Why are people so keen to wean their babies before six months?

[bluejelly]

I just wondered, don't want to start a row. It's just it comes up all the time, and I know it's been a while since my dd was that age, but I never remember it being something I was keen to get started.

Public Health Nutr. 2007 Sep;10(9):957-64. Epub 2007 Mar 6.

Do early infant feeding practices vary by maternal ethnic group?

Griffiths LJ, Tate AR, Dezateux C; Millennium Cohort Study Child Health Group.

MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health, UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK. [email protected]

OBJECTIVE: To examine UK country and ethnic variations in infant feeding practices.

DESIGN: Cohort study.

SETTING: Infants enrolled in the Millennium Cohort Study, born between September 2000 and January 2002.

SUBJECTS: A total of 18 150 natural mothers (11 286 (8207 white) living in England) of singleton infants.
OUTCOME MEASURES: Breast-feeding initiation, breast-feeding discontinuation and introduction of solid foods before 4 months.
EXPLANATORY VARIABLES: Maternal ethnic group, education and social class. RESULTS: Seventy per cent of UK mothers started to breast-feed, of whom 62% stopped before 4 months. Median age at discontinuing breast-feeding was 14, 13, 10 and 6 weeks in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively. Thirty-six per cent of UK mothers (34% in England) introduced solids before 4 months. White mothers were more likely to discontinue breast-feeding (62%) and introduce solids early (37%) than most other ethnic minority groups; those stopping before 4 months were more likely to introduce solids early compared with those continuing to breast-feed beyond this age (adjusted rate ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.3 (1.1-1.2)). Educated mothers were less likely to stop breast-feeding before 4 months (white mothers, 0.8 (0.8-0.9); non-white mothers, 0.9 (0.8-1.0)) than those with no/minimal qualifications but, among ethnic minorities, were more likely to introduce solids early (1.3 (1.0-1.6)). Socio-economic status was positively associated with breast-feeding continuation among white women, and with age at introduction of solids among non-white women.

CONCLUSIONS: We have identified important geographic, ethnic and social inequalities in breast-feeding continuation and introduction of solids within the UK, many of which have not been reported previously. The factors mediating these associations are complex and merit further study to ensure that interventions proposed to promote maternal adherence to current infant feeding recommendations are appropriate and effective.

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In other words, your decision to introduce solids is strongly influenced by the colour of your skin, how well-off you are, how educated you are, and what your breastfeeding history is.

Not much support for the "instinct" you-know-your-own-baby-best theory there!

I had the best of intentions about waiting until she was six months but started just before she turned five months. Like most newborns she woke through the night for feeds and then gradually she began sleeping peacefully through the night. Then she started waking up several times through the night hungry - kicking legs, fingers in the mouth, the 'hungry' cry - So i began feeding her milk through the night usually every 2 or 3 hours, i remember thinking it was like having a newborn again. It was the same during the day, she wanted milk every hour or so, or she would drain an 8oz bottle and then want more so i'd have to make up another 4oz and she'd still be hungry a couple of hours later. It didn't even occur to me she was ready for weaning until someone suggested it to me. So i started to give her baby rice and she was much happier, before where she was constantly crying suddenly she was content and able to go longer between feeds. There was such a marked difference when i started weaning. She was clearly ready for weaning before 6 months, how could i have left her throwing her arms round, cramming fingers in her mouth (no it wasn't teething, she's 8 months now and still no signs of teeth)and that awful high pitched hungry cry? Surely it's better to go by your baby than to wait for the magic 6 month date?

oh yes no 'magic' date. Clearly we have a problem that some mums feel they are being pushed into weaning their babies before they believe they are ready and others feel they are being made out to be ignorant and selfish for starting weaning before 26 weeks even though they believe they're babies are ready. I've read every post on here and every one of you clearly based your decisions on a combination of current guidance and your knowledge of your own baby. No one can sensibly take exception to that.

If anyone is interested (as I think I set this whole topic aflame again yesterday) baby bees (21 weeks and 3 days) tasted some of my banana and apple today. She was not particularly taken with the taste of banana but she enjoyed skwooshing it between her fingers and then hiding tiny bits of it about her person for me to find later. She chomped enthusiastically on the apple for ages to no real effect but it made her sore gums feel better. She appears to be both unharmed and unexcited by the experience.........

good for dd - how are your nerves?

Haven't read the rest of this thread, so sorry if I'm repeating, but until a couple of years ago the advice was to start weaning at 16 weeks. If you've got babies (like mine) who slept through at 6 weeks and then started waking around 15 weeks it seems the logical thing to do.ds1 was baby before the advice changed, so it was the norm. I also found it hard to get my head around the fact that the advice had been good for at least 35 years (I was weaned at 16 weeks) and then all of a sudden it changed. Anyway, i did it because it worked for my dc and that to me is the most important thing.

i feed b at 4 months(this was kind of normal 4 years ago) but by the time i had j 2 years ago it was to feed babys at 6 months. j was fed at 6 months but that was because he had heart surgery at 5 months

haven't read whole thread, but i weaned ds1 at about 14 weeks, he had been premature so in theory should have waited til 19 weeks as was advice (this was when 4 months was norm). i bf and had tons of milk but he was hungry all the time, feeding for an hour out of every 2, experimented with baby rice, he wolfed it down showing no confusion about what the point of it was, then swiftly followed up with mashed banana, natural yog. ds is now 6 and needless to say, happy and well, as he no doubt would have been if i'd weaned 2 weeks earlier or 2 weeks later. babies are pretty hardy, even those like mine who were in an incubator and pumped full of horrible drugs etc cos premature. now preg with ds2, will follow my own instinct and wean him when he seems interested in eating.

NL - nerves are fine, ta for asking. Have now transferred all my nerves about toxic bananas onto next weeks paed appointment re DD's extreme lankiness. Unless.......sucking on apples can't set off another growth spurt can it?

I think the sucking on apples is unlikely to make much difference! Licking them on the other hand..........
Hope you get on ok with the doc.

In retrospect, dd2 was probably ready to start eating at 24 weeks. Something changed in the way she was interested in food - I can't put my finger on it exactly - but it was different from the general need to grab everything she saw, which had started at 3-4 months.

We were cautious and started at 26 weeks and she was happy to pick food up and taste it, but even then, didn't eat much until she as 8 or 9 months old (similar to dd1).

So possibly, for dd2, 24 weeks was the right time. Because of the potential disadvantages, I'd still rather start too late than too early though.

I still don't know why one should wait past 6 months

what is the reason?

sorry 4 months

I am just interested as when dd was this age it was 4 months

Why do they say it is now better to wait?

CD, I have to go out, but very briefly, there are concerns that early weaning is a factor in allergies, infections, various bowel conditions in adulthood - basically it's become clear that the baby's immune system is influenced by feeding, and that immunity is the basis of a lot of diseases.

It's fairly clear that under 4 months is too early and there's a worry that 4-6 months is too early as well.

WHO did an extensive review which concluded that babies don't need food before 6 months.

So the weaning at 6 months advice is the "safest bet" option for the forseeable. No doubt better info will be available in future years, but it seems likely that if the advice changes, it'll be to increase rather than decrease the advised weaning age.