Early weaning - how to offer advice without causing a riot?

[FlabbyTumSquashyBum]

Sorry to post a link to another site again but this has really bothered me. This is my birthboard on another site and some of the babies aren't even 3 months yet. I want to offer advice, mainly because others reading the thread might assume early weaning is ok because everyone else is doing it, but I want to do it in a way that won't cause a weaning war. What do you think is the best approach to take?

i thikn that there has been a lot of debate around pros and cons of vaccination.. nationally, locally and on here. don;t see the potential harm of early weaning making hte news unless it is something like a child tragically dying due to being given salty food at a few weeks old..

They won't listen, july08 never do, thier one moderator can't handle them(and is never there anyway) and they frequently jump on anyone who doesn't agree with the chav minority on that board. I'm a MOD on another BB over there and I can assure you we have been begging the community managers to sort them out.

My sister was weaned at 8 weeks and is now under the care of a bowel specialist but if I posted that on there I'd get told to go somewhere else and she may have become sick anyway.

Apparently they are a friendly bunch, but I can remember two other ocassions where the hounded out two regular members because they dared disagree.

nice behaviour! remind me not to hang out over there...

There is talk of weaning at 9 and 10 weeks

And here they are wondering how to go about weaning a baby that is too small to sit up - oh its ok though as some company or other has brought out the.... reclining highchair.

WTF?

Hi Sorry to crash your board.
You guys talk sense, I have ripped my hair out over that thread and yes wondered why the mods hadn't stepped in.
I use BC but the BB I post on (not a million miles from July) has some far more sensible mums and not so many chavs
Might stick around be nice to talk to some women with their heads screwed on.

please do stick around - on the whole people here are very nice.

honest.

The trouble is, the mums with their heads scrweed one aren't the ones who need to be evangelised to advised about the risks of early weaning.

My dh was weaned at 6 weeks (!!!) and has real issues with IBS and obesity and allergy problems as well. So early weaning can cause real issues. But try to tell the people who are determined to wean at 10 weeks that and you get jumped on for being unsupportive.

Poor babies.

You can't say anything to them (read early weaners) as they live by the mantra 'well my mum did it to me and I'm ok'
And when you do try to advise and tell the reasons for not weaning onto chocolate buttons at 10weeks you get told to butt out as its nothing to do with you.
Heaven help the early weaners on my BB, they won't know whats hit them!!!!

I've never understood why anyone would want to wean early - why put yourself through the hassle of baby rice and puree and all that unless you have to?

Milk is so much easier, I'd have bf DS and nothing else until he was 1 if I could!

I was a typical first time mum when I had DD and thought that weaning at 17weeks would make her sleep through and that baby rice was the way to go. This time I am more informed and I know that waiting is better for him and for me.
I FF as BF wasn't working (long story) and I often think that FF feel they have to wean early as they can see how much milk baby takes!

That's the thing, you can't say anything to them. If you dare to suggest that it may not be wise, and present the facts, they get all uppity because they know their baby best etc, and so and so was weaned early and they're ok.

It just shocks me when the majority of people seem to not have a problem with early weaning. Surely they should be in the minority?

And then of course you get people saying that if you leave it too late to wean you miss the window of opportunity and will end up with a fussy eater. It's such a load of piffle but I just can't be bothered. I did report the thread to the community manager who reinforced the message that early weaning is not advised but, alas, she wasn't listened to either.

I agree with that headscrewedonmum. It does often seem that the ff mums get into a panic because their baby is taking far too much milk and therefore they think they need to introduce solids. Whereas bf mums are blissfully unaware of how much milk their little one is drinking.

Is there a limit on how much milk a baby shoudl drink?

As a rule a FF baby should take 2-3oz per lb in weight, but to be honest I give my boy what he wants when he wants to a degree. He is very good and pushes the bottle away with his tongue when he has had enough.
You will only be listened to on that thread if you are agreeing with them, if you dare to disagree you will be shot down in flames

I do kind of sympathise with the really naive posters though, there are those who believe everything their mothers or HV's tell them. My HV told me with my first DD that she'd never met a breastfed baby who had made it to 26 weeks and with a baby on the 91st my dd wouldn't make it either.

My dd started on finger foods at 6 months with some yoghurt and porridge(real oats not that reconstituted crap heinz sell) thrown in for good measure

Little wonder babies are weaned early with advice like that.

Have I already said, I like it here

The thing about the guidelines changing all the time (I believe they've only chnged once anyway?)

I asked my Mum when she weaned me - she said she waited til 6 months because that's what breastfeeders said to do at the time, that was 30 years ago!!!

I'm a recent mn convert too highlandmam! I do agree there's a lot of pressure on mums from family/hv etc. It's a shame; the very people who should be offering support to mums so often feed theirself doubt and insecurities.

Pretty much all my friends who FF'd their babies fed on demand and waited till at least 20 weeks to start any solids (most of them BLW'd as well).

And roffle at late weaning making a fussy baby - my ds didn't eat solids till he was nearly 10 months and now hoovers everything in sight (if we're offering anecdotal, irrelevant evidence, that is)!

I might go down the BLW route this time, Hubby isn't convinced but as DD has veg every day for dinner, think it would be quite easy to give some finger food first.
Is that how it works?

Pretty much. Tbh I just gave ds a bit of whatever we were having (i don't cook with salt) and he mashed it into his hair/played with it/chewed it/spat it out to his heart's content! I also used to leave "snack bowls" of dry cereal or rice cakes just lying around (like cat biscuits! ) which he could then help himself to whenever he wanted.

The problem is that if you go to someone's house who has a cat, then your child thinks the cat biscuits are for them!! (I don't think they did him any harm though! )

you like milk don't you flabbytumsquashybum?

pmsl at the cat biscuits! as an aside my dh once tried to eat a scented wooden ball on my aunts coffee table on hogmanay because he thought they were mints

He was pissed though(we are allowed to swear here aren't we?)

Oh yes - swearing very much de rigeur on MN!!

Oh swearing is allowed, thats fanfuckingtastic!!!!

Yup, I love milk