5 months today & feeding all night - should I start/wait to wean?

[monkeysmama]

I am a first time mum and am totally confused by all this weaning information!

My dd is 5 months today and apart from some calpol & dentinox has only ever had my breast milk. I intend to keep on breast feeding until at least 8 months, probably a year.

However, everyone we know is suggesting we start weaning dd. My plan was to wait until 6 months but now I am not sure what to do.

The main reason "everyone"'s suggesting we wean her is that she slept through from a few weeks until about 6 weeks ago and now wakes up from 2am - 7am every hour for food. She goes down to bed at 8 and has a long feed just before, I have tried dream feeding her around 1130 when we go to bed but it makes no difference - she'll eat a boob full of milk then wake again and cry until I feed her at 2am. Basically she seems to always be hungry. There is no problem with my milk supply but it is getting a bit draining. I can keep going for another month but wonder why some baby rice mixed with my milk wouldn't be good?

I spoke to my HV yesterday and she seemed shocked we haven't started weaning her already (though this is the same HV that suggested I start at just 4 months) & said "give her some banana and see how well she'll sleep" which I didn't find that helpful.

So - a longish post but I would really, really appreciate some helpful advice. Dp has already started buying plastic spoons!

MM

Hi, FWIW my baby slept through from 3 months for about a month then at the 4 to 5.5 months stage she underwent a growth spurt and was awake every hour or two for a feed. Everyone advised me to wean but I held out. The intervals have got longer, She's just turned 6 months and I have only just started weaning her and can say that solids have made no difference to her sleep (not much goes in at this age). She sleeps 6 hours sometimes, sometimes she wakes up after 3. It does get better. I cosleep and that makes it much easier. HTH

I'm not advising anyone to do anything. I am saying the kind lines say "you must not give solids before 4 months" which means you can after 4 months but they advise you wait until AROUND 6 months. My point is that whenever anyone asks a question about weaning before 6 months they get a barrage of "the guidelines say 6 months"... Which is over simplified and not helpful!

In answer to OP. My baby is the same age and waking all the time at night. But I'm thinking, why not wait another 3-4 weeks when that is what we're advised to do now? It'll pass before you know it. Also a lot of people say it makes no difference to the sleeping, at least not for a while. We've got this far - something to be proud of I think!

It's not around 6 months.
That blog is mine and I put it i quotes for a reason.
The actual guidelines are...

What are the Department of Health?s
recommendations on feeding infants?
? Breastmilk is the best form of nutrition
for infants
? Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for
the first six months (26 weeks) of an infant?s life
? Six months is the recommended age for
the introduction of solid foods for infants
? Breastfeeding (and/or breastmilk substitutes,
if used) should continue beyond the first six
months, along with appropriate types and
amounts of solid foods.

No 'around 6 months' there.

From the British Food Standard's Agency:

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).

imo you are never going to be told on here to do anything but wean your baby at 6 months and do blw, there just dosent seem to be any room for discussion of the possibility that your lo may be ready earlier,if you want to do anything else this is not the place to ask.

Read on the internet, talk to gp, hv friends family get opinions, look at research and then make your own mind up.

Btw my dd is not weaned yet, she is 19 weeks old and I havent started weaning

floury, have you read my posts? i am not sticking to 6 months at all costs, some babies are ready earlier, but never at 12 wekes or 16 weeks etc

and yes lots of MNers do wean at 6 months and do BLW

but there are still lots doing puree

but you won;t find a lot of people agreeing with or condoing early weaning ie. 4 months and under or before baby is showing physical signs of readiness .. for good reason!

people are not anti early weaning for the hell of it, but for reasons they themselves have researched and looked into

lulu, my message was purely directed to the op, not trying to be inflammatory and I wasnt talking about weaning before 4 months, which in my opinion is a mute point.

The op asked about weaning at 5 months, her baby sounds like its hungry, in her position I too would be tempted to wean.

I can totaly see the point in waiting annother 4 weeks. In the big scheme of things 4 weeks is not a long time (mind you when your getting up 4 times a night im sure it feels like an eternity).

I just feel the response she would get on her is predictable (with good cause im sure you will say) maybe she wants validation for a possible descison to wean at 5 months, my point is simply she wont get it on here.

If choose to wean before 6 months its a choice I will make with my dp based on the information we can find. I think thats what the op should do.

I'll sub myself now......

MOOT point

fair enough

if the OPs baby is sitting unaided, able to grab food and get it to her mouth, chew and swallow, has lost the tongue thrust reflex and shows other physical signs www.kellymom.com has more info on this, then yes, by all means, give it a whirl!

without those signs, i would leave it

Oh no-look what I started!

Some helpful posts. Particularly useful to hear from others with LOs who've changed sleep patterns around the same age.

Tbh, my instinct's been to wait another month but I posted wondering whether the sleep and solids link was right or not & whether she might be hungry. I'm confident to withstand the pressure to wean dd for another 4 weeks.

Thanks
MM

Well I think it is a shame if its true that no one can ever get advice on MN that veers away from 'wean at six months and do BLW'. It's as if anyone with a different opinion is banned from expressing it. That is not what MN is about.

My twins are 23 weeks old. Until a week ago they were sleeping from 8/9 at night till 7/8 in morning. They had been doing this for eight/nine weeks.

