Weaning at 14 weeks?

[loopielou]

Hi, does anyone have any advice on weaning my son who is showing great interest and has done for a month or so now to what we eat? I have read all the stuff about being 'advised' not to do it before 4 months but I just wanted to hear from other people on what their experience of weaning at this age was like? Other mums including mine have told me to put rusks in his milk. His weight gain is fine, its just he is so interested in watching us eat and at times not always is not interested in his bottle.

oh give me a break. how the hell can mothers know better on this one? before 17 weeks, kidney damage is a serious consideration. damage, i have to say, that may not yet have evidenced itself if it's present in your dd.

FGS its like you get jumped on for going against the wholly grail of Government Guidelines.

I hadn't realised that all our DC were the same.

On a more serious note, I realise the implications on early weaning and I wouldn't do so now (DD2 only just weaned at 6.5 months) BUT people will still wean before 6 months and jumping on them won't stop them doing it.

Meant to say "Holy"!

no, our dcs aren't all the same, that's why the 6 months figure is set wide precisely so that it will protect the most amount of children. it's frankly silly to scoff at proper research and suggest that people follow their instincts. how do any of us know whether our kids are ready, short of sticking a camera down their throats to check their guts? we don't, so it's smart to play things safe, surely?

by the way, i wasn't jumping on the OP, she seems fine. i'm more than happy to jump all over people giving out dangerous advice, however.

Weaning early = all the known mediacl risks and more work when baby is still fine on milk.

I didn't mean to come across as harsh loopie - it was a genuine question about whether you are keen to move your LO onto the next stage, and I honestly can't see why you would want to do it so early in the absence of poor weight gain/lots of night waking etc (not that I agree with these as reasons to wean a baby but a lot of people are put under pressure to wean early in these situations). If it is just pressure from older family members I would explain to them that the guidelines have changed and you would be going against medical advice.

I came under a lot of pressure from my grandma who said "Oh your granddad was weaned at 8 weeks and it never did him any harm" (No grandma, apart from the morbid obesity....). Even she gave up hassling me when I said it could increase allergies and asthma, especially as my DH is asthmatic.

I would deffinitely wait. My ds took an interest in everything (including food!) from day one really. I didn't wean him til 23 weeks and even that is a little early. He was very big though and the amount of bottles he was needing to maintain his weight was giving him bad wind so I was advised to introduce solids at this stage. If the weight gain is fine, i really would wait. At least until 18 weeks at the earliest. It's so much more hassle when they;re on solids too, very messy and time consuming! Enjoy the milk feed as long as possible. I think it's normal for babies to go on and off their milk, depends on their growth and developmental stages. Just because he doesn't seem that interested in milk now doesn't mean he wont next week. Strange little creatures!

Time for me to trot out my usual info about guidelines.

They are now that babies are fine on milk alone until 6 mths and do not need anything before that. Before 17 weeks, there is a recognised and potentially serious risk to health.

Before these guidelines were issued - in May 2003 - the guidelines were 4 to 6 mths.

Big change - NOT. However, what was new was robust research to show that the health of the majority of babies is best protected by a 6 mth guideline, and not 'mother's instincts' or 'mother knowing best' - FFS. This does not mean that every baby in the UK has to start solids on exactly the same day, either - some babies will manage solids a little earlier than this, and some will not be interested in them for a little while later.

The guidelines have never been 16 weeks - that was HVs making it up, truly.

The guidelines were 3 mths to 6 mths for a very short period in the 1970s and 1980s (I'd need to look up precisely what years it was, but it was a long time ago and not for very long). What people did, and what their HVs and doctors told them, might have been different.

BTW - I don't think anyone has sued their doctor or HV for telling them something different from official guidelines. They tell people rubbish all the time, as anyone who reads mumsnet feeding threads will know.

Loopie I weaned at 14weeks. Advice at the time was 16weks and he seemd hungry to me.

I'm now very worried that I may have done some damage (although he is a big strapping 8year old) due to all the new advice. I wish I had known.

Also, although I thought he was hungry he showed little interst in the food I was spooning in, but I persevered as he was then 4 months and I thought I was doing the right thing.

I now suffer huge guilt about this and wish i hadn't, so please wait, there are no advantages to early weaning only disadvantages.

This is a big admissin for me to make on MN where early weaning is now, rightly, harshly judged.

I also didn't breatfeed (long story).

Goes out and shots self.

I was keen to move onto next stage, God knows why now, but I was.

