When to wean prem babies?

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Do I use chronological or corrected age?

I haven’t had a premature baby but I think the normal advice on Weaning is aimed at parents of full term babies and Weaning is different for premature babies. Bliss have produced a Guide to Weaning Premature Babies which might be helpful.

If you don’t get anymore replies here, I’d try posting in the Premature Birth Section

Thank you

No problem

Was the Bliss guide helpful at all?

It was as vague as the rest of the info about prem babies lol

That’s a shame. How many weeks was your LO born at? Are they under a Paediatric Dietician?

We used actual age, recommended by their dietician, as their stomachs had been digesting milk since birth so are more developed than the rest of their bodies. However, they had severe reflux and we were advised that weaning would really help them gain weight and keep food down. If they didn't have reflux there would have been less urgency I suppose. What has your health visitor said? Hope this helps.

Ds was born at 35 weeks and nobody said anything tbh!! Weaned at 24 weeks actual age.

DD was born at 34 wks and I started weaning her at 6 months from the date she was born. I sought advice at the time from the HV and paediatric dietician who she was also under the care of due to CPMA.

Actual age is recommended so normally 6 months unless advised to do it earlier due to reflux etc. We weaned our 35 weeker at 20 weeks due to reflux. My friend weaned her 30 weeker twins at 6 months - she had to feed them in bouncy chairs to start with as not able to support themselves in the high chair - this is what their paed recommended.

The guidelines are fairly clear. At LEAST 17 weeks corrected. And increasingly there is a move to wait to corrected rather than actual age. You wait till 17 weeks corrected and then look for the physical signs outlined. If your child isn’t meeting those then wait a couple of weeks more and observe.

My twins were born at 35 weeks and I weaned them at 6 months, their actual age. They were healthy with no problems. No idea what the HV would have recommended as they were all pretty useless so I avoided them as much as possible! (and twins were my third and fourth so I knew what I was doing!)

I did do baby led weaning so it mainly involved them throwing food around and smooshing it in the high chair.

I should say they are 14 now so things might be totally different. Though I know it's still 6 months for term babies.

I was advised to wean mine at their corrected ages (this was 9 & 11 years ago now though, so times have maybe changed!)

One dd was ready slightly earlier, but my youngest dd had a lot of other health problems and she wasn’t ready at all. I think it’s easy enough to see the signs, if they can sit up well, grasp things, show an interest in your food when eating etc. I think it depends just how early they were born too.

I’d double check with your health visitor though.

I was told by our consultant to wean earlier (born at 34 weeks, weaned at 5 months corrected) but that was specific to the reasons she came early.

I was told by the consultant that the recommendations aren’t clear and they should be assessed individually. Do you have a consultant paed you could call/email?

I weaned at 6months.

Thank you to the helpful responses. My girls were born at 34 weeks, they are 20 weeks now so I'm just planning ahead.

I don't have a hv to ask - the services in my area have all but disappeared and these are number 3 and 4 for me so they are even less inclined to see me.