To wean or not to wean! That is the question....

[crabwoman]

Hello all.
Would like some opinions/advice, as im tired, emotional and a bit desperate!

My 5mo dd is EBF on demand. I am completely aware of, and understand the reasons behind the dept.of health 6 month weaning guidelines, and until recently had planned to wait until dd had reached approx. 26 weeks(she is currently 21wks).

Since 10 weeks she has been waking at night every 4 hours for the occasional 5-10 min swig. This has changed in the past fortnight to waking every 2-3 hours absolutly ravenous.

During the day she has gone from feeding approx every 3 hours (with the odd 10 min snack in between) to feeding almost constantly. She is changing from being a happy, contented baby to being a upset, fustrated milk monster!

My gut instinct is to start weaning, but my head tells me to wait. I am so tired i dont know which to listen to.

Some of the signs that she may be ready are there (correct me if im wrong);
She has almost doubled her birth weight.
Can sit upright.
Is constantly shoving stuff into her mouth and sucking it.
I tried the banana test on her and she happily noshed down on it and then stared licking everything in sight!
She appears to have lost the tongue thrust reflex. The banana ended up in her nappy, rather than on the floor!
Im a little desperate.

I spoke to the health visitor yesterday.
Her advice was; if starting solids a few weeks earlier meant that i would continue EBF for as long as possible then it had to be worth it, rather that being so exhausted that i may be tempted to supplement with ff (which i am tbh).
Not sure what your opinions are on that?!

DD is a big robust baby, but she has had a slow drop in her centile chart for the past month or so. (this is using the bf centile charts). This is despite her increased feeding, which makes me think milk alone may not be satifying her.

All babies are different, and i understand there isnt a overnight change at 6 months which means a baby should be weaned there and then, some are a few weeks early, some a few weeks late. But im wondering if 21 weeks is pushing it?

Sorry for rambling on like this!

Thanks in advance

well, it's maybe a growth spurt, that's why she is taking more milk, becauase that is what she needs (it's more calorific than food) and because it will make you produce more milk
it is certainly perfectly normal for a 5 month old baby to still be wanting night feeds

it's absolutely normal for a breastefd baby to plateau at her age too, they tend to gain quickly to start with and then it drops off.. so no reason to think that she needs more than milk. again, milk is more calorific than any first weaning foods, so if she needs more calories then more milk is the way to go!

i agree that all babies are different, and I like the term the LLL use "around the middle of the first year" when referring to starting solids

personally i wouldn't wean at 21 weeks. i think a week or 2 early probably does no harm, particularly if you are baby led weaning, because if your baby is able to eat food then it's likely that she is able to digest it

I think if it were me i would give it another couple of weeks and see how it goes

Ok - you are only 5 weeks off the guideline of 6 months. You are not attempting something crazy and dangerous like weaning a 2 month old. You are the baby's mother and your instinct is telling you to go for it. You have given it a go (banana) and your baby wolfed it down.

Given what you've said, 21 weeks is not pushing it! If I was in your position, I would try a few more things (maybe sweet potato, or pear) and see how your DD reacts. If she seems to love it, then you know she is ready. If she struggles, then maybe wait a couple more weeks.

As an aside, I don't think any of my friends waited until exactly 26 weeks - starting off gently round about 5-6 months was common.

(By the way, don't expect it to necessarily make a difference with her sleep. My DD was sleeping pretty dreadfully at 5months, and 6 months, and 7 months, and finally slept through for the first time at 8 months.)

Good luck!

Oh - cross-posted.

Yup, I've never seen the logic between babies getting hungry about 4 or 5 months or so, and their parents thinking - oh, they need some real food. As if pureed pear, high in water, low in fat or carbohydrate, is going to fill them up! Or similarly, a teaspoon of baby rice! Milk milk milk, however, might do.

if you do baby led weaning then it's upto your baby anyway. go with it.

I would start but do strictly baby led weaning, no spoonfeeding.

This is what I did do in fact, and DS hasn't had any problems

It didn't really affect his sleeping though if I recall correctly.

Hi Crabwoman

I posted earlier today in a response to a similar query to say that I'm in the process of weaning my 5.5 month old DS because he was signalling as loudly and clearly as he could that he wanted solid food. He has taken to it like a duck to water - no gagging, hasn't rejected a single thing I've given him and, best of all he has gone from waking at 11pm, 1am, 3am, 5am and 7am to doing an 8-9 hour stretch.

Tis un miracle. Go for it I say.

Thank you for your posts!
I may give it another week or two and see how we get on, as you say it could be a growth spurt. It was my initial thought, but seeing her loving the banana made me wonder. Im not really expecting her to sleep through for good while yet weaned or otherwise, just the sudden sharp rise in demand 24 hours a day has left me exhausted and a bit dazed!
I was just wondering if it could help reduce the frequency of the feeds.

Hi Crabwoman - I think that you should trust your instincts here. As your DD passed the banana test, she's clearly not far off being ready to eat and certainly didn't suffer from the food. I'd also say listen to your health visitor and make sure that you're being fair to yourself... ebf is hard work, especially at times like this, and emotionally draining.

My DS seemed to want food at 5 months, but went off it after a week, so I waited another month and this time he went for it with gusto and didn't stop!