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?

Gosh, constipation and diverticulitis are autoimmune diseases, really? Are you sure diabetes isn't an endocrine disorder?

Whatever, surely it's not really worth the risk for the sake of a couple of months of just milk feeds?

I am utterly amazed that the OP asked this to be for mums who weaned early due to the advice of drs and paediatricians and it is still being hijacked by people who know better than those with a medical degree. Some of you take being judgmental to a whole new level.

My ds has dreadful reflux and I too have been advised to wean now. I have enough to deal with without a guilt trip and I came on this thread for some advice and support for reflux and have ended up feeling I should be hung drawn and quartered. Absolutely ridiculous. But OP I am still here if you want to chat about weaning and reflux.

"There are lots of issues which are linked to early introduction of solids, coeliac disease (auto-immune), crohns disease (auto-immune), ulcerative colitis (debate about whether it is autoimmune), diabetes(certainly there is an autoimmune form as I'm sure you know), excema (auto-immune), asthma (auto-immune), and so on".

constipation -- resolved in my case by weaning
diverticulitis -- not mentioned by you

until you stop being so judgmental I'll judge you on your limited approach

think about other immune trauma before blaming mothers for damaging their babies just by giving a few veg before six months

Scifinerd- I'd definately like to talk about weaning and reflux with someone, it's been such hard work. His reflux was so bad he used to choke until he turned blue. He's ok now though.

How is your LO doing? How old is your LO? On to finger food yet? What sort of finger foods do you use? I gave my DS some soft carrot sticks the other day and he rammed one straight into his mouth, bit, started chewing and loved it. But I'm worried about finger foods incase he chokes on anything so I'm not sure what else to give him?

I came to this thread to give support to anyone with a refluxy baby who was having to wean early (ds was weaned very early under paed ge guidance), but I see it's been hijacked.

I'm very happy with what we did with ds, and the results. Anyone who hasn't lived through reflux doesn't have a clue what they are on about. And by the way, the guidelines are based on healthy babies who are gaining weight well - even WHO won't suggest they apply to very sick babies!

Hi ib, wecome to the thread- I'm sure we can regain it and offer each other support. How old is your DS now? What sort of things have you been feeding him, any good recipes? What sort of finger foods have you used?

If you have one reflux baby, does it mean future babies will have reflux? I worry about going through it all again. I stopped DS's Domperidone and other meds when he started on solids, but it hasn't been a problem at all as the solids have almost cured the reflux IYSWIM. Is this the right thing to do?

Ds is 22 months, so this is all very much in the past now for me! He eats anything and everything, and although we can still see he has a bit of reflux sometimes, it's not a problem.

I wouldn't worry too much about another one. There is a massive propensity to reflux in both dh's and my family, but both our mothers had more non-refluxy babies than refluxy ones. In our case, it's unlikely we'll be able to conceive again, so it's not something I've thought much about.

We offered ds finger foods to play with right from the beginning. Having read all the blw stuff (which I was fully intending to do) I had come to the conclusion that if given food to play with he would only swallow it after 6 months. The paed ge had told me I could give him half a meduim sized banana mashed, so I reckoned if I gave him a large banana to play with in the car (car trips were a nightmare) he would at best swallow a mouthful.

You can imagine my shock when I turned round and my barely-4-mo ds had somehow eaten the entire thing! I called the doc in a panic, he phsl and told me I should not believe everything I read!

Oh, sorry, about the meds. I don't know, as we went through a very long and protracted dosage reduction process to get him off them. I do know our paed was keen to get him off them asap, so I guess if your ds is doing well without them so much the better!

Sounds good!I'll try the banana. I've let him play with food too, but at the moment everything goes to his mouth and I panic about choking all the time. I don't think there's much chance of choking on a banana is there?!

I've got an appointment with the paed soon so I'll get to ask her a few things then.

*him. Sorry. Paeds a him.

I went on the principle that anything I could mash up with a fork was OK. A life saver at that time was avocado. He loved it, it was fattening and healthy. He used to eat pretty much a whole one a day (he had a lot of weight to catch up)

Take heart ladies. My DS also has reflux. It is definitely on the serious retreat now at 8.5m, but we are weaning him off the special reflux milk so we are not quite normal yet. It DOES get better.

Raging Hormone - Are you just beginning? Have you tried pear slices or potatoe wedges? DS managed to gum wedges to death and swallow first time! . That was his first taste of food and it is (understandably) now his favourite. He never really got on with carrots, still doesn't in fact.

Other things which are good first finger foods (IMO) are parsnips and sweet potatoe (I boil, then roast these). Broccoli and cauliflower are also good, but I seem to remember that you have to wait a while before you move onto those. Once they are past 6m of course, then you can give toast and bread. I try to limit his intake of these though to one portion a day - something to do with the bread forming a dough ball in their tummmies which is hard to digest I think.

Re: the choking - this in itself isn't soooo common, but they all gag. Just take it really slow and calm. You could put your mind at rest and make sure you know what you need to do if he does choke. I went on a baby firstaid course so I could be confident generally with my baby. It helped me loads. I found the heardest thing was to sit there and not react too strongly when he gagged as didn't want DS to pick up the negative vibes and be put off meal times.

TBH I would warn though that with reflux, the gagging was more of a problem because the strain usually made DS sick - often back to some of the milk before the meal too which was incredibly frustrating. But he soon got used to the sensation of food and only does it now when he shoves so much in that he can't chew so he tries to swallow it all ......

