My DS is showing all the signs and is only 17 weeks, is this ok?

[MadameCheese]

Anyone else out there whose baby was ready early?

what signs is he showing?

is he able to sit, pick up food, get it to his mouth, chew and swallow.. and has lost the tongue thrust reflex..?

otherwise, he is just having a growth spurt

waking up at night, feeding more in the day, watching you eat are not signs he needs solid food

you cannot see inside your baby's gut to see if it is mature enough for solids

breast or bottle fed?>

Oh ok, so he's waking at night putting everything in his mouth. Breast fed and I really don't want to start now, if that makes sense. He's not doing any of the more advanced stuff you mentioned lulumama

I mean I want to hold onto just me feeding him at the moment if that doesn't sound too weird or selfish.

Wanting to keep exclusively BF your baby at 17 weeks is just the right thing to do :-)

The real signs are the sitting well unassisted and being able to bring food to their mouths. DS started weaning at 23 weeks when he could sit happily in his highchair, take some brocolli out of my hand and eat it :-)

If he's not sitting unaided or really mugging you for food, he's not ready.

Putting things in their mouths is one of a baby's way of exploring the world. Doesn't mean they're ready to eat anything!

then keep going with the breastfeeding! what you have noticed is nothing to do with readiness to wean

best thing you can do is offer the breast as m uch as he wants it

I weaned at 19/20 weeks but to be honest I feel I held out as long as I could and think he was ready a couple of weeks earlier.

and when I did offer some baby rice, he gobbled it up
the HV said she he might only take 1/2 spoonfuls the first time so I only made up a tiny amount of baby rice and then had to make up more because he was grabbing the spoon and shoving it into his mouth.