Anyone who weaned/is weaning early and wants to talk about it without getting their head bit off step this way

[RagingHormone]

Feel free to chat until your heart's content without being judged on this thread.

What made you decide to wean early? (My baby had awful reflux so I had to, and he was ready for it anyway).

What sort of things did/do you feed your baby at 6 months?

He just needs normal baby food as he's been on it quite a while and he's perfect weight on his chart so I think it's going ok.

Olive oil is good in general though isn't it? I've bought some baby casserole sauce to try this week. Can I use normal casserole sauces and stuff? As I've only been using baby sauces.

I think homemade or baby ones are probably better due to the salt content. I would look very carefully at the usual ones you can buy and see what the salt levels are. Yes olive oil is very good for babies when being weaned.

In all seriousness without wishing to cause a row have you looked at Annabel Karmels book? It does have some very good recipes in.

Hi, mine were weaned before the 6 month fashion thing started.

The first on baby rice at 16 weeks -- that was a big waste of time, and I didn't really understand why baby rice was the chosen "thing" to give your child. Nothing went in. It was mixed with breast milk and formula but we were both bewildered by the process. I moved onto vegetables after about a week which was more successful and then fruit. I breastfed until about 6-7 months.

The second was heavily constipated (helped only by osteopathy) and I could not wait to start him on beans and carrots. All fruit avoided for a long time. But again it was sixteen weeks. Primary nutrition still from bm.

Third went straight onto pureed whatever we were having at about 18 weeks but without butter, salt, eggs, wheat, all that stuff. Primary nutrition still from bm.

They are all fine and don't have any allergies.

slightlycrumpled- thanks, I'll have a look! I'm trying whitefish with baby cheese sauce this week, too. He seems more interested in his fruit rather than savoury things but I want him to try all tastes.

For those who insist they know better than the WHO, DoH etc and give thier babies purees before they are able to sit up and feed themselves, here is a food introduction timetable which keeps the more "allergenic" foods til later.

THE IDEAL SEQUENCE TO INTRODUCE FOODS

The ideal order in which to introduce foods, one stage at a time, is as follows

Age 4 - 8 months

a. Vegetables (except the deadly nightshade group - see i. below)

b. Fruits (except citrus)

c. Pulses and beans

d. Rice, buckwheat, quinoa and millet

e. Poultry, meat and fish *

f. Egg yolks

Age 9 - 14 months

g. Oats, barley and rye

h. Live yoghurt

i. Deadly nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers)

j. Whole eggs *

Soya products*
Shellfish*

Age 15 - 24 months

m. Oranges

n. Wheat

o. Dairy products

p. Seeds and nuts (not peanuts)

Age 5 years

q. Peanuts *

It comes from here, the website of Susannah Olivier, a qualified nutritionist. As for Annabel Karmel, I wouldn't take her advice on weaning, she has no nutritional training or qualifications, she just writes recipe books. I mean, Lorraine Kelly did one, it doesn't mean she knows anything about the nutritional needs of babies.

greenmonkies that information will be very useful I'm sure to the parents that are just beginning weaning.

Just in case the point of AK was aimed at myself I pointed out that it was a good recipe book!

Some parents on the advice of a team of specialists who know their baby and the associated medical conditions better than WHO will do earlier than recommended weaning. I really don't understand why you don't acknowledge that. Not being funny just a genuine question.

I could give you a full explanation of his problems and why he was unable to suck/ bf or ff but I truly would be here all night. Sometimes there are very real reasons.

I think the point that was made about HCP's giving weaning advice wasn't aimed at specialists. Too many HV's and GP's are giving incorrect weaning advice when they have no basis to. It's one thing if there are health problems and a dietitian involved, but a HV or GP shouldn't be telling parents to wean off their own backs. If they think a child is that ill that they need to then they should be referring them on to someone who is trained to give that advice.

Why do you have to wait until your child is 5 for peanuts? Surely if your child doesn't have any nut allergies, they can have them much earlier?

risk of choking with whole nuts

greenmonkies there is a lot more to allergies than early weaning

Thanks Lulumama, of course. I thought Greenmonkies meant peanuts in general, inc. peanut butter, so I thought it a bit OTT to wait until 5 years old to give peanut butter!

"greenmonkies there is a lot more to allergies than early weaning "

Yes, I know, DD2 is allergic/intolerant to cows milk and has been since the day she was born. Considering she is still bf (at nearly two and a half) and BLW'd when she was about 6 months this is obviously not related.

However, there are other risks associated with early weaning, allergies are not the only concern. When solid foods are given before the gut is sealed this leads to food molecules passing into the blood and the kidneys have to filter these out. Babies kidneys are not designed to work this hard, so this puts them under strain.

There is a Dept of Health leaflet about it all here.

As someone who suffers from Crohn's Disease (which may be caused/exacerbated by early weaning) I implore you not to wean your babies before 6 months. Shitting blood and mucous is not much fun.

