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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

Did anyone wean before 4 months?

448 replies

thymes2 · 07/07/2005 16:59

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.

OP posts:
spidermama · 07/07/2005 17:53

Ahem! Gosh thymes2! What a heated response to your first posting. Obviously touched a few nerves eh?
Don't worry, it's not always so contraversial.

hercules · 07/07/2005 17:54

But we're talking a baby of 14 weeks old....

aloha · 07/07/2005 17:54

should the research that proved that putting babies to sleep on their backs have also been suppressed? it has saved the lives of untold numbers of babies. mothers do not always know best

starlover · 07/07/2005 17:54

hehe i was thinking that spidermama!
perhaps thymes2's second post should be about boys in dresses???

Twiglett · 07/07/2005 17:54

and personally i don't buy the 'it made my baby happy'

it would probably make DD extremely happy if I let her play with the sockets she is fascinated with .. for a few moments anyway

Norash · 07/07/2005 17:55

You do what you think is right, I will do what I know is right for me and my son and will do it with the next child if I feel it is for the best for the baby.

I'm out.

hercules · 07/07/2005 17:55

I disagree with mother knows best. I will never claim to know better than such well established research and evidence.

starlover · 07/07/2005 17:55

yes hercules... and i am not saying she should wean! i am just giving MY experience of it. as someone who was MORE than happy to wait until 6 months, but ended up doing differently

micha26 · 07/07/2005 17:55

If people needed research to find out that smoking, drinking or taking drugs is causing damage to their bodies - then tough.

People seem to pay so much attention about the risks of giving solids to babies earlier, but don't give a second of consideration about the processed crap food they are feeding their teenagers. Where comes the WHO there? Or do you just stop feeling responsible once your kids reach school age?

Anyway, whatever you say will not affect our decision what we are feeding our son. He is a healthy bugger and not the WHO nor your posts will change that

spidermama · 07/07/2005 17:56

Ooooh! Never again starlover. Once bitten...

SoupDragon · 07/07/2005 17:56

"Kids in Africa are weaned from about 2 months and seem to be just fine"

Erm... an awful lot of them aren't fine! Infant mortality rates are appalling!

Norash · 07/07/2005 17:57

And by the way I was not encouraging anyone to do it too, neither would I discourage anyone who was. All I was doing was answering the original post.

micha26 · 07/07/2005 17:57

So how much do you really know then about the people working in these organisations and how they conduct their research and come to their conclusions? Talk is cheap.

hercules · 07/07/2005 17:58

Where do you get that from? It's not compulsory to bf until 6 months and then feed your child crap you know?

Err, I also believe that the reason you dont need to much much research about the harm of drugs etc is because so much has already been done.....

hercules · 07/07/2005 17:59

Do you know who the WHO is??

hercules · 07/07/2005 17:59

I know because if you go on their website, it's all there.

micha26 · 07/07/2005 17:59

Infant mortality: Where do you get your numbers from? Probably from another well established organisation who make sure that their statistics are forged properly.

Take your kid there once and see how well developed these kids are compared to western world children

spidermama · 07/07/2005 17:59

It's not christpher eccelstone any more is it?

SoupDragon · 07/07/2005 18:00

I'm sorry, Micha26 but I@m pmsl.

hercules · 07/07/2005 18:00

Mich- infant mortality is very high in Africa. How can you suggest for a moment their children are better nourished than ours?

hercules · 07/07/2005 18:00

Are you for real??

hercules · 07/07/2005 18:02

Honestly, I dont know what all the fuss is about developing countries. Their kids are clearly far more advantaged than ours.

Twiglett · 07/07/2005 18:02

I did the wrong thing with DS, I weaned him at 14 weeks because I didn't know any better .. there is nothing I can do about that

I knew better with DD and I waited till 6 months, despite any signs that 'she was ready' I knew she wasn't because I looked at the available research

with each child I did the best I knew how to do

it is different when you knowingly disregard advice IMO

hercules · 07/07/2005 18:03

Someone better tell GEldof he's been wasting his time!

micha26 · 07/07/2005 18:03

Infant mortality in Africa is high because of Malaria, TB and others, not because of being malnourished in the first place.

I can suggest that because I have been there and not picked my knowledge from websites...

BTW: Everybody can set up a website and publish whatever they want. So, even if I visit their website, what guarantee does that give me.

The internet contains about 1% truth and 99% crap. Large organisations are not better than small ones.