Bigger babies need weaning sooner. True or false?

[Kayzr]

DS2 was 10lb 5oz at birth so quite a big baby. We have 2 HVs here and one is very much do what you think and feel is right for your family. The other is wanting me to wean DS2(18 weeks this friday), she rang me last week to tell me this plus a load of mumbo jumbo about BLW being a fad and no one really does BLW. She said that as he was so big at birth he will need weaning early.

I'm in 2 minds over if she is right or not. DS1 was weaned about a week before he was 6 months. She said if he is still waking overnight he will need solids. But he can go a week of sleeping through and then a week of waking at 5. He has been doing that since he was about 6 weeks old.

So I'd really love some advice. My gut says don't wean yet but my head is thinking that if he needs food then I'm cruel for not weaning.

ARGHHH!!

my point was a child's visible motor skills and physical development are a good mirror for what is happening internally, and therefore you don;t need to rely on weaning

duh, meant instinct not weaning !!

No parental instinct does not tell you what is happening in a baby's gut. NHS guidelines and WHO guidance are based on research that reliably suggests what happens in the gut of an average child. I never presumed to make any comment on instinct and its relevance to any of the other parenting decisions you list. I referred only to weaning readiness. The erosion of parental instinct in other instances is a separate matter and one where we would probably agree entirely. I also never implied that instinct or knowledge are mutually exclusive.

To quote you "Follow your instincts - not the latest thinking", this does not reflect a balance of instinct and knowledge, it's an instruction to base decisions on a fallible measure.

And yes, all children are ready for solids at a different time. The guidelines are 'around 6 months', not a prescriptive '26 weeks on the dot'.

You may be interested to know that I did not wean in my daughter's 26th week.

I do agree, however, with your assertion "If you have any doubts, then wait, they'll let you know if they are ready" but we would probably disagree on ways in which they display their readiness.

I really dislike this quoting back of earlier posts - the OP asked whether big babies need weaning sooner. My original post was that yes, my larger baby did need weaning earlier. And as this is not a scientific journal, but a parenting website, I assumed the OP was looking for experiences from other parents. So I gave mine.

I've engaged with you about precisely what I meant, but it is clear I'm not instructing anyone to do anything. I was giving my own experience, in a chatty way. But having to justify every utterance is quite tiresome and rather defeats the object of a parenting website.

but if we were talking in real life, and we were discussing somthing, i might refer back to something you said earlier, if we were debating something

I don't think there's any logic to the suggestion that larger babies need weaning earlier - wondering, you may have felt that your large baby did, but even if that was absolutely right, it doesn't prove any causal relationship.

dd was 10lb 11oz at birth and stayed on the 99.6th centile like glue until 6 months, exclusively breastfed. Now, she was sleeping fine, gaining weight in textbook fashion, feeding fine, we were all happy, but my HV kept banging on about weaning early too. I didn't - did BLW at 6 months, and it worked wonderfully for us.

A bigger baby may need more calories but I've never seen anything to say they need different nutrition from smaller babies, and the extra calories can come from milk.

You'll also find stacks of anecdotes from parents of smaller babies who were also told to wean early, so there's no obvious correlation between size and advice. Be interesting to see what's said to parents of babies who stick to the 50th centile.

From the MN philosophy:

"We believe that by pooling knowledge and experience, parents can make each other's lives easier.

The OP wanted to know if it was a fact that her baby needed weaning earlier due to size, even though her instinct said no. We confirmed through knowledge and yes, some little anecdotal evidence, that no this is not a fact.

nope - I have a huge baby and she was ready for food at around 5.5 months I would say - I waited until 6 purely out of laziness and caution...and then she took to it really easily.

I think the instinct thing is a red herring - my instinct is never to go to the dentist - doesnt mean its right though. I will take my dcs and if they have to have a painful filling (god forbid at some point down the line) then thats whats going to happen - my instinct would be to race over and whip them right out of there -doesnt mean I'm going to do it though.

And in what world anyway if you really thought your baby was hungry would your first instinct be to puree some carrot and feed that to them - thats cultural conditioning not instinct.

[rant over]

You quoted an initial comment I'd already made some effort to clarify. And yes, we are sharing knowledge and experience, just as the OP's HVs do, just reaching different conclusions to one another.

Oooh Habibu I know the answer to that one....

'wean early - he won't last until 6 months and you'll miss your window of opportunity'

Thank you for all the input. We are going to wait because we don't feel he is ready yet. The not sleeping through the night thing that the HV kept going on about isn't good enough for me because he somtimes sleeps through and sometimes doesn't.

What is the tongue thrust reflex? I'm not sure what it is.

It's an expulsion reflex. If you put something on their lips they will push their tongue out to prevent anything getting into their mouth/swallowing a foreign object. As they get older, the reflex moves back across their tongue so that they can start to put things in their mouths without the reflex to push it away.

It's an interesting point of debate in the light of the faddy BLW! Spoon feeding can override this reflex to some extent but allowing them to self feed means that they only transfer food when they're developmentally ready. There's hopefully a mirror between this (and other) developmental stages and what is happening in their gut in terms of readiness for solid food. That's the theory, very, very simply.

Tongue thrust reflex isn't theory of course. It's a protective mechanism and an important one. Cute too, babies and their poky out tongues.

Ah right. He is always sticking his tongue out and is very good a pushing the bottle out of his mouth when he has had enough.

will the eventually lose their tongue reflex. I'm having doubts about Baby Starlight (now 7.5 months)

False for us, dd born on 98th for height and weight, and has now gone above this, but was not weaned til 26 weeks. Lots of pressure from family and friends - shes so big, needs more blah blah. Personally i found it easier waiting until six months, as i knew she could eat most things then, and wouldnt get used to just finely pureed food to just swallow not chew and start refusing lumps later on and its worked really well for us. She probably could have started at 5 months as she was a complete starver draining breast/bottle and grabbing at food etc, but played on the safe side and it did her no harm waiting those 4 weeks. 18 weeks does seem a bit young, on the practical side id wait until he can at least chew, have lumps etc as he may refuse this if he gets used to really finely pureed stuff making it tricky as he gets older.

false in my case
I had 2 big babies and neither of them needed weaning early.

ds2 we did BLW with and he was more than happy with it.

waking overnight is not a sign that they need solids. ds2 has only just started sleeping through at 18 months and he eats a LOT!