Weaned eary than 4 months?Only want to hear from Mums who have and dont want to have debate on not weaning before 4 months!

[MillyMaisMummy]

Hiya fellow Mums!I really want to hear your experiences from Mums who weaned before 4 months please or for fellow Mums who are thinking of weaning before 4 months!

I don't want to hear from Mums who want to stick their 2 pence worth in on not doing it as its wrong and blah blah blah.... as EVERY BABY IS DIFFERENT!

My DD is coming up 12 weeks old but i started weaning her at 10 1/2 weeks old and She's doing really well and enjoys her food.

I really need some recipes to go on with,so if you got any please let me know!

I was a bit miffed when i went to my local mums and baby group and a mum told me off like a child for weaning DD before 4-6 months!I did exp[lain that i had done my research and had spoken to a few pediatric specialists and they ok'd it.....The look on her face when the other Mums told her they weaned at 10 1/2 months too...i have to say i did feel better that i wasn't the only one in the "Before-4-month-weaning-boat"!

Hand blend a Fray Bentos pie. Use old rusty nail to open baby bottle aperture wider and pour in.
Prop baby up with pillow so it can watch Kojack better.

'the rules' aren't always changing just to wind us up you know. the advice to wean after 6 months these days is because we now know that weaning earlier can cause lots of problems later and one of them being early onset of diabetes becoming more widespread. its neither here nor there with people say oh but dh/ds/postman was weaned at 2 days and hes fit and fine now.

if baby is hungry, give them more milk, as much they will take, that is their food.

Ok some of you are going a bit weird.

"Weaning at 10 weeks is utter madness".. Then the entire population of great Britain went utterly mad and came back again? and the results of early weaning were what..

Where was the gut problem and allergy epidemic back then? Where is the gut problem and allergy epidemic now in gimmers people over forty and fifty? Where were the epipens and the notices banning peanuts or wheat or dairy or any other normal food? Who even knew what anaphylactic shock meant if you didn't work in a hospital?

I swear, I do approve of long term breastfeeding and weaning later, and probably would do it now, for all sorts of reasons, because it's not THAT easier weaning a 16 wker. But to claim early weaning is "utter madness" and the source of the allergies is a bit much.

Diabetes, another auto immune issue. The years don't add up here.

There's more obesity in this age of later weaning too.

My DF only realised he was allergic to milk when my DD was found to be lactose intolerant in when she was baby.
He cut out milk and lost his title as 'champion farter extraordinaire.' It almost bearable to be in the same room with him after hes been drinking gunnis, toped up with milk products and you were left with streaming eyes.

A lot of its been there, maybe people just didnt know what was causing it.

No it hasn't always been there at all! Studies have been carried out to find out what is causing all these life threatening allergies and chronic gut problems, what about all these theories of the hygiene hypothesis and so on? Are you trying to say there has been no increase in atopy over the last fifty years? Or obesity (if I'm right, recently discovered to have an immune connection but I'd have to check that)? Or diabetes (auto immune)? That's an astonishing claim!

Peacocks - you are right! It is now thought that it is the delayed introduction of foodstuffs that probably cause the allergies. Don't get me wrong, I think the earliest a baby should be weaned is 17 weeks, but current research suggests that solids should be established by 6 months.

www.espghan.med.up.pt/position_papers/con_28.pdf

oh well if we are using individual cases as PROOF then my mum has both gluten and dairy intolerances which she didn't develop until late 30s and she is 63 (sorry Mum) so that must be proof that early weaning DOES cause problems.

FFS people, individual cases do not make scientific research invalid...

You can't single out just one factor like that though peacocks.
Breast or formula may have an effect
weaning age and foodstuff weaned onto
parents smoking will have an effect on asthma I would have thought
hygiene
the amount of artificial chemicals in the environment

Recommendation of 6 months has only been in place since 2003 (I think) so we can't really blame the obesity epidemic on that.

MIL has terrible gut problems. Her Mum was very vocal about 'starving the poor little babies these days, weaned at 6 weeks in my day'.

OP you are a loo.

Libra you have just made me with your carrot cake comment.

LOON

completely agree with you manger

I'm not saying late weaning is causing the allergy epidemic

I'm saying early weaning hasn't -- anyone with common sense can see that, but we seem to be being persuaded otherwise, tis just another stick to beat mums with.

