I know its bad but who has weaned their lo earlier then 6 months?

[lauraloola]

DD is 3 months old. She has started waking at 4am for a feed and doesnt seem satified after her bottle.

She watches us eat and has started trying to put things in her mouth. She has also started being sick after feeds from where I think she is having too much to try to fill up.

I am trying to hold off until she is 6 months old but I think she will be ready before then. DD is bottle fed on Hipp Organic and they dont do a Hungrier baby milk. HV advised to try her on some baby rice.

What is the earliest that you have weaned your lo? Have they had any problems?

Lauraloola - I weaned my LO early - at 22 weeks. I am positive I made the right choice because I am confident he was ready (as per Luluma's earlier post) and I know how you feel - as the other deciding factor for me was that My LO (7m)has reflux. We found that Dr Brown bottles definitely helped with the sickness - although he did not seem windy baby so still not clear exactly how/why they worked but they did - so can thoroughly recommend trying those. But I can't recommend doing it before you are absolutely sure your LO is read - I'm sure you've read on here already, sickness and weening just makes a big mess (and usually a nice orange colour too!!) so don't rush in.

If your LO is still being sick and it worries you, please go to the doctor just to check out it is nothing sinister/put your mind at rest. Is it usually the morning feed that is the sickiest? That is still the killer for us.

TBH, I am no expert, but if she is putting on weight OK - is it important how much she is drinking?

If it makes you feel any better, I have a fellow new mum whose DD (now 9 m)only ever took max 4ozs per feed and fed every 2-3 hours (plus 2 feeds in the night) at the same age. It drove her insane and she tore her hair out trying to get her to take more but in the end she just realised that her baby was not a big drinker. She was feeding every 1-2 hours by the time she started solids! But of course now, its all immaterial because the time they have milk alone is so short in the whole big scheme of things.

Whatever you decide to try, let us know how you get on!

Thanks TheGabster. I am going to wait a bit longer.

She has started taking 5oz a few times a day now. I have found that she likes to play with the bottle but will still drink! I think I will give the Dr Brown bottles a go as she is very windy. Sometimes 2 hours after her bottle she will start screaming and have a massive burp.

She is mainly sick on her first feed but is putting weight on.

What I dont understand is that the DOH states 6 months of exclusive milk and then wean yet baby rice and jars are suitable from 4 months - Talk about confusing!!

I have some baby rice ready so will keep a close eye out for the signs in this post. For now I will keep her on milk but will try different bottles.

Thanks everyone x

it takes profit making organisations a while to catch up. dd1 and ds1 are 8 and 6, and at that point nhs guidelines said wean from 16 weeks. additionally, these companies sell worldwide, and each country has different guidelines. it always makes me laugh that everyone gets so uppity about the 'right' ages. my older dcs were weaned according to guidleines in existence at the time, and are perfectly healthy, and managed fine - but of course, we didn't have baby led weaning then, we were all supposed to be annabel karmel devotees. it is all largely whatever is fashionable at the time with a dollop of science and common sense. if your baby is hungry, feed it more. (ds1 breast fed two hourly 24/7 until 10 months) but i still started weaning at 16 weeks on the dot.

having had babies in 3 different countries, i can't get excited about it. they are all guidelines, not laws.

DS watched us eat from a very early age. But then he watches a lot of what we do (explaining his current obsession with laptops!).

We sat him in his highchair during meals when he was able, from around 5 months, and put some veggies/fruit on his tray, which he mostly ignores / sometimes threw on the floor.

At around 23 weeks he picked up a wedge of pear and proceeded to eat it, and steadily ate more of what was offered over the next few weeks.

All this was inspired by BLW (which we are now doing) and made me confident that DS was eating at his own pace.

By the way, I think he still has just as much milk as he did before!

If baby rice and puree was sold as six months plus, they'd lose a lot of money because six months plus don't need rice and puree.

