Do you know anyone in real life who has held off weaning until 6 months?

[pgwithnumber3]

I don't. Are the guidelines a load of twaddle then?

I waited until 6 months and I put that mainly down to information received from Mumsnet but not one of my friends have done the same. All their DC were on 3 meals a day by 5/6 months.

guidelines were 16 weeks when I had dd and was only in 2004 so that was when I weaned her. By time ds came along the hv was saying 17 to 26 and advised aiming for 17 based on some problems ds having at time with reflux. I had and still have faith in my hv because she was so brilliant about other stuff. Was not on mn at time of either. No one I know waited until 6 months and we are all middle class and fed in variety of ways. I appreciate now I may have increased the chances of dcs having some health issues later in life but time will tell. There are other ways to minimise some of those risks now so will focus on those instead. Everyone does what they do at the time with best of intentions however misguided they are or turn out to be.

Notyummy at your friend! I thought that went out in the 1970's!

Guidelines were not 16 weeks in 2004!

They were 4-6 months for 20 years, and in 2003 were changed to 6 months. My dd was born in 2003 and they were 6 months then.

Anarchy, I was "advised" in early 2003 by my HV to wean at 13 weeks. [shock} I left it until she was 16 weeks. As far as I am in aware, it was 16 weeks?

Nope. 4-6 months, as it had been for 20 years or so.

Crap HVs may well have been advising aginst the guidelines though, and they still are now.

I'm middle class and over-educated (sorry, sounds like boasting) and I never got anywhere near 6 months with any of my children. And, you know what? I really don't think I'm a failure because of it.

I did (well, 5 months n 2 weeks, but he was divebombing my fruit in my hand by that stage and sucking hell out of it )

Anarchy Aunt - think the HV guidelines vary from area to area. Some regions may have been slow at changing their official age.

DC1 was born in late 2004 and my HV was pushing the babyrice at 16 weeks, rapidly increasing to 3 meals a day within weeks approach. Did not come on mumsnet then so followed the guidelines I was given (even though the HV did not realise my DS was hardly eating anything I tried to give him and was really being just breastfed ). Even though my instinct said he wasn't really ready, my hV made me feel awful for not pushing the solids more. So that would have been in early 2005.

Was so glad that it had 'officially' changed by 2006 when DD was born, even though I was on MN by then so would have done 6 months anyway I think. None of my other friends have waited as long as 6 months though. Think the majority thought I was odd for waiting. Like some others have said, the weaning thing in my social circle tends to be a quite 'competitive' who is eating the most earliest type of thing! (All mainly educated/proffessional types BTW).

Am I the only one who would move mountains to avoid a HV?

littlelapin hello waves, yes it's me. bloody hell - 4 months, ho did that happen? No idea, had to do a double take myself.

She's "looking hungry", but as I'm eating cake she can get notted and make do with bm for another couple of months or so.

Weaning. pah.

I started DD in 2005 earlier than I should, and its only now that I realise it.
She wasn't interested in it at all and all that happened was I got upset and frustrated and so did she! Not a happy household as you can imagine...

So now, these twins being born in Dec will possibly maybe be tried slightly earlier than 6 months, but I am not going through what I when through before just because other people think I should...

I did, all but (25 weeks) and I think 2 or 3 others out of a NCT group of 9 did too. To be honest, I got a lot of support from MN about waiting - lots of good 'soundbites' and arguments why to wait. I wasn't actually given the NHS guidelines on weaning at 6 months until DS was 5 months and a bit! Wouldn't have helped me much if I'd started at 4.

no shoedweller, you are not! I stopped taking DS at 5 months when she was most pissed off when I refused to take a load of leaflets regarding new government guidelines for one thing or another. She was so snotty I never went back.

My last 2 I have only taken for jabs and nothing else. It seems worryingly easy to fall through the net if you want to though.

I waited till 26 weeks, and yes, DS was waking for several night feeds, was very interested in my food, and was a huge baby (on 99.8th percentile, corrected for his prematurity).

My HV was totally with waiting till 6 months, exc bfing, BLW, but then she was an unusually sensible HV.

The trouble with the guidelines is that there is no comeback on the HV's for not following them - no one checks up on them, does compulsory refresher training, so unless people complain about wrong advice, nothing happens

I weaned DS at 22 weeks very slowly - just tiny amounts of baby rice and then eventually pureed fruit and veg. At the time it seemed sensible. He was enormous, could already sit up and crawl, and was nibbling things from my plate at dinner. I do generally agree with the '6 month rule', but I don't particularly care what HVs have to say as I have never found them knowledgable or helpful.

I waited until 6mo, and most of the people I know with babies the same age did too.
We all did the AK thing with them

anarchy aunt guidelines were 16 weeks in 2004 round here as we got caught in farcical situation - the hvs had new directives issued at the end of our parenting classes and after they'd already discussed it with us. Most of us had started weaning at 16 weeks then all of a sudden it not allowed and they advising against something they just told us to do. Stuff like that made it v difficult to know what to believe about weaning from 'professionals'

Me with three of our four DCs. DC#2 seemed really eager from about 5 months so I started a week before she was 6 months.

The vast majority of my friends also waited until 6 months but those who didn't were rather passionate about converting those of us who waited.

wingandprayer - That sounds like a total fiasco.

Its quite possible that the professionals in your area weren't implementing the correct guidelines. But the guidelines are not issued on an area-by-area basis, they are issued nationally. And nationally, they were revised to 'from six months' in 2003.

What I suspect is that your local HVs were ignoring them and were pulled up on it - quite rightly too.

AA - could be right there - most unhelpful whatever the reason though!

All the mothers I know in my area weaned at around 16 weeks, as advised by HVs back then, ten to twelve years ago.

I am three weeks off the 6 months and virtually all my NCT group have started (even those whose babies are younger than mine) and not as far as I can tell because they are showing signs they want solids.

My sister even said to me, 'You do know she'll start waking up more at night etc etc' as if she was keen for me to start weaning all three weeks early.

There are allergies in our family so I am being extra careful about food and surrounding issues. I don't know why it bothers anyone else when I start weaning. All that matters to me is that my daughter enjoys it - my DH and I are looking forward to it though .

Me - today my ds reached 26 weeks old, tomorrow is the 6 month point, and I am celebrating with giving some baby-rice to my ds tomorrow morning!!!!!

It was not easy with all the "advice" I was given, but he is big and thriving on milk-only up to this point.