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.

Have read this entire thread. OMG. Can. Of. Worms. Was just looking for some advice!

Introduced baby rice, bit of fruit etc to exclusively breastfed DD at 16ish weeks (5 years ago). She then had chronic toddler constipation. She also went onto cows milk at 10 months cos she would never take a bottle. Always felt that the two were linked. GUILT

Have been trying the odd spoonful of baby cereal/rice and fruit with DS 14 weeks but 15pounds just due to pressure from mum/friends etc but now after reading this feel that he doesn't really need it yet. He is exclusively breastfed and sleeping thru. Noticed lots of wind and tummy pain recently.

So have decided to leave for month or so. But you can do that can't you? And any harm I may have caused through early weaning isn't permanent is it? Put my mind at rest someone, please....?

don't listen to anyone saying that you shouldn't do it. my mum gave my brother baby rice at 6 weeks and he's fine no asthma, allergies or anthing.

at the end of the day you know your baby the best and if you think he needs it then he needs it.

professionals are always changing their minds all the time, and no one really knows whats best for babies coz no ones a baby any more.

yes i may affect him but it may not no ones knows and if hes hungry you can't deprieve him food. i gave ds it at 4 mths but not coz id been told to wait but coz he wasn't ready till then. if he was i would of gave it to him.

im not disagreing wih poeple who say you should wait coz they've got their reasons,

but you know best do what you want.

definetely don't do it - her gut isn't developed enough to take solids for at least another 8+ weeks.

It's great that she's taking an interest with what's going on around her, but that doesn't mean she's ready for solids.

My DD didn't seem to take much milk either, but we kept at it until 24 weeks, by which time she had lost the tongue thrust that my friends babies had.

My nephew was weaned from 10 weeks as he was downing 5 10oz bottles a day. He's been diagnosed with asthma but I would think that may have more to do with the fact that my sil smoked during pregnancy.

My dd was taking a great interest in our food from 4 and a half months so I tried her with baby rice. She didn't really need it and was being sick more than usual so I gave up and started again at 6 months.

DS took a great interest in newspapers when he was a similar age, but wouldn't read aloud

Lol.

Son and Daughter both drank large amounts of milk...
both slept through the night at 7 weeks..
by 12 weeks they were both on 9 ounce bottles.. and waking up in the night for a feed
when daughter had 22 and a half ounces in 3 hours and was sounding like a hot water bottle sloshing arround... I started to give her baby rice after a feed... I think I gave her 6 ounces (whatever the recomendation said on the formular tin for that age) then some baby rice, then the rest of the bottle if she wanted it...

This worked for us... the recomendation for weaning 9 years ago was 4 months... she was a big baby and had almost doubled her birth weight...

If it was now, would I do the same... who knows, I just know if felt right at the time....

Have only read the first few posts, I weaned ds1 around 18 weeks and ds2 around 16 weeks as that was the recommendation at the time. (They are only 3 and 5 now). I honestly don't believe they have suffered in any way because of it. They were both eating 3 meals a day at 6 months along with every other baby their age. I find it amazing that babies now are not hungry with just milk till 6 months?? I am not planning a third but would have no hesitation in introducing solids before 6 months if my child seemed hungry.

I know this thread is a few years old but I'm behind with the times!! I fed my baby soilds early. The reason I did it was that he was screaming all day long, nothing would calm him. We tried everything and I mean everything and I was in tears and didn't know what to do. It was suggested to us to fed him a little baby rice. He praticallly ate the spoon and then sat there very happy grining at us!! He now has a little baby rice in the evening. He is 15 weeks old and is happy as larry. My husband is a scientist and says that the guildlines are that, just guildlines. He was happy to feed our son. I lot of people have suggested this to me and I know no-one who has allergies etc.

I was told by someone that I'm abusing and negelecting my son and threated to call social services. I don't think that me feeding my son and forming my own opopoins should be something to be 'lynceed at for'.

Interesting thread this and how it seems to polarize opinions. I'm a new dad and our Son came out weighing a "petite" 10lbs 5oz. Interestingly we're thinking about when to introduce solid food. I had solids introduced to me when I was 5 weeks old (30 years ago) and I have no food allergies and I slept through the night for 12 or 13 hours from about 3 months. I had carrot and banana and back in those days you could by them for babies that age. Now, I understand why people worry but there are literally thousands of junctures where you can affect your childs development for the better or worse. Interestingly I wasn't breast fed upto solids either.

