weaning

[babylonian]

i want to start weaning my 4 month dd and have read everywhere about baby rice, excuse my ignorance but where can i buy baby rice from...is it in the baby section of the supermarket? does it come as dry rice or a powder form that is mixed with milk/water??? and any suggestions as to brand? i feel that this question is probably the most stupid to be aired on mumsnet .

16 weeks - not 16 months! whoops.

There is some evidence that solids need to be introduced by about 9 months, by the way.

hercules

Embarrassed to be a HV sometimes when I hear tales like this.

If it wasn't so serious it would be funny.

YOu stated you were trying to gather information. Well, I gave it. Please explain what the problem was?

sorry, meant to answer on the other thread.

I'm with the mothers here who weaned their children when they knew they were ready.

By the ay, if you read articles on the WHO website, you'll realise that a lot of things are still highly controversial, that not all research done proves the 6 months theory - it's more like they've reached a safe conclusion which won't do much harm either way but it does state in one article that the neeeds of every individual baby and the nutritional value of every mother's milk can vary and are very hard to be researched properly. Just because 6 months is a safe option for the majority of babies doesn't mean it's 100% right for ALL of them.

Just had a look at the articles and it does seem to say that some mothers in underdeveloped countries milk may lack enough of two vitamins. In this case then supplements of some sort would be needed although not necessarily solids. This doesnt relate to women in developed countries.

I would be interested if you post a link to the article you are refering to as I can only see definite conclusions about waiting for 6 months not it's a safe bet.

hi hercules i just noticed upon reading this whole thread again, that when i said in my contribution that my friends hv told her that 6mths was to put people off putting adult food into babies at 4mths, you came back and said it not to put mums off but what the reasearch shows, i dont think you got my point there, it being that some people might automatically feed a baby what they eat - ie cooked with salt, processed foods or just the wrong type of foods for the whole initation into foodstuffs for babies.
this can be due to lack of information just because some mums/dads are not , with no disresepect to anyone, aufait with how to feed babies and arent aware of how to find out, or because they dont know they should - maybe education in schools is where it all should start.

i really wanted to go to 6mths with my ds w/o solids but i had my dd of 24mths just, to contend with and finding it tough, i know all about WHO etc etc, but for me, at 20wks,it just gaveme a bit more time between breast feeds to do all the other things on my neverending list!

i think, i dont know you at all from mumsnet, that you have a good bit of experience, maybe laneydaye is a first time mum who needs to be handled carefully - some mums are less tough than others.....dare i say anymore.and first time mums can be defensive , i was, as in "i knowwhati am doing" - but inside its all crazy stuff and no one can help - another thread i think.

Yes, I did misunderstand you

cheers!!

I didn't say they proved the 6 months one not to be safe. It probably is the safest option as far as large groups of the general populations are concerned, because human milk seems to satisfy the needs of a newborn baby for about that long. They don't say that earlier weaning is definitely unsafe, though. Even if you manage to make everyone to not give any solids until 6 months, the benefits of that will have to be researched in years to come and compared.
Sorry can't remember which article it was exactly - there were so many of them. Might have another look tomorrow again.

And by the way, why dos the kellymom.com website say this:
'Some babies thrive on breastmilk alone until 12 months or later - as long as your baby is continuing to gain weight and grow as he should, your milk is meeting his needs well. '
...when the WHO definitely says that the baby's iron reserves (as well as other minerals) will run out by about 6 months?
Not very convincing advice as far as I am concerned.

Message withdrawn

Well I breastfed my dd2 exclusively for 12 months - not because I chose to, but because she was not at all interested in solids. She is absolutely fine, in fact thriving. Iron in breastmilk is much better absorbed than iron from other sources, and not every child who is breastfed after six months will become anemic, far from it. From reading on other message boards I know that it is quite common for babies who have been breastfed up to six months not to be interested in solids for quite a while after that, but the vast majority of them cope well with only breastmilk for much longer than six months.

Message withdrawn

HMo2, I think the 75% thing is hard to measure, but I've certainly read in other sources that most of a child's calories still come from milk, before a year.

And I've heard of other people breastfeeding exclusively to a year. It's hard, but if you have severe food allergies in your family, pretty sensible. I think it's something North Americans manage more than Europeans.

I know my dd certainly was havin more breastmilk than solids at 12 months. Milk is still their main food until this age.

Message withdrawn

hercules...you breastfed your ds till he was 4?!?!

DIfficult one that Happymumoftwo. I went back to work when dd was 5 months fulltime to begin with and she had a lots of expressed milk and after around 7 months formula whilst I was at work. After a year she gets cows milk when I'm at work.

Since she was a year, I work 3 days and from then until now (16 months) she has mainly solids whilst I'm out. When I get home I feed her and she doesnt eat much for her evening meal at all.

On my days off we're out so she doesnt get to feed during the day either and so has more solids now. If we're at home, she has more milk as it's there I guess.

Perhaps I have to be far more careful than most as I have a tremendous amount of allergies in my family that continue into adulthood hence how much personal reseach I have done.

I got fed up of so much crap and conflicting advice from health professionals and i do think it is important to be as informed as possible.

Sadly, in this country it seems that lots of hv's have very little idea about breastfeeding and weaning.

I only had dd 16 months ago and was told in the hospital to supplement as she was a big baby. Now, the same had happpened with ds years before and I had gone along with their advice and had lots of problems breastfeeding. I knew better 2nd time round and stuck to my guns despite their disapproval. I was the only one on my ward who was exclusively bf. No wonder rates are so appallingly low in this country.

Rant over.

yOu mean you gave milk from a cow lilsmum

yes i do give milk from a cow, sorry i just never heard of someone breastfeeding till a child is almost starting school

Sadly, it's not something people broadcast much due to negative reactions. However, the average age for weaning world wide is 4 years. DH was weaned at this age as was much of his family.
I was a member of la leche and knew loads of mums who fed for this time and longer. Naturally, weaning age should be around 7 years.

Ds's best friend at school was fed until 3.

It's not a big deal....

Actually, he didnt start school until nearly a year later.

Didnt you feed your child anything then????

Sorry, last comment. I thought you'd said "feeding" not "breastfeeding".