BLW advice please - Are there good reasons to wait until 6 months?

[PennyBenjamin]

My DS, who is now 21 weeks, just grabbed a piece of ricecake from my hand, stuck it in his mouth and chewed.....

I was definitely going to wait until 6 months to wean, and then try BLW, but now I'm wondering if there is any harm in giving him some finger food to try now?

I'm not expecting him to really eat any, and obviously still breastfeeding him, but is there any harm in letting him try now, or are there good reasons to wait until 6 months?

There are lots of good reasons to wait until 6 months - mainly the fact that his gut may not have sealed yet and if you give solids early that can cause problems.

I know that they show an interest in what you are eating and grab stuff, but as someone else has said, they would do the same if you were snorting class A drugs and you wouldn't give them those!

VistorianSqualor is a good person to talk to about this.

BLW and why you should wait until 6 months that is - not class A drugs obviously.

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely wait until 6 months then.

No advice on Class A drugs required!

I though that the whole point of BLW was that if they are able to get the food to their mouth, chew it and swallow it then they were ready for weaning regardless of whether they had reached the magic 6 months i.e. that if they were able to do that then their body will be ready to cope with the food they were eating.

Well that's what had crossed my mind, which is why I was asking - I thought that the theory was that a child would not have developed the co-ordination necessary to get food to its mouth until the body was ready to accept such food?

Also, would be interested to know the statistics behind the 6 month recommendation - is it 6 months because this is when the AVERAGE child is ready (meaning that some would be ready earlier, but also some later than 6 months), or is it 6 months for safety, because that is when the MAJORITY of babies will be ready for weaning (meaning that, by definition, many will be ready earlier)?

Just to be clear, I'm actually not keen to wean him, we're really happy as we are and I was always going to wait until 6 months. I'm just really interested.

the other day my hv mentioned that since the weaning guidlines were changed to 6 months they were seeing more referals for speech therapy and felt this was linked. i think that like with most things all babies different and ready at different times.

not linked to weaning but good example of 'dif babies', my dd1 walked by 9 months, my friends son is mow 9 months and only just mastered sitting on his own. all different.

think following your own instincts best idea. my children all weaned at different ages as ready at dif times.

Is he sitting up?

The gut sealing/being ready thing is important in waiting for 6 months. For some babies this is before 6 months, some around 6 months but ALL babies are ready at 6 months.

Thanks BabyOcho, that's what I was wondering, and as you couldn't possibly know from looking whether it had happened or not, it is safer to wait for 6 months I guess.

He sits well with a bit of support, i.e. would be fine in a high chair, but can't topples over on the floor if sitting on his own.

I still think I'll wait, but thanks for all the info, really interesting.

My baby is 3 months and everything he manages to get in his hands goes straight into his mouth but I wouldn't think he is ready for weaning yet - the WHO guidelines say around 6 months but certainly no earlier than 4 months. He's been doing the shoving into mouth thing for about 2 weeks, so since he was 13 weeks old? Doesn't seem to be teething yet.