4 month old weaning

[heavymetalprincess]

Hiya all !!
My bBy boy is coming up to 4 months, he is currently on 6 bottles of 8oz per day on a fast flowing teat. This works out as a bottle every 2 hours that he keeps down.
He's still hungry as if it's not satisfying him.
I have bought him some baby rice. Will this be safe to introduce use to him ? I understand that can play with their liver and can cause complications but I want to find a way to make him better throughout the day, if that makes sence.
Thankyou in advance with any advice 🫶🏻

Babies don’t need food until 6 months, just offer more milk if he’s hungry

If he's hungry give him more milk. Baby rice is pointless even when he's old enough to actually wean.

Could you change the teats so it takes longer to drink the milk? It might satisfy him more that way. Also the stomach isn't developed for solid food until at least six months.
That's the information I was given for my eldest.

Baby rice isn’t recommended anymore, it has no nutritional value and won’t fill him up more than formula will. At this stage if he wants more milk, give him more

NHS advice is to wait til 6 months for solids and honestly, you don’t need to bother with ‘baby’ anything. You can just buy normal porridge etc, you don’t need to buy special baby porridge. With mine I just gave them whatever we were having provided it was soft enough and not too much salt etc.

I would recommend looking at the nhs website for advice on weaning and signs of readiness if you’re unsure.

www.nhs.uk/best-start-in-life/baby/weaning/

Well all this advice etc. It’s relatively recent and subject to change. My kids started on real food at four months. Both were around 10lbs at birth and exclusively breastfed. But they were ready. They are now 21 and 23. Though I never gave them baby rice - nothing in that. They got mushed up fruit and veg.

I wouldn't say it was recent. It's been 6 months since the early 2000's I'm surprised you were told to wean at 4 months if your children are only in their 20's.

Milk is much more filling than a few bits of food so it's better to increase how much milk a baby gets if they're still hungry.

It’s not that recent. The WHO has said to wait til 6 months to wean babies for about 25 years.

Lots of people have old fashioned ideas about weaning still but I think it really doesn’t help that food companies are allowed to advertise their products for 4+ month olds. It just creates confusion and they should be banned from doing it, IMO

The signs your child's body is ready to digest food are

Sitting up unaided
Lost the tongue thrust reflex
Can pick up items and move it towards their mouth

The science based guidance has been the same for decades.

No don’t do it. Wait until 6 months or a week or two before if you really can’t wait. Baby rice is rubbish. Something like an avocado or mashed banana first is good. Joe wicks has a good weaning book

Don't do it. My health visitor advised me to wean ds1 at just under 4 months and it was a nightmare. He wasn't ready and it didn't help his sleeping.

Just don’t believe that how much motor skill a baby has has any bearing on the development of their digestive system. I understand @heavymetalprincessyou don’t want your baby to be hungry. But the guidelines are there for a reason and it really is best for the long term health of your baby to wait just a teeny bit longer.

I don't understand your post, if you're saying you don't believe the science or you're telling me not to, but either way, the facts remain correct.

Signed,
All of us 'mysteriously' developing IBS in our thirties

I would wait until 6 months, but if bottle feeding I'm a bit surprised to hear that you aren't on 3 hourly feeds rather than 2. Breastfeeding can still be 'on demand' for a bit longer but bottle feeding isn't usually approached like that.

The advice has been 6 months for 23 years and has been consistent. It was certainly 6 months when I had DC1 in the early 00s.

OP if you think he’s hungry I’d try young his milk by a Floz, especially if he’s draining bottles now.

The food will have fewer calories than the milk but still fill him up so he might end up more hungry as the food isn’t as calorie dense IYGWIM?

This quiz from the NHS should tell you if your LO is ready for solids yet or not