What age did everyone start weaning?

[Cjo99]

My DD is 16 weeks old & from she was 14 weeks I have been giving her a few little spoonfuls of puréed pouches of fruit etc (picture included) 2 friends of mines have said they started weaning around the same time as me but others have said I'll upset her tummy. She seems fine & enjoys it. Just looking some stories from other people? (by a 'few spoonfuls' I literally mean 5 or 6 very small spoonfuls)

@OccasionalNachos Could be. But that's the thing though, where is the evidence? Many people get digestive problems for many many different reasons & a lot are hereditary, so there's really not enough evidence to support this

Dd1 16 weeks (mashed banana and baby rice), dd2 6 months despite offering from 4 months and a struggle until 9 months to get her to eat. Dd2 is still small despite being an adult.

@Cjo99 oh I see that my mistake .

Four months with my son. I was going back to work at five months and he was over 10lbs at birth so big and needed more. I made all his food, mostly sweet potato based with different veg mixed in.
My daughter the same, though I continued to breastfeed her until one year, when she suddenly refused the breast.
This six months thing is relatively recent. It will change again I'm sure. You are the mother and if you think your baby is ready go ahead.

@00100001 Jesus Christ you're an angry person hahaha, I'm not linking her standing to this topic, @sauvignonblancplz didn't believe me that she was standing so I was trying to prove to her?????

@Cjo99

What’s your own diet like?

BLW is fantastic.
Is this your first child?
Sometimes in our excitement we push to get these firsts done.
However for your own baby’s health it would be better to wait .
Offering her first tastes of these horrible pouches should be avoided at all costs, unless your own diet consists of this type of rubbish and then it won’t really make any difference.

The advice to wait till 6 months to wean from the WHO has been since 2001. I wouldn’t call 19 years relatively recent.

"Just wanted to hear some friendly stories of when people started weaning, jc..."

Well, maybe if you'd posted this in 8 weeks time, you might have got those friendly stories.

Hardly anyone weans at 14 weeks, despite what you think... it's not accepted practice. Just like putting them in FF car seats early at say 6 months isn't...

@Pipandmum ThankyouMy DD loves tasting the sweet potato aswell!

@okiedokieme Baby rice seems popular. I'm going to try that in a few weeks also Thanks!

Baby rice is nutritionally devoid. You may as well soak sawdust in milk.

@TeddyIsaHe @00100001 I think you’re flogging a dead horse with this one.
She’ll be shoving a puréed chicken nugget down her throat before she’s 6months and mixing baby rice in her bottle, whilst putting it on Snapchat saying #blessed.

Don’t use baby rice...

I’m not sure you can call Ella’s Kitchen organic - I’m fairly sure if you read the packet it says that the fruits and veg used aren’t certified organic?!

@Maryann1975 I'm the opposite. I was weaned at 4 months and am the only one in the family to have food allergies/intolerances and be a fussy eater. My brother was weaned at 6 months and has none

6 months, I'v started DD3 this week. I'm not convinced she's 100% ready but she did enjoy bringing food to her mouth and mushing it around her tray

My 15 week old does exactly that standing thing. Pushes herself up impatiently and holds fingers and stands like that. I cannot imagine feeding her solids.

If your HV suggested you feed solids at 14 weeks do consider reporting.

6 months as per guidelines

@bruffin and OP - they didn't try it out on any babies, don't be a muppet. The studies involved asking parents when they first weaned, and then following health outcomes through childhood and later life to see if there was a correlation between obesity and bowel problems and early weaning. Not all studies start with participants being instructed to do something we think might be dangerous - smoking around children is one example like that.

@cjo99
Baby rice seems popular. I'm going to try that in a few weeks also Thanks
Please don't give baby rice, it's awful stuff and offers no nutrition to the baby. All it does is fill up their tummy so they aren't taking in enough milk, which has all of the nutrition a baby needs until 6 months.

14 weeks is way too young to be given purées. Do some research on signs of readiness, you'll almost certainly find you baby is not displaying them. Even going from the 4-6 months range that some research supports 14 weeks is too young.

Look at all of us, 20/30/40 years ago most babies were weaned at around 16 weeks. Maybe earlier?

I do look at myself, and my IBS that makes going about normal life very difficult at times, and so weaned my DD at 6 months, and will do the same with DS. 14 weeks is insane even for people who choose to wean early.

Check the ingredients in the pouches. I think the first stage ones are just individual ingredients, but lots are sweetened with grape juice or apple so that they're more palatable.

"Just tastes" seriously winds me up. Especially people who say they'll be weaning from 6 months but they've been giving small tastes from 4 months to get their baby ready for weaning. WTAF? Tastes IS weaning. They hardly start tucking into three course meals at six months.

And OP, I can't believe all you've taken away from this thread is that you should give baby rice a go next 🤦‍♀️ literally the most pointless food in existence. Have you actually done any reading up on weaning?

Oh and standing like that is totally normal for a 4 month old.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000282230901551X

This is an analysis of 78 different studies on early weaning.

And oh my god your 14 week old isn't trying to walk 🤦‍♀️ most babies will stand like that from a young age, it does not mean it's time to force feed her or that she's ready to join mensa....

Do you know about the stepping reflex?

5 months first month with only Vegetables as are the guidelines where I live.

The studies involved asking parents when they first weaned, and then following health outcomes through childhood and later life to see if there was a correlation between obesity and bowel problems and early weaning. Not all studies start with participants being instructed to do something we think might be dangerous - smoking around children is one example like that. hmm

The EAT study did not do this, they took 2 groups the first group they introduced food to at 3 months and the 2nd they waited until 6 months, this was in combination of breast feeding until 6 months
They then looked at the outcomes iin terms of allergy. In this study they purposely gave babies foods at 3 MONTHS Read the link i provided above

Can I just add that as far as I'm aware in recent years baby rice and rusks are a no no as they've no nutritional value but stuff the baby full hence why people use them to get babies to sleep.
You are better off making porridge, it's also very useful as you can start off plain and add some mushed up fruit to it for variety.