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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

HV advised giving DS, 4.5 months, baby rice. She's a loon, right??

50 replies

WindUpBird · 30/09/2008 20:31

He's 20 weeks, breastfed, born on the 75th centile, steadily dropped to 50th, now dropping slightly more. He's 98th centile for height. For the past 6 weeks he has been waking AT LEAST 3 times a night, which I'm finding a real problem, but don't take it as a sign he needs baby rice!! I quote: 'I know the WHO/NHS state waiting for 6 months, but I, as a children's nurse and health visitor think that if you wait till 6 months his weight will drop even more and he won't thrive.'
Are there any instances where it's necessary to start weaning onto solids earlier than the recommended 6 months??
BTW, I also have a 2 year-old who perfectly happily waited till she was 6 mths old so she could take the BLW route.
Will also post this on the breast/bottle-feeding board.

OP posts:
maxineb · 30/09/2008 21:14

at the end of the day u know ur child. my daughter is 23 weeks, she wakes up once a night just to play and she's been on solids since 8 weeks old, because I couldn't get her to take anymore milk than 6oz,which she obviously needed more. back then she still woke up 3 or 4 times a night. i didn't breastfeed as she wouldn't take it. both my children were on solids early.

beansprout · 30/09/2008 21:16

Er, it's probably the 4 month growth spurt. It's hard going but it does pass. She is a loooooooon.

lulumama · 30/09/2008 21:19

solids since 8 weeks? seriously, that is way, way too young

all current NHS weaning info states no solid food before 17 weeks, with the aim being to get to around 26 weeks

a baby;s gut is permeable and at some point between 4 - 6 months it seals and has the capability to tolerate solid food

there is lots of info about this in the archives on here

6 oz per feed for an 8 week old is a lot to take, it is better to increase the milk feed by an ounce at a time

it is normal for an 8 week old to feed frequnetly through the night

6 oz per day would be a different story, but even then weaning so early would have to be done with medical supervision and endorsement

you cannot see inside your baby;s gut to see if it is physically ready to tolerate solid food.

AnarchyAunt · 30/09/2008 21:22

She is a loon and a twat.

Ask her about the relative calorific values of baby rice and breastmilk.

AnarchyAunt · 30/09/2008 21:23

ie BM has far more calories, so why she thinks low calorie but very filling baby rice will help is beyond me. It will just fill his tummy meaning he has less room for the all important BM.

Original poster
WindUpBird · 30/09/2008 21:48

Thank you for the posts! Yes, I'm going to phone my real HV tomorrow to state the advice I was given and ask if it's generally doled out. I'm a bit cross, I was really surprised when she said it, seemed an almost 'old-fashioned thing to suggest. My HV 2 years ago pretty much recommended BLW!

OP posts:
tiktok · 01/10/2008 09:56

maxineb, it's not advised to give solids this early - and boy-oh-boy, 8 weeks is very early - because of the potential for some quite serious health risks, some of which do not emerge until later in childhood or adulthood.

6 oz of milk is not a huge amount of milk for a baby of 8 weeks, and some babies need their milk in smaller quantities, given more often. Waking 3-4 times a night is also normal.

Did you get the chance to discuss solids at 8 weeks with your HV? I know we often criticise HVs here, but I can;t think any of them would think this would be a good idea, sorry

onceinalifetime · 01/10/2008 10:01

The guidelines were 4 months only 4 years ago when my dd was born, they changed shortly afterwards so I wouldn't say that someone recommending this could be classified as a loon as it was considered normal a relatively short time ago. 8 weeks does sound very early though.

tiktok · 01/10/2008 10:49

onceinalifetime - official DH guidance and recommendations changed publicly in May 2003 (5.5 years ago) but 'good practice' had been known for several years before that. In fact, it never was 4 mths in the UK - it was '4 - 6 mths' but somehow that got translated on the ground as '4 mths' or even '16 weeks'.

Original poster
WindUpBird · 01/10/2008 12:35

Thank you tiktok, for words of wisdom!

OP posts:
onceinalifetime · 01/10/2008 16:06

tiktok, didn't realise it was this long ago - my HV was giving out wrong information then but food labelling took a lot longer than that to catch up. Anyway, still think 'loon' is a bit strong but I should know better than to get involved in a thread on feeding - they invariably end in tears

wasabipeanut · 01/10/2008 16:09
onceinalifetime · 01/10/2008 17:33

bang away, I'm not advocating baby rice at 4 months, only stating that 4 months recommendation was not that long ago and my hv was definitely saying 4 months (rightly or wrongly) in May 2004 - just checked notes. As for 8 weeks is indeed loony. BF both my dcs and did blw too before someone jumps down my throat.

onceinalifetime · 01/10/2008 17:38

Food Standards Agency are still saying this:

"Starting on solid foods

When to start
You should start giving your baby solid foods when he or she is around six months old.

