Is 3 months too young to start on baby rice ??

[jackie21]

Hi everyone, I am a new mum and to be honest a little bit clueless LOL !! Well my 13 week old baby girl has always been a really good eater since she was born, she was drinking a full one of those bottles of formula in the hospital from the first feed !! We moved her onto 2nd stage milk when she was 6 weeks (although our HV advised not too but when she was on the 1st stage she was wanting 7oz every 3 hours and being sick a lot because there was too much in her little belly) since then she was satisfied with 6-8oz every 4 hours and started sleeping through the night at 9weeks For the past week however she has been stopping at 4oz and refusing to take more. This may sound cruel but if i keep the bottle in her mouth and ignore the crying then she does eventually take the normal 7oz. But today she has just point blank refused to take more after the 4oz, she just doesnt seem interested in taking more. Going from 7oz down to 4oz is quite a big drop. She has always been a good weight, well a little chunk in my case,, you should see her thighs LOL. She was 6lb11oz when she was born but she is 14lbs now.

Now the main question is....is 13 weeks too early to start giving my baby girl baby rice ? I know lots of people and read lots on the internet about people starting at this age and earlier !! She is able to sit up in her chair and been able to hold her head up for a few weeks now, she is very sturdy.

I really dont want to speak to my HV about it because i relaly dont find them helpfully, all they do is go by the book and can only advise by the book, i dont think they understand babies who are not textbook !!

Any advise will be a great help !!

LOL just realised how much I have wrote !!

I agree with everything you say Kathryn.

My great uncle used to mow the lawns at Great Ormond Street, and he had a similarly robust and well informed view on the so-called "scientific" literature as your MIL.

As yet another of the 21 year old mums appearing for the first time on this thread, I am following great uncles advice to the letter:

diet coke from 12 weeks
full fat coke from 16 weeks
wean the bubba onto Benson & Hedges from 20 weeks

all these experienced and "knowledgeable" so called health professionals MUST be ignored in the face of my well-informed instincts.

Hi Jackie. Sorry to hear about the loss of your mum. It must be very difficult for you. Just wanted to send you a hug as you've been a little picked on on this thread! xx

Old post...resurrected twice.

im so glad this thread has been resurrected!

i'm kinda in the same position. DD is 14 weeks, normally sleeps through the night but has started waking up several times during the night. so... (please dont shout at me...) i tried a tiny amount of baby rice for 3 days and she went back to sleeping well.

but i stopped cause HV told me to wait at least another couple of weeks. and she's went back to waking up during the night!

i know the research says 26wks and certainly no earlier than 17weeks. but im at a loss here! really struggling as i just dont know what to do now!!

*"WasMyAuraWrongOrWhat Thu 07-May-09 21:32:05
Yes.

Her gut lining is not sufficiently matured at 13 weeks to digest anything other than milk. Giving solids too early is linked to various health risks, including allergies/intolerances, digestive problems, kidney problems, excema, obesity... These may not become apparent until much late in life.

I appreciate what you say about not all babies being textbook, but the research shows that no babies are ready for solid food before 17 weeks and that it is safest to wait until 26 weeks."*

really and truly what do you want people to say to you minimuffy? You've read the posts, you don't like the answers, and you still want someone, anyone, to validate your choices to feed rice to your very young baby.

I'm struggling here. .

If she's inconveniencing you in some way because she's roaring, does that mean you can risk allergies/intolerances, digestive problems, kidney problems, excema & obesity?

Of course it does.

It's a free country, up to you. What does the HV know after all? Ignore the research on feeding, if it makes your life difficult. Listen to whoever you want to listen to. It's not complex. You can feed your baby how you like in the privacy of your own home. You can get the short term answer that you want, right now, if you ignore the long term prospects for your DD.

HOWEVER, if you want good advice on how to keep a tiny hungry baby asleep at nights, the answer is not going to involve feeding solids.

