Drooling = ready for weaning?

[CanIHaveAHolidayPlease]

So I have a (just) 5 month old baby. She was growth restricted in the womb and born by planned c section on 0.4th centile at 37 weeks. She's gained weight now and is following the 2nd centile.

I spoke to the health visitor yesterday who mentioned weaning. My plan was to wait until baby is 6months and 3 weeks old to compensate for her early arrival but as she is holding her head up with no support and drooling LOADS all the time (not teething) the HV said this is a sign she is ready for weaning.
I've never heard of drooling being an indication of readiness for weaning. She's not even sitting up on her own yet without support.
I've always been told that just because baby is watching you eat and dribbling it doesn't necessarily mean they are ready to be weaned. My baby dribbles and chews her fingers 80% of the time she's awake.
Advice from the HV is to wait 3 weeks and give her some baby porridge but that'd be a month earlier than I planned.
Just after some opinions please. Maybe I'm overthinking the whole situation 😕

My baby has been drooling since before she was even 3 months old, it definitely doesn't indicate readiness to wean.
Your baby is ready to wean when they can sit steadily with very limited support, and are showing clear interest in food, at around the age of 6 months.

@pbdr

My baby has been drooling since before she was even 3 months old, it definitely doesn't indicate readiness to wean. Your baby is ready to wean when they can sit steadily with very limited support, and are showing clear interest in food, at around the age of 6 months.

Exactly what I thought. Thankyou

As your baby was born at 37 weeks she is classed as term so no need to adjust for age. The latest you should start weaning is at 6 months. With my first, I started at 6 months and with my second at 5 months, as he was ready much earlier and was grabbing our food!

Never heard of drooling meaning ready for weaning - my baby drooled from about 2 months. He didn’t get his first tooth till 10 months so it wasn’t teething - he was just a dribbly baby who liked chewing things.

@Asiama

As your baby was born at 37 weeks she is classed as term so no need to adjust for age. The latest you should start weaning is at 6 months. With my first, I started at 6 months and with my second at 5 months, as he was ready much earlier and was grabbing our food!

No... it's recommended to wait until your baby is six months for gut maturity.

Considering your HV is recommending baby rice I suspect she's not up with the latest guidelines, so I'd ignore her weaning "advice" if I were you. Drooling isn't a sign

@Asiama

As your baby was born at 37 weeks she is classed as term so no need to adjust for age. The latest you should start weaning is at 6 months. With my first, I started at 6 months and with my second at 5 months, as he was ready much earlier and was grabbing our food!

Grabbing food also doesn't mean ready to wean - it means your baby is interested in the thing you're holding - it could be a shoe brush and they'd grab it off you to gnaw on it

My baby is currently under paediatric dietician care and she told us 6 months is the absolute latest for all babies when I challenged her on the guidelines, and encouraged us to consider starting slowly after 5 months.

Your HV is wrong and isn't qualified to advise early weaning. The signs of readiness are able to sit up straight, able to bring her hand to her mouth, no tongue thrust, and be 6 months old. You don't need to adjust as baby was term and you haven't been advised to by a dietitian. Babies iron reserves are depleted at 6mo so it's important to get them started as soon as they are physically ready.
Weaning before 6 months can cause stomach problems as a baby or as an adult. Babies do not need anything but milk until they are 6mo. Even if the are dribbling/staring/grabbing food etc.

Drooling is a sign of teething, wait until 6 months as we guidance.

www.nhs.uk/start4life/weaning/ready-or-not/

From around 6 months is the official advice and has been for nearly 20yrs. The clear signs of readiness are described on the above link.

As I often , boringly, say on these threads; DC3 is almost 21 and advice to wean at 6 months was not new news when he was that age.Drooling isn't a sign that your baby is ready to wean and baby rice is a pointless waste of time for everybody ( again this was routine advice over 20 years ago).
It is completely normal to be looking forward to the next stage of development all the time eg smiling, rolling over, crawling etc.Weaning is the same but it can be stressful, you only have to see multiple threads on here.Wait until your baby seems ready and then have no expectations. They vary enormously in how interested they are. Model eating a wide variety of foods by sitting with them and letting them share.No same adult human would eat baby rice!

Sane!

Thanks everyone. Believe it or not this is my 3rd baby so was quite surprised when the HV suggested drooling was an indication she was ready. That's why I thought I'd ask you guys!

The reason why I was holding off weaning till her corrected age was because the consultant advised she will reach her milestones late and therefore assumed her gut would mature slower

Mine was born just shy of 37wks and was treated as term. He met all his milestones on time or slightly early (walked at 9 months for example). At 37wks there's no need to adjust.