BF weight, curious about weaning age

[Sherlock]

Galen was weighed today, 22 weeks (4 months, 4 weeks) and he has hit 19lb. He has gone from between the 50th and 75th centile back up to the 75th again. At birth he was on the 91st centile and hugged that a fair while till around 8 weeks when he dropped down a bit. By 6 months if he keeps going like this he'll be 20lb plus.

I don't obsess about his weight gain. He is exclusively breastfed and is a very active baby. He is commando crawling and into everything. He feeds really well, sleeps through most nights from 8pm-6-7am and is such a bright happy baby.

I had planned to start weaning Galen next week due to op in November when he is 6 months old and didn't want to be contending with healing and weaning. But as he is doing so well on boobies alone I don't want to wean before 6 months unless he really seems to need it. I had my pre op and the consultant anesthetist said I need only wait 6 hours after op (and expressing them out once as best I can) before starting back up with breastfeeding, so no need to panic about that. I can express enough for a few feeds for Galen then and wean also.

He is starting to take an interest in our food but nothing major yet. Although I am sure he will be trying to grab food off us soon

What I am curious about is Mums with larger BF babies, did you make it to 6 months before weaning or start earlier? And if so why? How did it go. I now hope to do BLW fwiw. And to breastfeed past 6 months until Galen self weans or we reach a year old, whatever comes first.

 

[kelsey]

I remember when seed was born, she was 8.3 and went to the 98th centile. She started blw at nearer 7 months and lives on 91st centile now. Even now she rarely eats solids but is a good healthy weight.

Hope that helps hun xx

 

[-Kelly-]

Oliver has always been around the 75th percentile and we made it with exclusive breastfeeding until a week before he was 6 months (and he was a week overdue so I tell myself we did make it to 6 months!) We did BLW, although I think we could have made it to 6 months and beyond, Im fairly sure now that I misread the signs as he still wakes up during the night wanting feeding even though he eats plenty of solids!

 

[beanie]

Cally has bee on or above the 91st centile since a couple of weeks old and I managedto get to 6 months. It was tough st times, she feeds (still does) very regularly, and at one point was feeding every hour and a half but I was determined to get to 6 months so did.

 

[valentine]

Sorry I can't help - my DD was only 14lbs at 6 months and didn't double her birth weight (16lbs 7oz) until round about 9-10 months. We had no problem waiting til 6 months as she's never been a particularly hungry baby and was never bothered by food.

Valentine Xxx

 

[andreag]

I had my pre op and the consultant anesthetist said I need only wait 6 hours after op (and expressing them out once as best I can) before starting back up with breastfeeding, so no need to panic about that. I can express enough for a few feeds for Galen then and wean also.

I had to have an op when C was 5 months and BF wasn't a problem - I expressed for a couple of feeds but only ended up missing one as I was told I could feed as soon as I was back on the ward. The hospital were really good and gave us a prvate room so OH and Charlotte could come, and also put me first on the list to make sure I got home that night. I asked the anethetist to give me the bare minimum which he did. There were definate advantages to being a BFing mummy!

Not much help on the big baby Q - charlotte was always on the 50% line until she was weaned, but if you are doing BLW I wouldn't worry too much about when to start as they will only swallow food once they are ready. We started a couple of weeks before 6 months but it was just chewing practice really.