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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

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Original poster

Is 15 weeks too early to start with a small!! amount of baby rice

90 replies

cupcake78 · 06/01/2008 19:48

DS is feeding up to 7 times a day anything from 7-8oz bottles. He is a big baby.

Last two weeks he has started to wake every three hours in the night for a feed after sleeping throught for over 6 weeks.

I am tempted to give him a very small amount of babyrice as part of his last night feed?

I know people say not until 17 weeks but does 2 weeks really make a difference? I wouldn't give him anything else.

OP posts:

wannaBe · 07/01/2008 11:40

Of course a baby picking up food would suggest it's ready to eat, but I certainly wouldn't consider that the only sign to look out for? My ds didn't pick up finger food for himself until he was about 9 mo, would that therefore suggest he wasn't ready to be weaned until then?

Also, I've seen posts on here suggesting that if a baby has picked up food before the magical 26 week lightbulb switches on, they're not actually interested in the food but are just picking things up as babies do. do it after 26 weeks and suddenly it's the food they're interested in.

wannaBe · 07/01/2008 11:42

am slightly at baby rice at 6 weeks though.

nimnom · 07/01/2008 11:44

Like other posters, at the risk of being hounded out of MN, I weaned both my boys at 14 weeks. With ds1 the advice at the time was 16 weeks, although it had changed by the time I had ds2. I agree with Stacey trust your instincts. Mine both slept through from 6/7 weeks, started waking in the night and then once they were on the solids they settled again. Neither of them have any allergies either (I'm not sure how much I believe that one anyway - I'm running for cover now)

PrismManchip · 07/01/2008 11:46

I started at 16 weeks too, because that's what I was told by the HV and it never occurred to me to think about it - I just knew that rusks in the bottle at 8 weeks (as we had) were not recommended.
I don't feel anything about it really - you do what you do with the information at the time.
I wouldn't bother again though - what a FAFF.

Aitch · 07/01/2008 11:48

i've not seen those posts, tbh, i've certainly seen ones that say if their eyes are following your sandwich around the room a la pete and dud that it means nothing in particular. there are some peopel who'd nevertheless say that even if they are capable, they'd feel more comfortable in waiting until 26 weeks and given it's going to do the child no harm nutritionally what's the harm other than some lost sleep for the parent. and yes, plenty of babies aren't ready to eat by themselves at 6 months on the dot, which means some might be ready later, ncluding babies who don't pick it up and play with it until 8 or 9 months. thing is, if you were feeding your ds on a spoon then it's hard to say what he'd have done if he'd just been left to it, so he's not a great example. but yes, oddly enough, there seems to be a pattern that babies who don't go crazy for food at 6 months do suddenly get it at about 8-9 months. i wonder if that coincides with them needing to fuel a growth spurt or strting crawling? it would make sense, as current medical/nutritional thinking says babies don't grow because they eat, they eat because they grow, iykwim?

Aitch · 07/01/2008 11:51

lol at you being about 6 weeks, wannabe. it's exactly as prism says, it's all tied up with what we've done. my mum weaned me at 3 weeks, she'd have no problem with 6 weeks at all. (i would, chronic IBS and kidney problems... but there you go. )

kinki · 07/01/2008 12:21

Can I just ask a question while on the subject. I plan on waiting till 6 months to wean ds3, as I did with ds2. But I'm getting pressure from MIL to start earlier - she started weaning her 5 dses at 2 weeks old. Obviously this is a generational thing. But can anyone give me a comprehensive list of reasons why wait till 6 months? I start stumbling after allergies and asthma. She is so not convinced I'm doing the right thing. I'm happy, I just want some ammunition with which to fend her off!

As for the op, I'm a great believer in following instincts. If you really feel your lo is ready for weaning, then go ahead. The reason we're all fabulous mums is because we all have this great thing called 'maternal instinct'.

MAMAZON · 07/01/2008 12:27

you don't need one Kinki.

the only reason you need to give is that you are his mother and you have decided that this is the best thing for him.

kinki · 07/01/2008 12:33

mamazon, you're right!

sparklygothkat · 07/01/2008 12:33

I weaned my older 3 at 15-16 weeks but that was the recommended age at the time. Callum is now 15 weeks and so not ready for food, he is feeding lots though, but I am not weaning yet..

Habbibu · 07/01/2008 14:33

Kinki - because, as prism says, it's an enormous faff...

tiktok · 07/01/2008 17:08

Just a bit of maths: a small amount of baby rice is, what, two teaspoons, or 10 ml. This is about 10 calories, some of which come from the milk you have mixed with the rice, so lets say two teaspoons of wallpaper paste delicious yummy baby rice is about 5 calories in the tummy.

A formula fed baby getting a perfectly normal amount of formula in 24 hours of 7 x 200 ml of formula is taking in 7 times 140 calories, or 980 cal a day.

Will 5 calories on top of this really make much difference?

I mean, why bother? Babies get most of their satisfying of hunger nutrition from milk for a long time, and don't really need anything else until about 6 mths. Giving it as early as 15 weeks probably won't harm the majority of babies (but it may harm a few) and it just seems to me an enormous faff for nothing, especially when given in response to perfectly normal behaviour (ie waking at night).

