We're finding that the mums who wait til 6 months often have problems with weaning...

[Ceolas]

Said HV to me.

DD3 is 7 months. Eats nothing. Plays with (and sometimes licks or chews) lots of foods. Spits anything on a spoon in your face.

Apparently it's all part of a conspiracy theory. They used to say 4 months but then lots of people started at 2 or 3. If they say 6, most people will wait a bit longer.

i'd love to see those guidelines, mini. an HV posted the last set on here, and to be fair to her, they were a bloody nightmare to navigate.

first of all, they said to wean at 6 months, quite unequivocally and gave the rationale for it as the WHO guideline based on research etc. then it said 'but no earlier than 17 weeks'. clear as mud, and according to the HV basically the explanation for why HVs still have a pick and mix approach to weaning guidelines.

what they read and what is written may not be the same thing, remember.

i think your friend is talking shite, tbh, sushi. does she have kids? if so, when did she wean? i'll lay a pound to a penny this is some gobshite HV reading what she wants into the 'guidelines'.

Sushistar, I'm another that waited until 6 months to wean bf baby. No problems at all. I have never offered much in the way of sweet foods (have been called cruel many, many times).

I think guidelines are great, but dont rely on them. We as mums have instincts and intuition, we know when its the right time for our babies and they are all different.
Guidelines are there as a guide, no rules as to when to start weening..i have heard some mums start at 2/3mths, others 5/6mths as long as you and baby happy and healthy, i dont think there are any wrongs or rights on when you start weaning.

Also Sushi- I have never felt the need to, or pressured to listen to any Health Visitor.

I feel that it is up to me to take ownwership of my and my dd's health.

yama, i dont think there is anything cruel about giving your child a good start and a healthy diet..especially when they are babies..theres time enough for them to try sweet foods when bit older! What you feed them in the early days is what they will probably grow up with and will eat healthy as adults..good on you!

She doesn't have kids. She's a speech therapist and therefore thinks she knows about child development. TBH i wondered if she made the whole thing up - she sort of backed herself into a corner iykwim. I said if she had any leaflets from her pct with this new 4 month advice i'd be really interesred to see them, but she just was a bit vague.

yep, apart from the fact that there is a well-founded risk of kidney damage if you wean before 17 weeks, bitcat. even the dullest-brained HVs aren't recommending weaning at 2-3 months any more, and the ones who recommend after 17 weeks have ignored a good guideline to do so.

well, speech therapists are interesting imo. i've had a few discussions with speech therapy chums about blw, for example, and some say all that chewing is bound to be great from a speech dev pov but others are convinced that it's not a good idea as... wait for it... it's not right for everyone. why they imagine there would be a method that would be right for everyone is a bit beyond me (after all, the current method, purees etc, drives some mothers and babies to tears until they pluck up the courage to hand over a sarnie).

i'd ask her for more info on her PCT, i really want to read it. i bet you any money she's talking shite. it's the same with a lot of medical types, i find, they hate the fact that you know something about their subject and dare to disagree with them.

I think that because I waited till 6 months with DD she wasn't receptive to being spoon fed, but then I didn't want to spoon feed her anyway. When I had DS (4 years ago), the HV said that babies who are weaned at 4-5 months are more likely to let themselves be spoon fed, and I would agree with her, but who needs a spoon?

Sushistar, when DD wasn't sleeping through at 5 months (because all babies do - right?) some people looked at me as though I was some sort of masochist for not starting weaning. It was great to come on MN for a sanity check.

yama, hv can and do have a lot of valuable advice for parents and i think its all about how they come across sometimes..i thankfully have a very good hv, has known me for long time 9.5yrs, and knows too well that i will say what i am thinking. Has been very good to me and given me a lot of good advice in first few days with ds1. But i also think there are a lot of very bad ones out there from what i here on mn. Dont write all of there advice off and tar them all with same brush. Some do a fantastic job!