A week ago they became very unsettled in the evenings and just would not go to sleep until hours of cluster feeding. They also sometimes woke in the night.

They can sit up unaided and have lost the tongue-thrust reflex.

I have introduced solids.

Their sleeping has improved. It has taken about five days (cos it took a few days for them to get used to swallowing food) but they are now both sound asleep upstairs after a supper of baby rice mixed with my breastmilk.

If I was the OP I would introdice fruit, veg and baby rice. No meat, wheat, gluten (known allergens) etc. Her LO has been waking in the night for six weeks - that does not sound like a growth spurt to me.

But that is only my opinion. I respect everyone who waits till six months. I was very keen to wait till six months but I could not cope when my twins started being so unsettled (maybe cos it's so much harder to deal with two, or because producing enough milk for two five month olds is hard) but good luck to all who do.

@ Neenztwinz - Totally agree with your first sentence. It seems to me there are some people sat by their computers ready to pounce when anyone dares ask about weaning before dead on 6 calender months. Its not just in here though, every section has it's stock answers for those poor unsuspecting Mothers who stumble in here sleep deprived and desperate... I just don't understand what those people who deliver the stock answers get out of it

It's almost as if there is some sort of prize for waiting until six months. ie 'my baby showed all the signs of needing to be weaned but I STILL held out - how great am I?'. Well I don't go along with that.

I think it is accepted wisdom that all babies are ready some time between 17 and 26 weeks. Unfortunately no one can look inside your baby to see whether he is ready at 17, 18, 24 or 25 weeks. But as long as you are not weaning for yourself ie to show how 'advanced your baby is' or just because you are excited to move onto the next stage, as long as you look out for the TRUE signs of needing to wean (as lulumama pointed out) then as his mother you know when the time is right.

My La Leche League book 'Mothering Multiples' says when your LO increases the frequency of his feeds for five days or more and you can rule out illness or a change in routine then it is time to introduce solids.

Not saying I agree with that totally, it's just what the LLL book says.

monkeysmama - my DS was a good sleeper until 4 mo and then started waking twice between 11 and 7, and a couple of nights even worse until he was 5.5mo. It's really horrid and I sympathise.

To be honest, if your DD isn't requesting additional feeds during the day then I would question if she is really ready for solids. If she isn't hungrier during the day then that would imply that your milk is actually enough for her and that the night time wakening is more likely teeth or neuro development or something.

I weaned at 5mo, but didn't decide to do it just because of the night wakening because that didn't seem to me to be a reliable guide to hunger on its own. I weaned when he was also not lasting long between feeds during the day (and was doing this for much longer than a growth spurt would be so a good couple of weeks), and also when he was sitting up unsupported (did this before 5 mo) and had developed a very good reach/grasp hand/eye coordination. I gave him a few finger foods from the start - BLW style - as that made me feel more comfortable that he could control food, chewing, swallowing etc.

It took 4 weeks before he started to sleep well so I don't think the sleep was helped just by the solids and that it was, as I suspected, more a neuro thing.

Like others have said - most babies are ready around 6 months which does mean some slightly earlier, some later. But I don't think night wakening on its own is a reliable sign that your baby is ready.

Weaning is not another milestone in getting them to sleep more!
IT is supposed to be to introduce them to textures and flavours so that by one year old(ish) they are having a wide enough variety of meals to get their needed vitamins and minerals.

If the WHO Guidelines (rather than the FSA ones) aren't mentioned when people ask about early weaning then we'll turn into bounty, suggesting a bit of baby rice at 10 weeks.
I don't see anyone bleating, loudly or otherwise, just wanting people to have the facts.

That wasn't aimed at you btw HQ.

oh i absolutely agree with you on that VS

We didn't wean because of lack of sleep - we lived with that for 6 weeks and had to live with it for at least another month after weaning, as we'd suspected we might. I would definitely never suggest weaning if the only sign is that a baby is waking more at night - that is what they often do between 4 and 6 months.

oh, and yes i absolutely agree about the texture/flavour thing too. weaning is about a baby's future not their present - it's about giving them a good foundation for a life of healthy eating and enjoyment of food. it is not about getting them to sleep through the night.

@ SharpMolarBear - I completely disagree... Why does it have to be so polarised? It's not either wait until exactly 6 months or else we'll be feeding them Marsbars at 6 weeks... That's patronising and arrogant. I dont believe for a minute that any of the Mums that come on here aren't already aware of the guidelines... The point is there IS flexibility in them and this is a discussion forum not a a place for us all to sit on our high horses bleating "6 months, 6 months, 6 months" ad nauseum.

there are plenty of people who aren't aware of the guidelines
there are even more who aren't aware of what's behind the guidelines and think it's all a bit of a whim

Well thank God we have Mumsnet to put us all right... off to roll my baby in chip fat and watch her lick herself

Seriously, when did you take it on yourself to be the designated preacher of the "guidelines"? What do you get out of it?

I'll say again, people come on here to discuss parenting not to have the guidelines sung at them by mass chorus.

i'm not the designated preacher of the guidelines, in fact i try not to preach.
but why shouldn't the guidelines be mentioned on a thread about weaning? i am mystified as to why that's a bad thing