I'm a big one for waiting til 26 weeks, give or take a week or so if baby is showing signs of being able to feed themselves.

I am, however aware that there are sometimes reasons for weaning early to be necessary. For example, with severe reflux (though this does not always work for the best, there are mothers on MN who can testify to this) or in babies who have an intolerance and because of this are FTT, where malnutrition would be the result of not weaning early.

BUT, that is not what this thread says.
The OP said "Feel free to chat until your heart's content without being judged on this thread."

Sorry, but you cannot promise people will not be judged, also if this was a support thread for people who were told to wean their babies early my a professional dietician/nutritionist then great, I'm sure that there are people in that boat that need the support, but an HV is NOT a professional in this regard. Next month I will be doing the same training as HVs WRT BFing. Do you know how long it is going to take? The afternoon. How much time do you think they are allocated for weaning?

Also, the first post on this thread was not someone weaning due to health issues, but for the sake of it.

By reikizen on Thu 30-Oct-08 15:50:55
I started both mine on solids at about 4 months, not in any serious way but with DD1 it was just excitement about the 'next stage'

If your child needs weaning then fine, of course, do it, do the best for your child, but except in severe cases of reflux or FTT there are no possible benefits from early weaning, yet there are possible side Effects. Every thread which mentions early weaning needs to state this clearly because the people posting are not the only people reading.

OP, may I suggest that if you want a support thread you start another saying something like 'I'm not advocating weaning before 26 weeks unless on the advice of a qualified nutritionist/paedatrician but have started this thread for those of us who have gone down this road with this advice and guidance. I would strongly suggest anyone told by their HV or GP that their baby needs weaning before 26 weeks asks for a referral. Please could other posters respect this is something we have been told to do by qualified professionals and not a decision we have taken lightly and we ask that this thread does not become another war of disagreements' With a title like 'Support thread for those of us who have to wean early due to health reasons' Then hopefully those of you can get the support you need without it turning into another argument.

Also, as you are nearing 26 weeks have you tried cucumber slices (slightly diagonal to make them bigger) with cream cheese? Or avocado? Two of the things my DS loves. Also carrot and potato batons par-boiled and then roasted with a touch of olive oil.

Thanks for the ideas for food VS. I'll definately try those. Is it ok to give a baby cream cheese?

I'll also try the wedges mentioned earlier.

VS- I know some people really don't agree with the before 26 weeks thing, but everyone's different and everyone's going to make their own decisions so I cannot see the point in pretending that no one weans early. Personally I did it for medical reasons but there are people who just want to do it and think their babies are ready, and it would be nice if they had somewhere to come for some support and advice taking their decision into account. Rather than trying to hide it or feeding their babies cheesy wotsits, quavers and chocci buttons like my friend has been doing since her baby was 9 weeks old. Had she had people to chat about recipes and alternatives with, this probably wouldn't have happened.

But on a public forum that can't be allowed to be seen RH. Not that it doesn't happen but every time anyone posts something on a public forum they need to remember they are in fact telling anyone who ever reads it.
It's not like a conversation between two friends, it isn't private so every time there is a thread on weaning early it will descend into these arguments, for those reading who don't understand the background.
Just thought if those of you who wanted support as you had to wean early and didn't want it hijacked that there was a way to do it.

VS -- sorry your advice on how to write the op is unbelievable

gosh darn -- sorry the rest of you, I swore I wouldn't come back to this

carry on chatting, my original intervention was only to let you know my side-effect free experience

Why is it? If RH wants a thread where no-one is going to hijack it and make it all about early weaning then saying in the op what will be said by people hijacking it would stop it.

Oh and Blueskyandsushine. Your experience may have been side effect free so far but you cannot guarantee it will continue to be, nor can you tell which children it will be for.
There is no point in risking it unless there is a medical need, which RH's child has.

I'm absolutely determined to make this thread work as there are clearly people in a similar situation as me who want to talk about it so I think it's worth pushing for it.

I understand it is a public forum but public suggests many different views, not just one-that no one should wean until 26 weeks. This is almost an internet 'society' and in society nothing runs smoothly, everyone doesn't follow one same rule, and people have different views and different circumstances. I don't need to make a huge issue telling everyone that no one should wean before 26 weeks. Anyone who has had a baby is bombarded with this advice, I simply want to discuss early weaning with those who have.

Thanks for being polite about it though, I know you have very strong views on the subject.

why would you want to wean early????genuine question btw

REFLUX! And some people just feel their baby is ready.

VS, I understand that you have your point of view, but the majority of people on this who weaned their babies early appear to have done it under medical advice - mine was Health Vistors x 2 (I was very young when my first DS was born almost 11 years ago, thought HV's were PROFESSIONALS who would be able to give me the best advice as that was their job, silly me obviously, read everything I could get my hands on vis-a-vie babies, etc, talked to as many people as possible).

People like yourself make me feel as though I have deliberately put my child at risk - I haven't!!! I weighed up advice and decided to go with what my HV's said.

We are not wilfully flouting rules that shall not be disobeyed, we should not be made to feel guilty, that is just cruel.

But 'feeling' your baby is ready doesn't mean they are.
There are two issues on this thread and one for which real information is very much needed. The genuine health reasons for weaning before 26 weeks, but mixing it up with people who 'feel' their baby is ready and risk illness because of this 'feeling' is not going to help anyone.