Did anyone wean before 4 months?

[thymes2]

Hello! This is my first post.
My baby is 14 weeks old and mainly breastfed. Because she seems to struggle to get full I give her at least one bottle of formula per day (usually at night time so she'll sleep for a longer time. She seems very interested in our meals and I'm thinking of weaning her early. I'd like to hear about peoples experiences of weaning before the recommended 6 months and any advice.

Ooops. I don't mean weaning. I mean introducing solids

Advice .. don't do it .. it is normal for a baby to seem interested in 'your food' .. she is watching what you are doing BUT that doesn't mean that her gut is capable of taking baby food and unfortunately the latest research shows that weaning earlier than 6 months can lead to problems in later life (potential asthma / excema other intolerances) so personally I'd totally avoid it .

Suppose you weaned now and your child at 14 developed excema you would NEVER know whether you could have done anything about it

I'm with Twig. Also, to be born in mind, once your baby's on real food she'll also be doing real poohs. NOT those pretty little yellow things that smell like yogurt.

Oh well! I guess I might be lynched but here goes.

My son is 12 weeks old and is the average weight of a 6 to 7 month old, was big baby at birth anyway.

He is having baby rice in the morning for breakfirst and before bed.

He just does not seem to get enough from breastmilk, he does not come of the breast if exclusively breastfed. Hence insane and unhappy mummy and baby (cries constantly of hunger)

Why should we lynch you? but you ARE going against medical advice and personally I think its not a good thing to do as you could potentially be harming your own child

I would say that DS was weaned at 14 weeks when the given advice was 16 weeks ..but I didn't know any better .. the difference is YOU DO so I find it

I weaned my ds1 at 12 weeks on the advice of my HV. This was 9 years ago now. At the time, the official recommendation was 16 weeks so I went very slowly, ie only baby rice for a couple of weeks and then only banana mixed with baby rice, or apple, carrot etc mixed with baby rice. I saw no ill effects doing this with him (he was a very hungry baby and milk was not satisfying him) but with my other children, I waited until 16 weeks which was the norm then.

I support you Norash although I am not sure I would do it again so early. Bear in mind, the recommendation was 16 weeks when I weaned ds1 at 12 weeks, and it had only recently changed to 16 weeks having been 12 weeks previously. Have you tired bottle top ups before the baby rice? That kept ds2 going until 16 weeks. I do support your attempt to gain a happier baby and less stressed mother though.

Twiglett, I understand what you are saying but all these people and organisations that set these guidlines change their minds like the weather.

I believe that I am doing what is best for my child, also one thing we should bare in mind is that children have varying levels of developement. Some sit, walk, talk etc. earlier than others.

I believe in the same way they are ready to be introduced to solids and varying ages.

Yes i weaned ds1 from 14 weeks and ds2 from 15 weeks and do not see any harm in it but then they just had baby rice till a week or so.

Norash, what you are saying is simply not true. When a baby is ready for solids is nothing to do with how babies differ in sitting etc. It is to do with their guts for one thing. BAbies guts are simply not ready for anything other than milk until around 6 months no matter how large the baby is- it's gut is still the same as smaller babies.

The advice is not new, the WHO have been saying it for 10 years.

IT is deemed harmful to wean before 4 months. Why do it?

My baby was interested in the remote control, didnt mean she should of been eating it.

God, I hope your babies are all fine but the truth is a lot of the possible damage wont be seen until much later in life.

IT's not a race, you know.....

He's on 1000ml (1 litre) of formula plus breast milk and still hungry. Yet he seems to be loosing weight (according to health visitor) or should I say not gaining weight as he should be.

What this means is that he has been on the 99.6th centile since birth and has now dropped to the 90th for the last month.

I waited till nearly 6 months and would do it again, theres so much pressure from other people "she's a hungry baby" "your milk won't fill her up" "i weaned mine at 4 weeks" etc it is mind numbing.

Weaning is such a faff I'm glad I waited and don't get me started on the nappies, DD only started getting nappy rash when she ate solids oh I would love for one of those lovely yellow nappies now!

My dd was weaned from 12 weeks as per the advice at the time and she has had no related ill effects.

ds4 was weaned from 13 weeks even though the advice was from 6months and he too has suffered no ill effects.

Personally I think go with what you feel is right for your baby after talking things through with your HV about it. You can then weigh things up and decide what you feel will work for you and your baby.

What makes you think giving a few teaspoons of rice would make a difference? It has less calories than milk anyway!

My dd was a large baby at birth, when hungry I gave her more milk. It's about having confidence in your own ability to feed your baby. THe hospital insisted I give her top ups of formula in hospital but I refused.

DD is no longer a large child and was clearly never meant to be. S

People depend too much on these graphs designed for the majority of bottlefed babies.

You say Potato and I say Potato

Do what you think is best for your baby but don't try to feed me that statictical crap, telling me that I am "wrong" .

How much reserch have you done on this topic?

Maybe he's naturally dropping down the centiles to find his own line babies don't know about centiles!

I found it wierd that people think a little bit of baby rice/pureed carrots is going to make that much of a difference, think of the calories in that compared to breast/formula milk.

Message withdrawn

Sadly, an awful lot of hv's lack knowledge on bf and weaning.

Lots and lots. You?

It doesnt change fromn year to year. It's been WHO advice for 1o years now!

My decision had nothing to do with health visitors, what works for you does not necessarily work for others and for your information I am still breastfeeding my son.

There is a lovely post mears did recently about peoples obsession with weaning early and lack of confidence in ability to satisfy baby. I'll look for it.

Why mention research? Show me the research that recommends weaning before 4 months??

Whatever, will not make any difference to me.