highlights from my weaning talk today

[ruddynorah]

so me and my 11 wk old ds were invited to a weaning talk run by an HV and a nursery nurse. i went for the sake of it, something to do while dd's at pre school, maybe meet some local mums etc.

and the highlights were-

weaning age was set by dept of health 3 years ago at 6 months

guidelines are no weaning before 6 months, but lots of people start earlier, 17 wks is ok, each baby is different..this is called baby led weaning

if you start at 17 wks you can take it nice and slowly and build up to 3 meals by 6 months

if you wean from 6 months you only have 2 weeks to get to 3 meals a day

iron stores have all been used up by 6 months so you must introduce red meat by then

signs of readiness for weaning are that they seem more hungry and wake up more at night

then just to cap things off we were asked if we had any questions, and it became clear that out of 7 mums in the session, 4 had already started weaning. all the babies there were between 10 wks and 13 wks

one mum had started her ds on baby porridge at 8 wks.

I asked my HV during DD's 6 month assessment if she found it frustrating that nobody appeared to follow the WHO guidelines on weaning. She said yes but that she consoled herself with the thought that it's all generational and in 10-20 years weaning at 6 months will probably be the norm.

Bit scary that it can take the general public so long to accept the findings of the top scientists in the field. I really have had my eyes opened since having DD, I thought I would find maybe a minority of people weaning perhaps at 4-5 months, having been individually advised to do so by a HCP but instead I found everyone's at it, from 12 weeks in some cases!!

Mind you, this assumes that the HCPs involved know what they are talking about. I think it's a pity HVs seem to be such an...ahem...mixed bag as it's hardly going to attract the best candidates given it's current status.

ISNT, I wasn't aware that the current weaning guidelines are in fact Rules?

No weaning talks where I work, we've found its better to start talking much earlier. Guidelines discussed at new birth visit and NHS No Rush to Mush leaflet given out. Most parents wait till 6 months and do BLW.