I just don't get why people think a few spoonfuls of baby rice or veg can stop a baby feeling hungry and make it sleep more?

[sweetkitty]

Time and time again on here there are threads about parents having very hungry babies that are BFing very frequently or taking 9ozs bottles so the parents are either debating weaning early or have been told by HVs to wean early.

How can anyone think that a few spoonfuls of wallpaper paste baby rice or pureed carrot will satisify their baby better than breast milk or formula milk?

As adults if we want to go on a diet and lose weight we give up the full fat dairy and things like rice and veg are on the menu instead. There are very few foods that have more calories than BM.

Have we as women lost the ability to believe that a baby, however big and hungry they are can grow and be satisfied with just breastmilk (or FM) until 6 months? There's so many threads about hungry babies not seeming to be satisfied with just milk and needing proper food.

I have fed 3 babies myself up to 25 weeks on just milk, the middle one started out at 9lbs 3ozs, was 10lbs at a week old and constantly attached to me for about 6 months.

With regards sleep and weaning, IME it does absolutely nothing to improve sleep, DD3 is on 2 meals a day right now, is having a savoury protein meal and fruit as well as finger foods and it has done nothing to improve her sleep. She wakes as is her sleep cycle and when she does she searches for Mummys boob to make sure everything is as it should be in her world, if she finds Daddy's elbow she will let me know. I think her waking in the night is about comfort not nutrition so again I don't understand the "my 15 week old is waking at night shall I give baby rice posts?"

Sorry about the long post just my thoughts PS if anyone CAN get my DD3 to sleep through all suggestions welcome

I didn´t believe a little rice would help sleep through the night and waited till dd was 6 months old. That night she slept through! Coincidence, maybe.. or maybe food does slow down digestive process and keep baby satisfied longer. Whatever, on balance still better to wait till 6 months for weaning imo..

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where's that recent evidence Bloss? I'd be interested in reading it.

Bubbleymummy - sorry but I disagree with you saying there is a major flaw in my point of view that 'mummy will know'. 17 weeks is the absolute minimum per the guidelines, due to there being absolutely no chance of baby being physiologically ready to deal with solids. That is the de-minimus, the lower cut off, the earliest a babies tummy is ready. Where sweetkitty mentioned 6 weeks, then the mummy concerned cannot possibly know that baby is ready. The mummy concerned may think she knows, or say so to justify a desire to help baby sleep (according to the post). That is, in my opinion, at best ill-informed and at worst blase about the risks to your child. When I say 'mummy knows best', I am perhaps assuming that mummy is well-informed, absolutely has her baby's best interests at heart (rather than a desire to make baby fit in with mummys's life, or work to a defined routine, for example), that mummy is in no rush to wean, is aiming for the guideline 26 weeks of exclusive breastfeeding, and has taken the time to educate herself with latest information and guidelines before making a decision after a lot of soul-searching. As I did.

The key word in all of this is guidelines.

PS some babies can also roll over onto their tummies to sleep before they are six months old, contrary to SIDS advice.

I wasn't going to get involved in this discussion as it is very controversial and immotive and especially as I've been feeling a little upset about it this afternoon. I've decided to put some of my thoughts down but they are just my own views and not intended to judge anyone else.

I think, for me, one of the key issues is that there is still a lot of debate among healthcare professionals and academics about whether recommending 6 months in the UK is appropriate given that this is based on the WHO recommendation which takes into account many other factors such as demographics, healthcare systems and sanitation that are less relevent in the UK compared to developing countries. I think the piece that is most relevant to the uk is to encourage breastfeeding.

I do think that the GUIDELINE is wise as it encourages people to delay weaning until such a time that the babies gut is most likely to be ready to accept food. The recommendation is AROUND 6 months which to me means that some babies may be ready a little earlier and some a little later - it is not a concrete scientific timepoint so there must be some variation between babies. I think the biological indicators that babies are 'programmed' to display to their parents are there for a reason and that parents should be encouraged to look out for them and discuss weaning with their doc/hv.

I don't think that people make the choice to wean necessarily to get a better nights sleep, although I know that some do. I think it can have an effect in some cases as the gut transit time of the food is probably greater with vegetables given in combination with carbs (and this digestion time would increase again once proteins and fats are introduced). So, if a child is displaying signs of being ready for weaning and readily accepts food when offered it may be appropriate to introduce solids and that may impact their sleep (or not as metabolisms inevitably vary).

For me, the decision to wean my son at a couple of days under 22 weeks was not taken at all lightly and took into account his behaviours and appetite, family history of allergies (fortunately none) and involved discussions with my doctor and hv as well as DH, friends and family. Weaning, in our case, was not weaning off breast milk or decreasing milk feeds in any way but just weaning onto some solids - he has had 5 main breastfeeds and 3 top ups today.

I feel that people need to have access to the latest information to enable them to assess (in collaboration with others) the best time to wean their child in terms of their child's physiological and behavioural readiness to be weaned and understand the risks involved if weaning is undertaken early for any other reason.

Sorry, this is rather a long post...partly because I fear that my post from yesterday may have contributed to this one being started in the first place and I just wanted to make it clear that I did not wean DS in attempt to get a better night's sleep or to reduce breastfeeding but because I thought he was ready and I felt that weaning him onto solids would have a positive impact on his hunger in the medium term - in the meantime I have a baby that at lunch time and bedtime is desperate to go to sleep but has to wait for Mummy to make more milk! At the moment he is fine during the night but if he becomes hungry I will, of course, feed him.

OK, I think I'm done now phew.

Good for you Minimarmite. I am quite shocked by the pontificating that goes on in the weaning thread and others. And for the record solids given in moderation CAN help 20 week old babies settle better in my humble experience. Yes they need lots of milk, and formula milk can be added to solids if that is the issue with bfdng mothers. Health visitors will recommend individual mothers to wean at different times within the guidelines based on their evaluation of the mother and baby, why do you assume they are all wrong? Perhaps I am completely out of date but why is there this procrustean framework enforced on ALL babies?

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"Health visitors will recommend individual mothers to wean at different times within the guidelines based on their evaluation of the mother and baby"

Where are these HVs who do this sensible thing? We don't often here about them on mumsnet! The ones we hear about are recommending mothers to wean outside the guidelines....