Something's happened to make early weaning a life threatening event and what is it?

However re your points: loads more smoking around kids forty years ago.

Chemicals doesn't count because babies have these problems too and they don't come into massive contact with the chemicals except through the mum.

And foodstuff weaned onto? Years ago it was boiled dumplings, bread and dripping and marmalade pudding. Now it's all fruit, veg and rice.

I mean, to have newborns affected by this it must be something that happens in the womb, or during birth, or very shortly after birth. Can't think why early weaning has suddenly got the blame.

She might be a loon, but not because she likes early weaning

Individual cases are interesting but if you look at the whole picture you suddenly think my goodness we didn't have all this atopic crap forty years ago. Not talking about granny saying gooseberries don't agree with her, but profound, life threatening conditions triggered by normal everyday food.

What I mean is all those variables mean it's difficult for us to say what is to blame in individual cases, but that large-scale studies can take these into account. Which is where the advice comes from.

Early weaning is a relatively modern phenomenon of the 20th century.

My daughter's consultant paediatric endocrinologist believes that early weaning is a contributory factor to obesity, diabetes and bowel disorders.

She is Very Clever so I am sure she knows what she's talking about.

There's early weaning at 16 weeks + though and then there is weaning a 10 week old..

I'd love to know why the OP thought it necessary.

The reason early weaning is not recommended has really very little to do with allergies (apart from in babies with atopic tendencies anyway)...no matter what people say. It's to do with overall health and nutrition.

A few susceptible babies will react quite seriously to seriously early weaning- these are the babies with coeliac disease or other disorders. A larger number may become ill because of kidney overload (more solids usually = less liquid and this is not good for a tiny baby). The majority of babies will simply have a poorer diet, given we know the most appropriate diet for a baby under 6 mths is milk only, and that there are no benefits for starting solids earlier than this (or about that age).

There are plausible links to obesity though difficult to prove, and plausible links to other gut disorders (again, hard to prove), because of the way we know the physiology works. These conditions don't show up until later, and of course they both have other causes, too.

There is really no point in early weaning, and a good body of evidence to show clear risk of harm in some, susceptible babies (most babies will not show this, though). There is further evidence that it could at least play a part in other disorders and conditions, so the question has to be - why would anyone do it?

I weaned dd1 at 4 months and dd2 at 4.2 months but in those days we were told it was ok to wean from 4 months. Both children are fine, no allergies and no stomach problems.

Arsed - my money is on weight issues
OP's dd wasn't a very hungry baby and only fed every 4h from birth. She was then ill and off her milk, and didn't 'follow the curve', prompting some unkind comments from friends about her size (cf this thread)

OP also had a run-in with the HV re early weaning here, where she implies that she was being advised 'not to feed a baby
who was screaming from hunger'.
I think, however, there may have been a misunderstanding in that she was being advised to give a hungry baby milk, not solids, rather than leaving them to scream.

I'm lying here with my 15lb+ 11 week DS asleep on my chest thinking why on earth would I try and wean him? He only gets boob juice and is thriving. I didn't know the exact guidance but thought I'd probably let him try solids at around 6 months. I nearly took my mum's head off when she suggested giving him blackcurrant juice as "he's probably thirsty". FFS!

I'm quite new to mumsnet so I've not seen many OPs like this one. I just want to know, is this a wind up??

Early weaning is a relatively modern phenomenon of the 20th century.

That is not true, it's a mumsnet myth. In the 18th, 19th century they gave pap ( bread or flour mixed with milk/water) from birth and in Mrs Beatons Household Manigement,it says that babies should be breastfed for 9 months but they should be used to alternatives foods asap in case something happens to the mother.

not a wind-up unfortunately, Igglybuff

due to the unique MN demographic [cough] we probably get less than our fair share of early weaners, but if you check out other fora with different memberships (Bounty, Babycentre, Netmums etc) then you see a very different picture...

mrsbadger ah ok so not a wind up then. I know someone who is feeding their baby every four hours. Bless him, the poor baby is always crying and looks so thin. She had him over and fed him after "only" 2 hours to shut him up. I've never seen a baby guzzle so fast in his life.... The irony is, she's switched to hungry baby formula as she sees how hungry he is but doesn't think to feed him more frequently.

I didn't say anything as didn't want to judge... But feel guilty for the poor child