Over excitment, over entusiasm? Right what next, type mentality.
Stop yourself, there is really no need and good reason not too.

Tiktok - the guidelines were arounf 16 weeks in the 90's - quoting from DD1's Red Book "Babies can begin to take solids at about 3-4 months"

I therefore weaned DD1 at 14 weeks - looking back, I was bowing to mum-pressure and peer-pressure, and wish I'd waited. I weanedd DD2 at 16 weeks (advice then was 4-6 months) and again, wish I'd waited. Weaning does not make a baby sleep longer, and it is messy and inconvenient - the longer you wait the better (though not too long past 6 months)

I fully intended to hold off with DD3 until 6 months - exclusively BF, no problems - but I cannot keep up with her demands - she now has baby rice and 1 veg a day at 18 weeks. Otherwise I was feeding for half an hour every 2 hours, and not just for a day or two to increase supply (I'm well aware that if BF they can need more at growth spurts and to increase your milk supply)

So do not wean before 17 weeks, but if you genuinely need to before 6 months it is OK but check with HV if you have a sensible one, and also be really honest with yourself - make sure you are not weaning because you want to make them sleep through, or because yr friends are, or because the weaning stuff looks cute/fun etc. Be even more cautious if there allergies in your family.

(Now ducks to avoid flying rocks thrown at me fot giving rice to a 4.5 month old...)

The other thing to remember is that until the 1940's and the introduction of commercial formula milk, weaning started at 8-9 months, even leaving it to 12 months to avoid weaning in the summer.

Can anyone help me I want to go back to work and my 4 month old won't take a bottle at all I have tried everything I can think of for about 6 weeks now to no avail help.....

Sippy cup might be easier for your baby, Danz, I never used teats at all with mine, just went to soft sippy spouts at about 4 months old.

Birth to Five book (government publication) I was given for DS in 1999 says babies are ready to start solids at "about 4 months old" -- I know 16 weeks is about 10 days short of 4 months old proper, but 16 weeks still fits within an "about 4 months old" definition.

I went to a postnatal group recently...

• one lady already weaned her DS at 15 weeks -- fine, maybe, except he was born 4 weeks preterm, and she spent a lot of time worrying out loud about how her baby might be gaining too much weight.
• another lady telling us she intends to start weaning at 13-14 weeks, like she did with her last one.

HV didn't protest, I kind of felt sorry for her, she just advised them to take it slowly. I can't figure out how one or two tiny teaspoons of baby rice per day can really have the dramatic reduction in demand feeds that these ladies reckoned they would achieve, but I kept my mouth shut.

even leaving it to 12 months to avoid weaning in the summer.

According to my several advice books predating 1940, they recommended that as apparently babies were more likely to become ill if bfing reduced during the summer - which makes sense.

Ah, ok.

i also read in an old book that it was because refrigeration wasn't reliable so one might reasonably have expected that you'd be more likely to get an upset tummy. which again makes sense. clever ladies, those mums. until the corporations got to them...

lljk, that birth to five book has been updated, though...

oh, and i love your name and your posts lavendersblue.

well, i know what the goverment advice is, and there are other signs that a baby is ready for weaning to take note of too, my ds is 6 and weaned at 4 months and has been fine, my daughter is 19 weeks and just started, she was born prem, which does not mean she had to wait longer apparently, she has tripled her birth weight now and despartely needed more, she was drinking 9oz and wanting more, and feeding every 2hours,plus being really grizzly all the time, she eats loads and is very content now, so i know i did the right thing. over the years lots of people i know have been weaned anything between 6 weeks and 6months and most are fine.i am being careful though, and giving mainly baby rice for now.

Oh yeah, H2Ciao, the book might be updated, my point was that it was in the late 1990s still pretty much official advice that it was ok to wean at 16 weeks (somebody was saying that it never was official advice).

oh right, gotcha.

Wow that is really interesting about leaving it to 9-12 months - both my DDs were not that interested in food until about 9 months and I used to worry about it (they were VERY fond of the boob!!)

Danz - I really feel for you - I know I will have the same problem when I go back to work in a month - she is already refusing bottles! You could try some different teats or a sippy cup - but the sad truth is that she may have to cry for a day or so of hunger before giving in to a bottle (agonising for you ) - if you keep trying the bottle and giving in with a boob she will keep refusing the bottle - it is only when no boob is offered that the bottle becomes an option for her!

bugger the health risks .... what about the poo. Nice unsmelly milk poo vs. horrid smelly food poo....

i am a 6 month girl myself