Hi Laura. I kinda figure it's what Romy says.

I live in Germany, the home of Hipp! And everything here starts at 4 months. Everyone at my baby group thinks I'm mad for making my own food too (OK, I'm no Anabelle Karmel/supermum but I do make an effort). So I suppose they don't change the packing that much for different countries. Although I suppose, it's also for those poor soles who are advised to start weaning early for medical reasons have to avoid certain foods until 6 months like gluten etc so hence the products suitable from 4 months?

Glad to hear things are going better for you though. Hope your LO is not being so sick anymore. Just stick at it. You don't have so long to go before the mess weaning begins!

I will get fried alive for this, but I introduced some fruit puree and baby rice at 13 weeks. DS was absolutely fine and took to it lke a duck to water . Nothing else was introduced until 6 months No allergies; no bowel problems .
This always generates lots of controversy so I wouldn't expect a lot of people to admit to the sin of 'early weaning' .

I generally object to the term 'weaning' because it implies an attempt to convert the baby from milk to solids. In fact for many it's supplementing and what actually gets into them doesn't come close to providing sufficient nutrition for a long while.

My DCs are 15 and 10. "Back then" we were encouraged to wait unti 4 months to start baby rice!!! DS started a little earlier at 3 1/2 months because he started waking through the night again and was clearly hungry. Both are very healthy children (neither have ever had a day off school sick other than for chicken pox and a broken arm) so "it did them no harm" However, that makes me sound like my parents' generation who say the same things about my insistance on using car seats... so I'd say listen to the health professionals, but don't lose sleep if you have to start earlier.

My two followed the 4m and 6m advice.

Started giving ds1 pureed butternut squash at 17 weeks as he was pulling food off our plates and gumming it and he was always hungry, downing 12oz of hungrier baby milk then puking one in 3 feeds back. Once on solids the sickiness tailed off, but can accept that might just be coincidence. I have wondered in retrospect whether it was a growth spurt and maybe should have hung on through it. The 6m advice had only just come in then, so 17wks didn't feel too bad.

Dd2 on the other hand started weaning at about 6m, she wasn't particularly interested in solids and tbh only really was eating properly from 9m. She was ok on puree but much preferred proper foods - she sort of did BLW herself but irritatingly I only found out about it after we'd got through that stage.

Am always behind the times!

WobblyPig, I'm not going to "fry you alive" but the only thing I'm going to say is that until your son is at the end of life in, hopefully, many years from now you can not say that everything has worked perfectly well.

TheGabster, they can change the packaging enough to change the language, why not the age? I'm sure that companies aren't making food in a central point and sending it all over the world, but even if they were they are still making lables in different languages.

Tinkerbelles mum - by the end of his life so many other factors will ahve interacted to determine his health and longevity that it will impossible to tell and no 80+ year long study is likely ot be carried out and in sufficient size to be able to decipher the effect of introducing fruit puree at 13 weeks .

I am not disputing any potential harm of early intro of solids but just saying that we all make decisions based on pros and cons in all aspects of our childrens lives, every day.
MMR/ parental smoking/smacking / formula feeding -for all of which evidence is available to prove the detriment/ benefit. Most people do not go out to deliberately harm their children and as long as they have info available certain decisions must be left to them.

I am not promoting early intro of solids just stating my experience which is what the OP asked for.

My son is 14 weeks old and I've just given him a tot of mashed banana and he loved it. Surely there isn't anything but natural goodness in a banana !

5 months.

WobblyPig - I agree. I think everyone just wants to make the most informed decisions they can in parenthood. Obviously, hence why OP asked the question and we are all replying as best we can.

