I've just found out weaning starts at 6 months, Why and when did this change?

[lucy5]

Not having been involved with weaning for some time, my dd is 4, there seems to have been a change in thinking which has passed me by. In my day, hahaha, it was 4 months although i dont know how long it had been 4 months for. Been advised that this could get heated. I dont want to start an arguement, I am just interested.

my DS is 4 and the weaning age was 4mths when he was small.....i still have all the baby books and it does state 4mths in them.....

Yes, but the Government has only just got round to giving longer paid maternity leave, which is why they've updated their recommendations to the known-for-blinking-years ones of six months that the WHO state.

And of course baby food manufacturers don't want to up their labelling to six months - that's a potential two months off their sales for every baby in the country.

never used the baby jars myself... ds was only 13 weeks when i had to go back to work... its nice to know ill get 6 months off this time though

The advice from the DOH only changed recently. I was advised to wean at 16 weeks when DS (now 2.5) was at that age. Most HVs seemed to be aware that the "not until 6 months" advice was in the pipeline. I'd just qualified as a HV then so heard all the hoo-ha about wether it was or wasn't relevant to babies in the UK etc.

I advise 6 months as do all my colleagues locally (although I can't speak for HVs elsewhere) but we sometimes have trouble persuading some parents in our area to wait beyond 12 weeks and I've one mum on my books who is giving baby rice at 9 weeks. (And yes she's had all the current advice and the whys and wherefores but beyond that it's down to her).

IME babies seem to do okay with chewing and managing lumps eventually - even if they don't get food bang on six months.

I was told 6 months when ds was born and he is 2.5 just turned!

Babies will do fine with lumps and chewing if they don't have purees from four months - I don't understand why they wouldn't!

Mind you, the Guardian ran a 'WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding to six months' headline on its front page four years ago - I remember this because DD1 was five and a half months at the time.