There are plenty of women on here who are very very knowledgeable about wakeful babies. I strongly suggest you start your own thread on this topic, saying something about your wakeful baby and how she & you are having a hard time, what next?

really & truly, why should a hungry baby , probably going through a growth spurt, have to stay asleep? She's asking for sustenance, you are her mother, you need to give it to her.

At what point did i say it was an invoncenience to feed her or that I wasn't feeding her?

What i said was that I was struggling.

I DID listen to the HV as I STOPPED the baby rice.

And plenty of babies got weaned at 12 weeks or earlier without any problems.

So get off ur high horse and find a more tactful way to help rather than flame new mothers.

She is possibly going through a growth spurt minimuffy, maybe just give her the extra milk she needs for this period of waking. She may also need an extra bottle during the day to 'top her up' for the night.
It maybe that she needs one extra bottle, but waking for other reasons, such as comfort, teething, wind.
Have you tried a dummy to settle her back to sleep, or just leaving her to cry for a few minutes to see if she drifts off alone?
But really, it is too young to give food, even the smallest amount as for the reasons above and I believe there will have been proven research into this.

I realise this is an old post but it came up when I searched for this topic and I really felt the need to express how I feel about it.

I am a new member of mumsnet and I have to say I dont think I will be coming back! I am really taken aback by some of the replies on this post which are extremely aggressive. The original poster and minimuffy were looking for advice on what to do, I think their words were taken completely out of context and suggesting they were somehow intentionally inflicting damage on their children either by force feeding or giving baby rice I think was totally unjust.

I am a new mother, I am a health professional and I know how to read scientific evidence and make informed decisions about the results without needing advice from anyone else. But I dont think I would come on here again if I was seeking advice on any other matter which is a shame as some of the replies were really helpful and supportive but I wouldnt want to risk the wrath of some of the others.
I will be returning to other website forums I am a member of where I feel supported and informed not lambasted.

Sheesh catinthehat! No need for that!

minimuffy there is little evidence that They are now thinking that possibly delaying the introduction of some food is in fact contributing to the high levels of allergies in our country.

I for one will say that if you introduce baby rice to your baby at 14 weeks you are not committing a crime! I think a lot of mothers on here take the advice so seriously, they are only guidelines and recommendations.

Do what works for you, enjoy your baby, and yes for gods sake trust your instincts.

ails81 I think yours was a wonderful post, I am sorry you have only seen the worst of MN, it can be a mine of information, but some topics really get folks going, esp this and the old BF/FF!
I hope you can give MN another chance and read some of the fantastic supportive threads found elsewhere on here.
I guess this one is a bad penny...

I suspect that the OP must have been some kind of wind up post. Basically stating that she was forcefeeding her child against the advice of her health visitor.

Is this post being repeatedly bumped on purpose or is it just some kind of strange coincidence?

I would bet money that the OP was a troll and I reckon they also wrote a few of the similarly thicko posts near the beginning of this thread too.

and the supportive ones at the end no doubt...

I thought I would pop back on to see if anyone had responded to my thoughts and thank you barely awake for your reply, and if I had only read yours I might well have had another look around mumsnet. But im taking it from the last few posts that by bumping this thread or supporting the OP I am somehow a troll or up to something. Well I can assure you I am not, as I said originally I found this thread on google while searching for information on early weaning for a friend. I just dont understand why some mothers have to be quite so judgmental and basically intimidating. I find it hard to believe some of these posters would speak to someone in person the way they have on here. I understand that weaning always provokes strong opinions but there is a way to share your opinion and views without being vicious about it. Unless of course some of you are perfect mothers who follow every guideline on parenting to the letter. Which I doubt.

Hear hear, ails81. I also found this thread whilst looking for information on early weaning and won't be returning to mumsnet. This might be an old thread, but there is no need for some of the judgemental, patronising comments from posters.

How many of you are paediatricians, or have even actually read the research into weaning?

