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)

@Cjo99 Look, you’re definitely not the only one who started early, I found this poll!

A MadeForMums poll of 402 mums told us that 54% start either at 4 or 5 months and only 40% wait until 6 months or more.

The full results are as follows:

When did you start weaning your baby?

Before 4 months: 6%
At 4 months: 26%
At 5 months: 28%
At 6 months: 34%
At 7 months: 6%

I think your health visitor was only trying to give you her own personal experience, nothing wrong with that! (I agree with you about the reporting, you’d have to be pretty petty to report someone over a comment.) Best of luck in the future with your little one.

@Cjo99 people like you are the reason she carries out spouting potentially dangerous advice then, aren't you? Reporting someone isn't just to dob them in and get them in trouble, it's so they can be reminded of policies and of their role. She even acknowledged that she was saying it 'off the books', so she knows she is in the wrong.

@Mangomumma Aweee that's great they love their food! I'm hearing more and more about BLW, seems great! Thanks!

@Mumof2babas wow that's a big percentage for 4-5 months! Yeah, I think so too, seems a bit harsh. Aw Thank you. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

@Cjo99 oh also, I can’t believe your LO is standing like that at 4 months! My two were so lazy, didn’t do that until they were around 8 months!!!

16 weeks for dd. She had clocktime colic and we found a bit of baby rice/porridge/yoghurt helped. She’s 7 now and eats everything you give her

Ds was 6 months as he wasn’t interested in food. He was diagnosed with CMPA at 4 months so his tummy was sensitive. He’s fine now. He’s 5 and is a picky fucker

@Soubriquet I'm glad he is okay now!

I hope everyone is keeping safe during these scary times! Wishing you all good health

Thank you!

Oh about the lumps in food, dd wouldn’t eat any lumpy food if you spoon fed it to her. She would gag.

However she would eat solids if she fed herself. So she used to have like toast to eat herself, followed by yoghurt fed by me (when she was older)

@Mumof2babas WELCOME to Mumsnet! it’s excellent you’ve created a whole new account on here to respond to the OP so very supportively!!! And exactly in the OP’s tone too- which I’m sure she is loving!!! But most importantly welcome to Mumsnet :) :) :)

Right. DS has lost his sock-puppet which I now need to go and locate!

@Cjo99 I just wouldn't report anyone for something that small...

It isn't small. It may be ok for you but another mum could take this advice from the same HV and her baby end up choking and in worst case scenario dying. This needs to be reported and not doing so can endanger another woman's child

@ namesgonenow thanks!!!!! I did make the account specifically to reply to this thread,still figuring out how to work it fully,always reading things from here so it is about time I made one

Why does it matter?

This is an important issue because the start age of weaning appears to influence health outcomes, with those weaned before four months being most affected. Weaning before 17 weeks has been associated with a range of negative health outcomes (Arden, 2010). These include eczema (Tarini et al, 2006), childhood wheezy, respiratory illnesses (Wilson et al, 1998), higher body fat and body mass index (Wilson et al, 1998) and increased risk of childhood obesity (Sloan et al, 2007; Griffiths et al, 2008). Weaning before six months is associated with respiratory infections (DH, 2003) and exposure to pathogens present in food that may predispose the infant to gastrointestinal disease (Wilson et al, 1998). It has also been suggested that solid foods may overload the digestive and absorptive mechanisms of the immature gut, leading to increased potential for sensitisation to food antigens (Wilson et al, 1998). Weaning after six months may lead to eating problems such as difficulty with tolerating solid foods (Northstone et al, 2000). It can also result in under-nutrition such as iron and zinc deficiency (Hart, 2006).

Just going to leave this here for anyone else that thinks weaning before 17 weeks is a good idea.

I'm going to hold off for just a couple of weeks, maybe until she is 19/20 weeks

Yay! Well done OP, I'm so glad you've changed your mind.

Each to their own and all that....

But, stick with milk only for as long as possible. It's so much easier than weaning and feeding a baby/toddler. Once you start weaning you might feel like all you end up doing is feeding all day long - breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, supper. It's monotonous and days out need a bit more organising. Baby led weaning made it much simpler - try the baby led weaning Facebook group for help and advice. But please wait until she is a bit older if you do go down the blw route.

Wow so your 4 month old is both sitting up and almost standing unaided. For anyone else reading this please be super careful about weaning early unless on medical advice, as others have said it isn't currently recommended before 17 weeks (Ideally closer to 6 months)

@cjo99 blw is great and baby has a lot of fun doing it! It also means you don't have to buy pouches or spoon feed, babies are good at regulating their intake, you just have to watch what you're giving particularly salt and sugar.

I warned dc1 early at 19/20 weeks on medical advice so used some purées but wouldn't gave even tried any earlier and by 7 months she had Putney finger foods.

I weaned at 6 months... Didn't really see a point in doing it sooner as milk is so good for them and I enjoyed BFing.

DS always loved porridge made with breast milk or formula in the early days, I used to mush raspberries in which he loved

We started weaning about 10 days before 6 months as he was showing all the signs. He wolfed down his first meal. We do a combo of finger food and purées, have done since day 1. The purées are not completely smooth. I’ve found the weaning made easy recipe book helpful and the app baby led kitchen for ideas.

The NHS guidance says ‘around 6 months’ not at 6 months but lots of people have taken that to mean not before 6 months when it doesn’t. There was suggestions that when the guidance was 4 months lots of people were weaning before then thinking they had to. Now we have gone the other way with people saying not before 6 months when it is AROUND 6 months (a bit vague but you will always have outliers if you are so prescriptive). That being said 14 weeks seems very early OP.

Definitely have a look at BLW OP, I'm a big advocate! Mostly because baby is entertained with trying to feed themselves leaving you to actually eat a meal with two hands. Can't wait until DS starts 😂