In recent years the advice about when to start babies on solid foods has changed. This is because we now know more about when babies are ready for starting solid foods and the effects of giving solid foods too early.

We now know that it?s usually best to wait until six months, but all babies are different so you might want to ask your health visitor or GP for advice about when is best for your baby.

If you want to introduce solid foods before six months, make sure you check with your health visitor or GP first. And don?t give any solid foods to your baby before he or she is four months old (17 weeks)."

Neenztwinz · 01/10/2008 20:47

I thought if your baby was sleeping through the night but then suddenly starts waking in the night, it is time for solids.

Neenztwinz · 01/10/2008 21:04

I am happy to be corrected!

lulumama · 01/10/2008 21:06

nope, the signs are:

loss of tongue thrust reflex
able to sit unsupported with good head control
pincergrip and can pick food up and get it to their mouth and chew and swallow

babies have frequent growth spurts that do casue them to wake more and feed more after a settled time

milk is more filling and calorific than a bit of food.

kellymom.com has some excellent info and aitch;s BLW blog also good

hope you and the twins are well

lulumama · 01/10/2008 21:07

some of the signs i should say!

at some point between 4 - 6 motnhs the baby is physically ready for solid food, in terms of gut permeability and the right enzymes etc so erring on the side of caution seems a good idea, as no harm done waiting until a bit later

fourlittlefeet · 01/10/2008 21:12

loon loon loon loon loon loon loon

fourlittlefeet · 01/10/2008 21:13

I did give mine a bit of pear at 5 1/2 months though as couldn't wait and had been reading the blw site as preparation which got me all excited

fruitstick · 01/10/2008 21:21

I don't this she's a loon at all. Government guidelines are there to guide parents along the right lines but presume people will also use some common sense (although if you ever read the drinking in pregnancy threads you'd never know!).

All HV will tell you something different anyway so you need to use your own judgement. My DS was exclusively breastfed and, when at 18 weeks he seemed always unsettled and I was exhausted by his constant feeding my HV told me to start giving him formula as breastmilk alone obviously wasn't enough for him. I thought it ridiculous to suggest that if breastmilk wasn't enough he should have formula instead. I held out for another 2 or 3 weeks and then broke out the baby rice (made with breastmilk).

He didn't explode or melt and has never had any problems. If your son's weight is dropping and you physically can't feed him any more then a bit of baby rice won't hurt.

fruitstick · 01/10/2008 21:23

DS was also on 98th height percentile and below 75 for weight.

Neenztwinz · 01/10/2008 21:24

Thanks lulumama, yes we are great! The DTs are 21 weeks old now and still fully BF (and still sleeping through the night - hooray) but obviously they are coming up for 6 months now so I am researching weaning. I had never heard of BLW until about an hour ago. It is intruiging!! Might try it with the DTs (got to be better than all that pureeing).

Should I wait till they are 29 weeks old then (cos they were three weeks prem) or should I put some food in front of them when they are six months old and see what they do with it?

Sorry to hijack this thread!

teenspirit · 01/10/2008 21:25

Hv told me today that who recommendations are aimed at third world countries where it is advisable to exclusively bf for 6months as to give anything else is a health risk due to conditions and that nutritionists in this country had no input in this advice. She believes that after 4 months you should go by your child and what they need. Some will show signs of weening earlier than others.

However from personal experience weaning a child because of night waking does not solve the problem of night waking. I weaned ds at 21 weeks and saw no improvement (bf him till 21 months)

DD is 4 months and exc bf and this week has woken more but I'm in no rush to wean her and will go with the flow.

HV is not a loon for advising this, no doubt in another few years the advice will be different again and we'll all think 6 months was madness!

However I wish they'd just throw the useless growth charts away - they are complete bollocks!

AnarchyAunt · 01/10/2008 21:28

The advice is to wait til 26 weeks adjusted age (ie, from due date not birth date) to wean.

If they are fully BF and sleeping through I have to say congratulations! That is fab.

I'd say wait til 29 weeks if you can, and then yep, its as simple as put food in front of them and see what they do.