I completely agree with rudo. I just thought i would share my story/experience so people who come on here looking for help and advice dont just get the unhelpful and judgemental comments that are above. My daughter who is now 19 weeks old has been sleeping through from 6-7pm to 7am since she was 8 weeks old. She has always been an incredibly hungry baby which is why i stopped breast feeding at 8 days because she was feeding for 2-3 hours at a time and still wasnt satisfied. She settled better on bottles. Within two weeks of being on bottles she was on formula for hungrier babies and was taking 5-6oz every 2-3 hours. By 8weeks she was taking four 7 oz bottles during the day and sleeping from 7-7. At 11 1/2 weeks old she was demanding another feed 2 hours after taking a 7 oz bottle. After speaking to my mum she told me to give her some baby rice as she weaned both me, my brother at 2 sisters at 10-11 weeks. It is the best thing i could have done for my daughter. She is now 17 1/2 weeks and is one three meals a day plus pudding (normally petitis filous or fruit, at lunch time she is eating the equivalent
of 1 1/2 to 2 jars of food). She still has a 7 oz bottle at 7 am and 6pm and has between 2-4 oz at 10.30 so is still getting the recommended daily milk intake. She is so much happier and content especially from 3/4pm onwards which is when she would become incredibly irritable and just generally unhappy which i just put down to 'teatime' colic. It now seems she was hungrey rather than her tummy hurting. All babies are different but my advice would be to trust your instincts and judgement as a mother, you know your baby better than anyone. I hopes this helps :)

Ive put two different ages on my post she is 19 weeks old. Ive copied and pasted this from another forum which i had written when she was 17 1/2 weeks old sorry for any confusion :)

Why does the government recommend weaning from 6 months yet if you look on some jar foods it states from 4 months? Also my mum's started weaning all 5 of my siblings at 3 months and there is nothing wrong with any of us.

Why did you bump a zombie troll thread?

Amysophiasmummy this thread was started in 2009, the OPs child will be 7 years old by now....

If you've got weaning questions it's best to start your own thread. You might also find the answers to your questions in old threads in this topic. You could do an advanced search (on the desktop website) to find them, or just have a browse.

To respond to your questions here, jars/pouches etc can say "from 4 months" because it isn't illegal for them to say so. That doesn't mean you have to start weaning then, when a baby food manufacturer wants you to start buying their products and increasing their profit. They're not going put your baby's best interests ahead of their profits.

The NHS advice is to wean at around 6 months, and definitely not before 17 weeks, when your baby can sit up well, can bring things to their mouth and has lost their tongue thrust reflex. These are usually true at around 6 months. Before 17 weeks a baby's gut just can't properly process food, and there is no food that is more nutritious than breastmilk or formula at that age. You and your siblings might be fine having been weaned at 3 months, that's a good thing that you've avoided any problems associated with early weaning. That doesn't change the risks associated with early weaning, and shouldn't be a reason to suggest it to anyone else.

It is far too young. 6 months is the recommended age now. Certainly not 3 months. Also why on earth are you forcing your baby to drink if she doesn't want it? Sorry that's cruel and wrong. A baby will only drink what they want, when they want. I remember when my lb was that age, sometimes he'd drink more, other times a bit less. He was having a bottle every 4 hours by then, and we only ever let him have what he wanted of it.
I'm not surprised she's not feeling well if she's drinking milk she doesn't want

Also my lo was sleeping through from 3 months. But from her birth weight to the weight she is now is a fair gain so quickly.

Congrats on your baby - sounds like your doing a great job!

I think there has been some really useful given and I just want to echo why people have said. Please wait until 6 months. Babies stomachs don't have the correct digestive enzymes to process proper food or even rice until they are closer to this age.

I also think you need to speak to your HV or gp about the fact hat your baby is on second stage milk already. It really isn't intended for such a young baby and sorry to say it it my mean your baby isn't getting the correct nutrients and minerals needed for growth.

Definitely look into groups in your area. I know near me there is a group especially for young mums.

Good luck.

It's a zombie thread... and I know I made it worse by posting, and am doing so again... the OPs baby will be about 7 years old by now...

Z O M B I E T H R E A D ! ! !