Early weaning is also associated with constipation, which is not only painful for the baby at the time, but long term damage from constipation and the stress this puts on the gut is linked to diverticular disease and other gut problems in later life.

When early weaning is mentioned people always dismiss it with "there isn't a history of allergies in my family so it's ok" but the truth is there is far more to it than this. There are lots of issues which are linked to early introduction of solids, coeliac disease, crohns disease, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, excema, asthma, and so on.

As someone who is involved with a variety of diagnostic procedures from barium enemas to micturating cystograms, none of which are pleasant of come with thier own risks, I know that the patients we see are of the generation that was weaned early onto rusks etc. Whilst they seemed to be thriving and healthy as children, they are now part of a group of 30-50 year olds who have chronic stomach problems. And our paediatric lists for these procedures is getting larger too.

Why risk any of these things?????

Why not citrus?

I've been giving ds clementine segments. Is that bad?

I see this thread is well on its way to be another place where anyone who has weaned before 26 weeks can get a nice guilt trip

GM - no dairy or wheat till 15 months? That is way out of line with anything else I've ever read. AFAIK it has never been established definatively that allergies are caused by exposure too early or by exposure too late therefore surely it's possible that the timetable that you've mentioned could be just as likely to lead to allergies as prevent them?

NorthernLurker, I'm with you on the guilt trip.

My DD1 is now nearly 11 yrs and was weaned on the advise of 2 HV's at around 4 months (the standard advice was between 4 and 6 months at the time).

So do I now feel terrible about potentially causing lifelong problems to my precious first baby (seems to be what some posters are inferring), or do I accept that I did was I thought was best, given that it was my 1st baby and I trusted the professionals to advise me best?

By the by, she is a strong, slim, athletic and very healthy child who has had very, very few illnesses.

My 2nd DD is now 4 and was weaned at just after 6 months (see, the advice had changed by then!!) and is more prone to illnesses than DD1?

Perhaps some people get a little too evangelical about this whole weaning thing.

Sorry, a bit of an essay, but I don't like this whole guilt trip thing.

good post grumpy

Very good post Grumpy. There's no need for a guilt trip and I really wanted this thread to be for those who have weaned on the advice of paeds etc or for any other reason have had to make the decision to wean early. I did not want this to be yet another weaning debate. Some people have weaned early and it needs to be acknowledged and they need to be able to give each other support, rather than everyone being too scared to admit it. We are aware of the risks, but it's the way it goes for some of us, and my Paed definately knows what he is talking about.

I must also point out that my son had awful constipation as his bottles had to have Gaviscon in to supposedly help his reflux although it didnt. Gaviscon causes constipation. I couldn't bf. Weaning has solved this as well as his other problems and reflux.

Does anyone feel that their child has been poorly since weaning early, and want to talk about it? Does anyone feel that their child's health has improved and want to talk about it?

Has anyone tried that particular recipe book? I got a tesco parenting magazine the other day and I've done a couple of those recipes and he loves them! It also said to mix sweet things like apple with things like Chicken and he's loved that, too. I never would have thought of it!

With you too Grumpy. I weaned early on advice for that time. Second time around I weaned early because of constipation and the weaning (normal then: early now) helped to solve the problem.

I think it's best to bf, to bf as long as possible and to wean around 5-6 months.

But I hate the evangelism that surrounds it -- it's like the bf evangelism that drove my sister into PND. The WHO isn't right about everything and it isn't right all the time. In fact I do believe it self-corrects every now and then. Don't make other mums feel guilty just because it works for you.

I think it is worth remembering that the WHO advice is aimed at babies across the world, including third world countries where hygiene is poor and food scarce- no doubt that bf is best until 6 months there. However, it seems bizarre to me to suggest that all babies' digestive systems suddenly become ready for food on exactly the same day, when they reach six months... some babies are ready at 17 weeks (not earlier), some not until 26 weeks which is why the advice has to be cautious. At the risk of being crucified I will admit that I began weaning my DS at 24 weeks. If in doubt speak to your HV, which is what I did.
By the way, my DH has Crohn's disease and it is a nasty, nasty thing. However, unless his consultant is really behind with research, there is no proof that there is a link between Crohn's and early weaning. A few years ago it was suggested that drinking milk might be the cause... in truth no-one knows why some people get the disease. It may even be genetic, in which case I can only cross my fingers...

I think it is also important to remember that the WHO's recommendations are for all babies in developing and developed worlds as I believe their stomachs are the same.

their stomachs may be the same but the quality and availability of solid food is not

but it's not about the quality of the food..

By the way monkies you may say there is "far more" to it than allergies -- but every condition you mentioned, with the possible exception of ulcerative colitis, is an autoimmune disorder.

You think carrots and beans at 20 weeks constitute such a trauma to the immune system it can trigger these disorders?
Can you think of anything else that might be more of a trauma to the immune system even earlier than that?