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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

Can you start BLW earlier than 6 months?

17 replies

2point4kids · 04/07/2008 13:54

A genuine question as I am curious about BLW - please dont flame me!!

I know guidelines are to wait till 6 months as their stomachs may not be ready until then.

I have also heard that the stomach is likely to be ready at the same time as the baby is able to hold a carrot stick, put it to his mouth and eat it as these things develop at the same time.

My DS is nearly 5 months. I am not planning on weaning him yet. Am aiming to wait till 6 months.
I am also interested in BLW, so was wondering if there is any harm in letting him sit at the table with us when we are eating and giving him a carrot stick or piece of banana so he can 'join in'.

Surely based on the above logic then if he eats it he is ready for food and if he doesnt eat it then no harm done?

What do you think?

OP posts:

StealthPolarBear · 04/07/2008 14:03

Well the whole theory of BLW is that they eat when they are developmentally ready for it so offering food from 5months onwards shouldn't be a problem IMO. I gave DS vegetable sticks to play with from 23 weeks, and he ate more than I thought he would. However, the guidance is 6 months .... so the choice is yours!

MissingMyHeels · 04/07/2008 15:01

I am intrigued as to what the consensus is on this as I go back to work just before DD is six months and to convince nursery to BLW I would like to have tried offering her food for a week or so before she starts nursery.

She already (16 weeks) tries to grab my food so hoping she'll take to it well

Original poster

2point4kids · 04/07/2008 21:24

OP posts:

MissingMyHeels · 04/07/2008 23:43

I think all the BLW'ers are busy bickering on other weaning threads ;)

Let me know how it goes with your DS

Bumperlicious · 05/07/2008 07:30

Not sure of the answer to this but you could try asking on the BLW forums.

seeker · 05/07/2008 07:36

She is probably also trying to grab your phone and the remote control and anything else - it just means she's ready to grab - not necessarily ready to eat. I would wait til 6 months, honestly. Why take even the tiniest risk when you don't have to?

chloemegjess · 05/07/2008 09:49

Can he sit unaided? thats one of the major signs that they are ready too. If he can, I would go for it, but thats up to you.

My DD was slightly before 6 months when I weaned her, but she could sit unaided, had brilliant hand control with picking things up etc and would scream if we ate anything in front of her and didnt give her anything. We tried distracting her with toys etc as we had planned to wait till 6months but nothing worked

Original poster

2point4kids · 05/07/2008 09:52

No, he cant sit unaided, but then DS1 didnt sit unaided until well over 8 months old and I cant wait till then!

OP posts:

horsygirl · 06/07/2008 15:15

Listen to what your own baby is telling you. Pay attention to the signs. 6 months for every baby? How can they all be the same ffs??

thisisyesterday · 06/07/2008 15:22

Actually I had this discussion on another forum recently and Gill Rapley was contacted and said something along these liens:

a baby who can sit unaided, can sit up at the table at meal times and be offered food from around 4 months
The vast majority of children under 6 months will NOT be capable of picking up food by themselves and eating it.

this is not a direct quote, just what I remember from her reply which went into more detail.
anyway, there is plenty of evidence that a child's digestive system develops in tandem with her ability to feed herself. and so if baby can pick food up by herself (do NOT hand food to her) and eat it, then in all likelihood she is internally developed enough to digest it.

in fact, past 5 months there does not seem to be able real proof that weaning does any damage IF baby is able to self feed

horsygirl · 06/07/2008 15:26

ok so how about prem babies who are fed baby rice? They can't feed themselves......

thisisyesterday · 06/07/2008 15:28

to quote gill rapley:

The beauty of the baby led weaning theory is that it allows for prematurity! If the idea that all a baby?s systems mature in tandem (which is the basis for the whole 6 months thing) holds water, then the fact that the baby of 6 months who was born 6 weeks early (and is therefore in fact only 4.5 months) is not able to get food to his mouth shows that he is not ready to digest it either ? but by 8 months he probably will be.

horsygirl · 06/07/2008 15:32

No I mean prem babies in SCBU. They give them baby rice to keep them alive! The WHO chooses to ignore this, and thus we laymen don't hear about it, but its standard practice.

Agree wholeheartedly with blw tho. Makes total sense, i think.

thisisyesterday · 06/07/2008 15:34

I Have no idea, because I don't know why they do it.
I do however know several people who have had prem babies that were not given baby rice
but that is, of course, anecdotal.

AlexanderPandasmum · 06/07/2008 15:57

I had a prem baby and he wasn't given baby rice. I didn't witness any baby rice being given at all in the neonatal ward - they were in fact very much pro-breastmilk and if the baby was too weak to feed they were given a drip.

I can't see anything wrong myself with offering blw foods after about 5 months, so long as the baby isn't 'helped' in any way as this is when the choking risk is highest IIRC .

Original poster

2point4kids · 06/07/2008 16:01

Ok thanks, thats very interesting.
I wasnt aware of the big distinction between handing food to a baby and him picking it up himself, but of course it makes sense now I hear you say it so thanks for that advice.

OP posts:

MissingMyHeels · 06/07/2008 17:52

I only want to try it perhaps one week early as she starts nursery and I return to work the week before she is 26 weeks. I was hoping to try it once or twice so I can give them some idea of how she will respond to being given food - they only do purees at nursery so it's something totally new to them anyway.

Interesting that it seems ok to offer from 5 months - seems to make sense.

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