And what is this 'instinct' for when your baby needs rice, eh? Is it hormonal, genetic, something in the air, brain waves, biochemical, telepathic......??

lulumama · 07/01/2008 17:16

amen to that tiktok

weaning at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, knock yourself out.. but there are guidelines for a reason

and as you cannot see inside your babies gut to determine if it is mature enough to handle food then why not wait?

babies have growth spurts, they also have tiny stomachs, the best thing you can put in there is milk and lots of it.

they have the rest of their lives for food

and milk nappies are so much nicer to deal with than food nappies !!

PrismManchip · 07/01/2008 17:53

I recently read a book about feeding practices in Britain over the past few centuries, and another on childcare all over the world. Everyone does something different and has done over history. Babies used to be 'hand-fed' breadcrumbs mixed with water as soon as possible...no doubt their mothers thought there was something intrinsically 'instinctive' about that too (not for long, though, as the babies tended to die).

kinki · 07/01/2008 18:09

The 'instinct' I'm referring to isn't "for when your baby needs rice". The instinct I spoke of, is that which most other species on the planet uses to know how to feed it's offspring.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 07/01/2008 18:22

Amen tiktok.

In summary to OP - YES 15 weeks is too early.

Additionally :-

the WHO guidelines didnt change just 4 years ago.

Kinki - tell your your MIL that you have decided to wean when you feel they are ready and leave it at that.

No-one ever has, or ever will be "hounded off of MN" for weaning early. I cant guarantee that some people wont take your future posts incredibly seriously if you tend not to pay heed to peer-reviewed research and guidelines.

Aitch · 07/01/2008 19:12

i'd be really interested in reading those books, prism, do you have the titles?

sherby · 07/01/2008 19:24

How weird that I should post on this thread yesterday and then today I hear shouts of 'get off my toast DS, mummy DS is eating my toast' I came into the living room to find DS frantically sucking on DD's marmite toast and then he screamed blue bloody murder when I took it off him.

He is sitting up unaided, which is how he managed to snaffle the toast in the first place, what to do for the best though hmm?

PrismManchip · 07/01/2008 19:42

One was called "Baby Wisdom" by Deborah Jackson - which I almost feel compelled to write and tell her is a terrible title for what is a fascinating book. I got it from the library and only picked it up because there was nothing else in the prospective-doula vein Anyway it deals with every aspect of birth and infancy that you care to mention, with examples from other cultures and interesting bits of info. It is unlikely to be really rigorous but it is fascinating and a pretty big book so lots of 'omg' moments.

THe other one: I am racking my brain. It was another library jobbie. I will get back to you.

There is also one called "Our Babies, Ourselves" - anthropological round-up of differences between 6 cultures, spec. health, feeding and sleep. Meredith Small. She is putting forward "the new science of ethnopaediatrics" so labours that a bit but the factoids are enough to say "We are mental in the West".

kinki - I am sort of trying to say that that instinct re feeding is totally defined by culture. Different groups all over the world are doing different things with regard to when to wean and what should be the first food. I think in the absence of any clarity wrt the 'right' way to do it, we have to accept that the people who have done the analyses offer the best route atm. For us that's the WHO. I do not like this, I find it paternalistic and counterintuitive, myself, but reading around the subject a bit, I can see that we don't have it right here because we don't know what's natural any more.

Annabellemary · 07/01/2008 22:03

My DD is 12 weeks old and weighs 15lb now (she weighed 9lb 11oz at birth). Although I'm certainly not thinking of weaning her for a good while yet I'm confused as to why babies who weighed say the average weight of 7lb at birth and babies that are larger at birth would be weaned at the same time, being six months old. Would a larger baby not be ready to be weaned earlier or does it not have anything to do with weight?

MrsBadger · 07/01/2008 22:10

tis bolleaux - just cause a baby is large for their age doesn't mean they're more mature / better developed / ready to wean earlier.
Are tall people cleverer than short ones?

Sidge · 07/01/2008 22:23

My daughter's consultant endocrinologist believes that early weaning is a contributing factor in the huge rise in bowel diease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders that we now see.

I don't understand why someone would say 'well I weaned DS1 at 12 weeks and he's OK' when DS1 is only 8 now and you have no idea whether he will develop type 2 diabetes in 15 years time...

3andnomore · 07/01/2008 22:25

to Op...yes!

Habbibu · 07/01/2008 22:27

Annabelle - am with Mrs Badger. Mine was 10lb 11 at birth, and stayed on 99.6th centile for all measurements until lately (15 m). Weaned at 6 months. Her gut is no more mature than her friend's who is 3 days older but much much smaller.

Sidge, oh Lord yes. There should be a compulsory "yet" after every, "and it hasn't done me any harm".

lulumama · 07/01/2008 22:29

absolutely sidge.

i just do not understand the hurry to wean,especially 12 weeks or under...

it takes your body 40 weeks or so to make your baby, why just a few short weeks later, would they need anything other than milk and be physically mature enough for it?

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