed babies last until six months on breastmilk alone. Silly HV.

You are doing the right thing. Breastmilk is the most nutritious thing she can have anyway, and you are reducing her risk of allergies and future bowel problems, some of which do not show up until adult hood.

Sadly most HV's have very outdated advice and havn't read the new research.

...but by all means put a couple of bits of steamed carrot on her highchair tray - if she can pick them up, get them in her mouth and swallow them she'll have proved she's ready to eat them.

If she just wipes them in her hair you know you're right to wait .

Oh well

thank you

cupcakes i started my 4.5 mo on solids last week when i realised she is the size of an average 6 mo baby and therefore has the needs of a 6 mo. she wasn't sleeping through and now she is - so veg does help actually, but more to the point its not just a couple of spoonfuls, she's gone straight on to 3 meals a day and has stopped grizzling and is sleeping well. i think the advice is for the average baby so you have to be a bit flexible around it, also when i had ds it was 3m then when i had dd2 it was 4m now its 6m, it worked ok for the other 2 why should it be different now, but remember you're the mother and so you can do what you feel is tight, maternal instinct is distinctly underrated these days - so do what you fell is right. good luck

Actually, I would like to try BLW for her and not use my blender at all.

Are steamed carrot circles or batons a good starting point? (can so not be bothered to do baby rice)

BLW is great. Mine all loved finger food and usually just had what we were having (within reason obviously). This can be incredably messy though LOL

she's on the 25th centile so not a huge baby but I condsider her weight to be perfect for a bf baby. She's very happy and thriving - this night waking is the only indicator that she may need something else.

batons better than circles - they grab them in their fist and eat the bit that sticks out
obligatory link to Aitch's BLW blog for more info

BLW? bacon lettuce w????

You are doing the right thing. I used to be a HV and the advice to wait until six months came in some time ago. I found that it was hard to get people to wait until six months - especially if it was their third for example, and they'd weaned all the others at 4 months.
If you don't mind the night time feedings then I'd say hang on in there until six months as it's not that long now. The World Health Organization are pretty certain in their advice - babies can cope perfectly well without solids until six months.

lol

BLW - baby Led Weaning

She probably just needs more breastmilk cupcakes. It has more calories than veggies or whatever anyway.

thanks aka - she is my third and the other two were weaned at three and four months.

oh thank you, actually i hadn't heard of it but sounds good. dd2 like dd1 wants what we have, makes sense really

I'll see if maybe I can uo the amount of feeds she takes in the day and see if that makes her last a tad longer at night.
Last night she went to sleep at 8.15 and woke at 12.30 and 3.30. Then slept through till 7am.

Right. I will tell you why. Ds turned 6 months on Friday so we began weaning fun.

• It has made fag all difference to his sleep (he also got his first taste of formula and that made fag all difference as well..).

• It is interesting and good fun but it makes one hell of a mess and takes about 20 times longer to feed him than just bf.

• Because he's a bit older he's been able to go straight on to lumps and finger foods so I've not had to use the blender at all - hurrah because it's a faff to clean.

Seriously, the only reason not to wait until 6 months is that you think it will somehow make your/her life better. It really won't make any difference ime!

But why did the advice change?

The WHO have been saying 6mo for ages.

The UK Govt has only updated their guidelines to 6mo since they started providing 6m of maternity leave...

Because studies suggest that the gut of some babies is not mature enough to cope with the larger particles of solid food leading to allergens potentially entering the blood stream.

Your baby may have a mature "closed" gut earlier but as you can't see inside him/her to be sure why not wait?

There have been some medical studies on how babies bowels work. They have found out that some time around six months of age a change takes place in a babies bowel which makes them capable of digesting solid food. Before then their bowel is not developed enough for anything but milk, and giving solids can cause problems, some of which dont show up until much later in life. SOME babies have this change before six months, but there is know way of knowing if this has occurred, which is why it is safer to wait until over six months.

So it is just tough for those of use who weaned at 4 months (before the advice changed). What are the risks assocaited with early weaning i.e. if the gut is not mature enough?