Got invited to a course of sessions on parenting recently, which were mostly pretty good. Last one was on weaning, but everyone left that one more confused than when we started.
Apparently while you generally shouldn't introduce food before 6 months, it may be an idea after 4 if your baby is very hungry. But food is much less calorie-dense than breastmilk, so how does that work, seeing as if the baby has food in their stomach milk won't fit too?
Also apparently you have to make sure the baby takes food in by 7-8 months or they won't get nutrients they need - so is that 'food before one is for fun' not true?
The midwife had never heard of baby-led weaning which a couple of us asked about and asked us to explain because obviously she was against-force-feeding. I said I thought it was about not bothering with purees and giving the baby solid food in his hands from the start (not sure!) She was shocked andsaid not giving baby puree/mashed stuff to start with was right out as there was a huge risk of choking if they hadn't had a month or more of mush (something about stage 1/2/3???)
totally confused now. advice from my mum was she was just told 'the baby will tell you when she's ready' which she didn't understand until one day i reached out and nicked her ham sandwich [midwife:Oh my GOD!] - but then i was also given loads of brewers yeast and wheatgerm in my bottle and other stuff they don't recommend now.
help? A is only 16 weeks and I'm not planning to give him any solids for a while.