The other thing I don't understand is if a normal birth (where a baby is not considered prem) is 37-42 weeks, there are 5 weeks of difference between babies that are ostensibly the same age. So saying that 4 months is the earliest, in reality if you've got a baby born at 42 weeks then it may have done as much developing being weaned at 11 weeks than a 37 week old baby being weaned at 16 weeks, and before I get shouted down for not taking into account, when doseages are discussed for babies for medical purposes, the distinctions for most medication is, not premature and weight. Medical professionals (for 95% of things) don't really care for exact weeks in context of what week of gestation the baby was born.

Re: the gestational age comment above, my understanding is that iron stores are laid down in the latter stages of gestation, so if a baby is at 42 weeks, then they would have more iron than one at 37 wks, so there's less nutritional need to wean early.
Otherwise, the babies weight isn't an indicator of how mature their digestive system is, and that is what matters.
If you wean at 11 weeks rather than 22 weeks, then that's HALF THE BABY'S LIFETIME of a difference. Not just "11 weeks" difference, but half a lifetime.
If it were me, I would be going to a decent GP for advice if I was worried that I needed to wean before 4 mnths.

I should add though that my LO still had the tongue-thrust reflex at 5 months. She wasn't able/willing to take solids then; at 6 mnths she was unenthusiastic but able. So obviously I have no idea about how practically feasible it is to delay weaning - so easy to pass comment on something I don't need to deal with myself! :-).

Also re gestational age (I learnt this after having a premmie!) my understanding is that babies guts begin to mature as soon as they are born, not before, so a baby's digestive will mature at around 6 months from birth, regardless of the gestation they were born at. Hope that makes sense!

I was doing a search for advice on weaning and I came across this thread. I was so disturbed by the comments ,not about weaning, but about each other that I signed up just to post how upsetting it is to read Mums turning against each other just because they have different views on weaning. I think you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Have we already got 356 other littlemissbossies then?
(not surprised)

There are other threads (and forums) where people need telling to be nicer to each other too - you're going to be busy.

Just to clarify, the advice since 2003 was 4 to 6 months, not earlier than 17 weeks but people concentrated on the 4 and ignored the 6 part!

Any earlier than 4 months is dangerous, 6 months is better because they have much better control of their neck and can stand up, their gut is actually ready for food and they can swallow rather than suck which is what little babies do with food.

Calorie and nutrition wise, breastmilk or formula is what babies are meant to have, baby food is either as calorific or less so. And can actually cause harm. The "it did me no harm" means nothing, you have no idea what harm it may or may not have caused, especially amidst the obesity crisis and the plethora of bowel disorders.

Hurray for an Ancient Thread revival!

You all who got nasty opinions about weaning before 6 months, keep to yourself! I'm so disgusted by some moms opinions! Moms come here for support and advice from other moms who DID weaned their babies earlier, not some women who live after what your midwives or gp say. Get out of the box you live in!
And to moms who wants to wean their babies earlier than 6 months, why not? You won't be first or last one who did that! Just follow your instinct! You are the mother and you know your child better than bunch of these women, midwives or gps!
Just take it slow and see how your baby reacts. If she/he is happy with the food, then you doing great! ??

Hi Radka. This thread was started in 2005, so I doubt any of the "moms" whose opinions you don't like are looking at this thread any more.

Fwiw, the NHS advice (there for good reasons, yes?) is never to wean before 17 weeks, and to wait till around 6 months when baby is showing the (real) signs of weaning.

Also, anyone can post anything here as the Internet is open to anyone. Either ignore the comments you don't like, or point out to those posters why they are wrong. That way you get to engage in debate.

It's pointless to tell people to keep their opinions to themselves on a public chat forum'

It is not harmful to wean a baby before 6 months at all and which ever evidence and advice you have been using are completely wrong! Why would companies such as heinz,hipp organic, cow & gate etc make baby food for 4 months+. If it's harmful surely they would sell these?

I know this thread is almost 10 years old but Emma019, the advice you say is "wrong" is proven by science and given by health organisations. The products you mention are produced by companies out to make money.

Which one do you think is most likely to be looking out for a child's health?

If you wean a child at 4 months then you will be pureeing, which can be bought in nice and conveniently packaged little portions from these companies if you so wish. If you wean at 6 months most babies are capable of eating chunks of food which are harder to package conveniently.

This is how they make their money and that's why they produce them.