Well i had my first 9.5yrs ago, guidelines then were, 3/4mths and i have to say i think i got it about right! He was a very hungary baby and milk never seemed to satisify him, he settle down like a dream once on solids..and hes always liked food and will eat anything now and is very healthy. Dd1 was weaned at 5/6mths, ds2 at 7mths and dd1 6mths, because they are all different all have different needs. I do think you have to mix advice,guidelines and your own instincts to come to a decision about when to wean! or with anything else.

I think that's it, aitch. She was the most 'qualified' present in terms of baby development, so she was annoyed when i knew more about bfeeding (ie should be exclusive till 6 months) than she did. But SURELY that's covered in speech therapy training... she only qualified recently...

well, i certainly hope it is... i'm just about to start term 3 of training - so far we've had, erm, 1 slide in 1 lecture on infant feeding... however, to be fair i understand there's a lot more to come. hope so.

i think all this stuff goes straight to the heart of motherhood, in some ways. so it's very difficult for someone to hear that what they did with their perfectly healthy child is no longer the guideline. so who knows, the person who gave the lecture that day might have been all hem-hem and eye-rolling... i have SWORN to my young daughter that i WILL NOT undermine her when it comes to guidelines that will affect her children (particularly weaning, which is more likely to move back than forward from what i understand) but who knows? perhaps i'll be a grizzled old granny shrieking 'well it never did you any harm!' perhaps we really can't see past what we do ourselves?

There is a danger though with saying absolutely no solids till 6mths though sushistar. I mean putting so much pressure on mother, as i said my ds1 was never fully satisified with just milk. After 3mths of constant feeding and no sleep or very little of it, there comes a time when you have to say, enough is enough!

But how dangerous is that, to be throwing around ill-informed opinions about such an important thing!

there is no danger with delaying solids, that is for sure. unless you're in danger of throwing yourself of a roof through lack of sleep, bitcat. but you are wrong, no danger to the child whatsoever that has been established with research. in fact the opposite appears to be the case. oh i do hope welliemum comes soon, i am shit at all the research stuff, i only ever remember the conclusion, never the finer points...

and yes, sushi, very bad to be throwing around opinion as fact. don't get me wrong, i love an opinion, am always interested in research etc, but to propose it as fact, particularly if you have a medical background, well that's shitty behaviour imo.

no danger until 6 mohths, i should say. and even past the jury is well and truly out and veers towards still no danger if iron levels are cool for school.

Never say never i say. How many of you have used a baby walker and i mean the ones that they sit in, not the push alongs. I was always taught on my childcare course, baby walkers are dangerous, do not aid walking and can cause problems with growing legs if used too early. Push alongs far better and i have always stuck too this, but my mil bought 1 for dd2 and i wasnt too pleased to be honest, but she seemed to enjoy it and i started to wonder whether i had got it way way wrong?

But in the context, bitcat, i was explaining how i intended to follow current guidelines an exclusively bfeed to 6 months. I wasn't saying how difficult i found it and that my ds felt unsatisfied! He's my first so i don't even know how to tell if milk's 'enough' for him. If he grizzles i put him on the boob, and if after a loooong feed he still grizzles i have a 15 min break and put him back. I guess that could be because milk's not enough, or it could just be what babies do, but since it doesn't bother me there's no need for solids in our situation.

according to a chiropractor pal of mine you've got it bang right. she'd ban all baby door bouncers, bumbos, walkers, everything, says they're all a disaster area for growing spines.

No i meant danger, for the mum not the child, i was starting to get signs of depression and it was hv that suggested trying some solids! I'm just saying that it shouldnt be an absolute no, well informed decision making and advice from hv, and other mums if need be. I'm certainly not saying you guys are wrong either! and i do think 2/3mths is far too young to be weaning, i was only saying that i have heard some mums say that they have. I think 5/6mths should be fine for most babies.

yeah, i've heard the baby bjorn-type slings can be bad too

Aitch, you mean i've actually got something right for once?
sushistar, great if your happy and baby happy! Its right for you then and your baby, and no one least of all a silly hv/speech therapist should undermine that. Shes got no kids what does she know. I've got 4 and as i said they've all been very different. Heres to a job well done, however we decide to do it..its a minefield this parenting stuff.