When did you start weaning with food

[Millenialmom96]

I am a mum to a 4.5 month old and am begining to think about weaning. All the other mums I know have begun weaning at 4.5-5 months. My plan has always been to ideally hold off until 6 months as we have a holiday abroad a couple of weeks before and I'd rather do that on just milk. I've ready up on the signs of readiness and whilst my baby is quite good at sitting up I don't think she's showing the hand eye coordination skills yet.

If it makes a difference she is EBF and I've seen some news articles saying that BF babies may benefit from earlier weaning due to our iron reserves falling but I'm reluctant to believe these without reading any scientific papers. I keep feeling like I might be failing my baby if I don't start her on solids soon enough but am hoping it's a typical cake of spending too much time comparing myself to other mums.

So I'm not really sure the point of this thread is more than just put of curiousity to know if people do actually wait until the 6 months.

Yes, you should wait to six months. Even up to a year their main nutrition is still milk, so you definitely are not failing your baby by waiting and following health advice. All your baby needs right now is your milk

6 months.

No need to start at 18 weeks old...

Just wait.

We started at about 5.5 months. She'd been trying to help herself if she got close enough for a couple of weeks by this stage so we decided it was close enough to the 6 month mark. She was EBF up to that point if that makes a difference.

Wait a month. And then wait until baby can actually sit up and hold head steady. Not "being quite good"

Then once she's sitting properly, with zero support/wobbles etc... you can easily see if baby is ready or not. If you give her something like a tiny piece of banana or whatever, if she immediately pushes it back out with her tongue.

She's not ready. So wait a week, and see again.

There's really no reason to rush. She'll be eating for the rest of her life.

On the contrary you'll be failing your baby if you force her digestive system to start trying to process solids too early. You're risking IBS and other gastro intestinal disease when she is an adult. She'll never know it's because you weaned early.

Wait for six months at least. That's the minimum. Many of my bf friends myself included waited seven months because ours weren't ready. Many EBF babies just have a bit of food here and there until one. My 18 month old will sometimes skip lunch in favour of boob. They become like us, some days wanting breakfast lunch dinner other days just a huge brunch then supper etc. As long as it balances out over a week with a healthy amount of iron rich food from the age of 1 then you're all good.

You want to wait until 6 months. The guidance says six months. This is a no brainer.