How early is 'early' weaning?

[SamJohnsMum]

My DS will be 21 weeks old tomorrow and I'm thinking of introducing a bit of baby rice this week, mixed with a bit of BM. One HV has said this would be a good idea, another said not yet. I'm finding it difficult to tell because he's always been really random with his BF (I've found BF quite hard but he won't take a bottle - but that's another problem...) but he can hold his head very well, he's doubled his birthweight and I think he's interested in my food.

I'm also hoping that starting to solids might help him to be a bit more regular with his feeding - am I being hopelessly optimistic?

there's a lot of threads on weaning before 6 months. Signs for weaning are loss of tongue thrust, and sitting unaided. i.e. holding his head, doubling birthweight and 'interested in food' are not. babyrice is totally unnecessary and doesn't really contain any nutrients at all - you're best just sticking with the BF. Another way of telling whether your LO is ready for solids is put some steamed carrot sticks in front of him: if he picks one up, puts in mouth, bites (gums probably) and swallows, he's ready for solids.

I started offering my ds things like pieces of melon, banana, broccoli trees and carrot when he was 23 weeks, but I don't think he really started to eat until he was 27-28 weeks.
He is also bf and won't take a bottle. Introducing solids did not make is feeding more regular, he didn't really start dropping feeds until he as about 8-9mo old.
It also has done NOTHING for his sleep!
HTH