Is she ready? ...

[AuntyClimax]

DD is not yet 6 months, but she is older than my previous children when they first had food.

She sits up straight, watches us eat, smacks her lips and makes chewing faces.

She grabbed my husbands garlic bread and tried to shove it in her mouth.

I pureed her some carrot and fed her it and she was grinning from ear to ear and ate it.

She was not pushing it out of her mouth but swallowing.

Trouble is she is teething and is crying at night, the night I fed her she did the same but I panicked it was because of the food

So haven't given her more the last 2 days, she is squeling at our dinnerplates.

WWYD?

lentil weavers and shell suit wearers unite.....pmsl.

off you pop and bang your head, there's a love; you might knock some sense into yourself

My DS was weaned at 15 weeks with purees and baby rice (tiny amounts due to high risk of malnutrition) that is an extreme case I admit but it shows that they can do it if needed too.

If your DD is almost 6 months and you think she is ready go for it!

have'nt seen you for ages!!!

....I've been about, but not as much.....feisty toddler and demanding baby combo means my time is no longer my own!!

I agree Seeker! I was getting worried as my daughter is 27 weeks and so far we've only tried organic baby rice and mashed carrot while I'm well aware from baby groups we attend that her peers are more advanced on the weaning spectrum.....but like you say why the hurry???? I feel much better after reading this thread!

I do get BLW - you may have noticed my comment on it further down the thread. But as far as I am aware, it doesn't make any difference whether the food is puree from a spoon or a piece of sucked broccoli, they shouldn't have it until they are 6 months old! The style of feeding is not going to make a difference to the maturity of the gut. And the baby neither knows not cares whether their gut is sealed or not.

but the point is that if they are sitting up unaided and have the desire and ability to feed themself....then they ARE ready and their gut IS mature

and I'm not too up on it, but I thought the whole sealed gut thing hadn't actually been proven?

I've just done a quick check incase I have gotten this wrong, and I can't see anything that says NOT BEFORE 26 weeks.

The NHS weaning leaflet talks about "at about six months" and "around six months".

Same from the food standards agency "around six months"

And this, taken from the WHO leaflet "Feeding and Nutrition of Infants and Young Children - Europe Region"

"Complementary foods should be introduced at about 6 months of age. Some
infants may need complementary foods earlier, but not before 4 months of age"

So there is a link between sitting up and gut maturity???

It doesn't matter how you wean - it shouldn't happen until 6 months. Baby Led Weaning does not mean letting the baby choose when it it ready, it means (once it is 6 months old) letting it feed itself from a selection of foods with its fingers.

Honestly, I'm right about this - check out all the websites!

and there was me thinking that Baby led meant taking the cues from the baby

cross post...I just have; they all say around/about six months!!

I started on HV/hosp advice at 21 weeks. DS has reflux and has meds in apple purree. He sat alone and seemed ready. He still has 8 bf a day so just has some purrees on top. I am too chicken to do BLW as DS chokes on his reflux anyway so am sticking with purree until reflux gone away. My older kids were 4 months (as per the guidelines back then) and are fine.

I suppose it depends what you mean by around/about 6 months. To me that means 25 to 27 weeks.

Genuine question BTW, if it is dangerous to feed babies food before 6 months how could a HV and doctors advise me to wean my son at 15 weeks, this was only in 2006?

Surely if it is that bad then they would'nt even say it, although I do agree that 5+ months should be minimum to me anyway.

but surely if a child is ready sooner, eg at 24 weeks, then there is no issue?

Being advised by HCPs to wean early because of medical issues is something else entirely I think jellybeans, and if you read the WHO leaflet it covers that scenario.

Interestingly enough though it does talk about it being up to individual countries whether the advice should be around six months or between four and six months. If it was as prescriptive as some assume, then surely it would be saying "absolutely, in no uncertain circumstances, before six months"?

but if people want to wait until six months or later I have no issue with that, but telling people they shouldn't do it sooner is a bit much imo.

this is my last post - the argument has turned circular. Yes, if a baby is ready earlier then that would be fine, and probably many are. BUT you can't tell from the outside whether or not the gut is mature enough to deal with solid food. Some are and some aren't. They may be sitting up and grabbing food (and mobile phones, car keys, remote controls - anything grabbable) but that says nothing about the state of their gut.

And,as I said, there is no advantage of any sort in weaning early, so why take the risk, however small, that your baby is one of the ones with an immature gut?

aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhh

I don't know if there is any research on the fact that if they are feeding themselves and swallowing and sitting unaided then there gut is mature, but everything I have read about BLW references this and the fact that these external signs coincide with the gut being mature.....and it makes sense to me, instinctively; why would nature have it otherwise? So if MY baby is feeding himself and he is only 24 weeks, I'm not going to say he can't have it for another 1 week 6 days and 23 hours!

Can I hijack (a bit) please and ask about the sitting unaided sign. Does that mean sitting completely unaided or just in a chair? Surely many babies aren't sitting properly by six months?
Thanks

In a chair. It is ok if the straps support them a bit but not propped up with a cushion or blanket.

Actually seeker I think Gill Rapley says something about BLW being technically doable from birth. ie, you could put a steamed carrot stick or rice cake in front of a newborn, but they're not going to pick it up and eat it, are they? And I don't think you'd find a baby under 4 months who was able to sit up in its mum's lap, look around, grab for food, be able to handle it well enough and actually put it into its mouth and chew and swallow it. Most people who start BLW before 26 weeks notice that food generally doesn't start to get swallowed until 23 or 25 weeks +. DS didn't swallow anything until about 24 weeks. Of course I could have waited until 26 weeks but he was driving me nuts with his demanding and sad faces every time I ate, I decided I might as well let him play with it and I did and he didn't swallow much anyway - but he was happy.

Conversely I have found it possible to spoon-feed my DS from a few months old when we didn't have a syringe and I needed to give him some gripe water. I didn't try earlier than this but I'm sure it would technically be possible to spoonfeed a newborn.

Yes runnervt - they need to be sitting upright enough not to be slumped over as that can be a choking hazard if they are. But sitting with a little bit of support is fine. (Then again what would I know, I weaned before 26 weeks! ) - DS is 31 and a half weeks now and can't sit fully unsupported yet. (Had to just work that out - have stopped doing weeks now!)

Oh and just to add - if he hadn't have been showing such an active interest in food, if he had been less bothered about it, I would happily have waited. I wasn't madly shoving broccoli into his hands as soon as I thought he might vaguely be able to deal with it! I just gave him a small amount of age-appropriate food to play with to occupy himself while I was eating. I do think if you want to wean early BLW is a good way to do so because you'd find out pretty quickly if your baby wasn't interested/ready.

Thanks for the replies. I guess ds2 can start then (can sit fine with support).

runnervt he needs to be able to sit strapped in a highchair without support.