Dear Tinkerbell - quite right - but then I wonder whether all English speaking countries recommend not weaning before 6 months, or whether it is just the UK? Does anyone know? And I suppose redesigning/printing labels is more expensive than doing nothing?

oatcake , it is not about how nutritious the food is, but if your baby;s gut is physically developed enough to cope with food..

also, the NHS weaning leaflets are very clear about no solids before 17 weeks, but to aim for aournd 26 weeks.

there are lots of signs of readiness to wean, that can indicate that the gut is mature enough to cope with food, including, sitting unaided, loss of tongue thrust reflex, pincer grip.. it is not to do with doubling birth weight or watching you eat or wanting more and more milk

milk is the safest, most filling and nutritious food you can give to a baby

laura - is she extra sicky in the morning? could be wind as have found that with dd - have projectile vomit in morning until realised she was gobbling it and getting wind so have now slowed it down.

Also per lulu's suggestion re hungry milk, might be an idea just to use that for last couple of feeds -that way it minimises the potential upset potential

Haven't got to weaning stage but most interesting thing I heard was m/w saying she ended up giving her dc fruit puree at about 3 months as weren't gettin enough.

That's a very misinformed midwife, poppy.

it was she admits thirty odd years ago and on advice of her GP
.. her story was to me to highlight fact that people do all sorts of things.

can I just say that I weaned DS1 at 13 weeks (as per guidelines then) he has hayfever and asthma and did have excema

DS2 at 17 weeks as per the guidelines at the time and he has asthma and excema and hayfever

DD at 25 weeks - just before the guidelines of now, and she is fine

I sooooooo wish I could turn the clock back.

I can't know that the early weaning led to DS's problems, but I will never know and it will always play on my mind

But the thing is you can't know at this age if any "harm" has been caused. There are a lot of people you hear talking about being weaned at three weeks (as was the guidelines) and having no bad effects - but they don't link the serious IBS and allergies etc. Until the end of our lives we can not say that everything we did was sucessful because we don't know what might happen tomorrow.

I know that we never make any decisions that we think will harm our children, especially if we are following the advice of the day. But people who deliberately go against advice or go around talking about how advice is rubbish/ for Africans/ for the teen parent who doesn't sterilise are not in the same category.

Lauraloo - sounds like more frequent feeding is the key. LIttle and often, if he's having trouble with reflux this will be better for him I think. I weaned at 17 weeks with DD1 and then 19 weeks with DD2, but they were both taking between 7 and 9 oz at every feed. Both were 10+ oz at birth and stayed around 97 centile (for whatever that's worth) and had gone from sleeping through since 12 weeks (presumable because such good feeders initially) to waking several times a night. With DD1 I was practically tearing my hair out waiting for the day she was 17 weeks old so I could wean her without feeling like the worst mother in the world, but she's fine. She had a bit of eczema for a while, but it's gone now she's 3. But I think that was more the disastrous BF I did which meant she was FF from 1 week old. I got it right with DS2 and he was BF'd for 6 months and his eczema (they were both born with it) cleared up in about 2 months. Hold off as long as you can, which is obviously your intention - try and sift through the relevant advice on this post from the ranting and rowing that will inevitably start to hijack your initial request for advice.

It's true that different countries have different rules. I live in Spain and here they tell you it's fine to wait till 6 months before introducing solids, and that milk is all your baby needs (as in the UK) but also that it won't do any harm to introduce fruit (apple, pear, banana and, surprisingly, orange juice) at 5 months.

My baby is 5 months so I've just started giving him a bit of fruit once a day. I want to introduce solids gradually, as I'm going back to work part time when he's 6 months and hoping to be able to give him more solids then to cut down on horrible expressing at work. He loves mashed up banana and pureed apple.

In Paris my friend was advised to mash up courgette and add it to the bottled milk at 4 months. In Italy they used to say there was no harm in feeding as early as 8 weeks.

My ds is 6 months and breast feeds about 4 times in the night and about every 2 hours in the day plus he has had solids (BLW stylee) from about 5 months. Little odd tasters of stuff before then as he liked pinching my food. He is a hungry and very large baby.

He has always been a sicky baby and this has definitely improved since he has been introduced to solids.