To wean or not to wean?

[Monkey]

I know there must be a million of these threads already, however I am still not sure what to do really.

E is just over 14 weeks but is paying very close attention to all the food we eat, she will watch it from the moment it is her view till we have finished chewing it. She will sometimes make me feel guilty about eating around her as I feel like she is so desperate for it, but I am worried she is still way too young.

I have read conflicting info on health sites and news articles about weaning at 4 months or 6 months.

What are your personal thoughts/ experiences on weaning (not baby rice) and what age did or will you start weaning your LO's?

 

[MrsR]

I would always wait until 6 months as long as baby's health isn't an issue. Babies digestive systems are just not developed enough to effectively handle food before then. Babies instinctively watch everything you do intently. It's how they learn. I weaned DD and Sebastian at 6 months.

 

[Monkey]

That's what I thought too, about their digestive system. I mainly got really confused because of a recent news article that my hubby read, it stated that babies who were weaned at around 4 months, were less likely to have allergies and issues with gluten.

Why does there always have to be conflicting information, it's not like raising a baby isn't hard enough already.

 

[Sarah13]

I agree with mrsR. Kynon watches closely too and I often have to breast feed him while we eat, it's like he wants to join in but I'll be waiting until 6 months too even though he's a very hungry boy on 2-3 hourly feeds day and night! I think a lot of allergies are due to early weaning and babies not being ready, if you think about it logically they should be sitting up and have good hand to mouth coordination.

 

[MrsR]

Where was that info? Was it a website? Could you link us if it was? X
All the things I've read and been told by hv is that babies weaned at 6 months are less likely to have allergies as their digestive system is developed enough to deal with things like gluten, wheat, nuts, shellfish etc

 

[Sassysugar]

I was going to wean last week, but chickened out. I tried a little baby rice (was so runny it was just like spoon feeding him his milk) I felt so guilty about it that I haven't done it since (not sure why I feel guilty) but I'm now going to wait until nearer 6 months. He's happy with milk although he feeds every 2-4 hours.

I would wait a bit longer as long as they're putting on weight I'm sure they're grand

 

[Monkey]

BBC News article also a Q&A link

 

[Kbex]

This sort of article annoys me so much. What are we supposed to do now? Totally opposing views. I also wish the article would focus more on whether babies are developmentally ready for solid foods before 6 months rather than making it another breast feeding debate/issue. With my first in manchester the advice was very clear- start blw at 6 months. Babies don't need anything other than milk until 12 months so you have time to do blw only. Is this article saying purées at 4 months, blw or baby rice only? The government's review will be too late for most of us. Rant aside it is good to know the information out there and at least we can all make views based on our experiences with our children rather than feeling that we might be doing something wrong of weaned early (which I would have thought till read this)!

 

[MrsR]

Very interesting article. Tbh I would still wait to wean as long as my child was able to. It just makes more sense to me to wait until a baby is able to explore food at their own pace, just like a baby explores the rest of the world (ie learns to sit in their own time, walk, crawl etc)

 

[MrsR]

By the way I'm not saying people who wean early are 'wrong' or 'harming' their babies, I personally would just choose to wait.

 

[Sassysugar]

I think it's really hard to know what to do as you want to do what's right for your baby and every baby is different at the end of the day.

 

[Squeakz]

we weaned joshua slowly at about 4.5 months. We did it because he was a very hungry baby - still is, and was obsessed with our food. We tried him on pureed stuff once and he wasnt interested and just spat it out but the second time he just devoured it. For joshuaa it was exactly what he needed and at 6 months we started him on combi BLW/TW. We went off completely what j wanted and if/when we have another he or she might be different!

We went off his cues as to how we went about it for him! I think you just need to go off your LO. Its so hard being a parent and i hate conflicting advice makes it EVEN HARDER!! grrr lol! trust your instincts as well hun, if weaning him now doesnt feel right deep down it probably isnt!

xx

 

[LucyAnn]

hi chloe is 4months and this week i have started on pureed foods. ive also been to a weaning class at the clinic today. the HV was very insistant that she believes no weaning until 6 months then straight onto finger foods skipping baby rice & puree food and even suggested they need to eat porridge with their hands wtf lol
but im following cow & gates guide which is start on puree foods approx 4 months or when the baby is hands in mouth, watching you eat etc etc they say to try pureed foods for 6-8 weeks then go on solids.

i personally was in no rush for weaning as chloe has broken feeds and i honestly thought she would wait till nearer 6 months but i see now harm following cow & gates method puree - solid as it gives her like a trasition to proper food. so far this week she has tried pureed carrot (yuk lol) & baby rice loved them both and ive ticked them off the list in my cow & gate pack - these are great packs you get money off coupons and gives you advice on how to feed and a checkliat of what to try and to try each food like 3 times to really gain an idea of if they like them or not etc

on a plus note after she eats she has a really deep nap which she never had before. its each to their own, i hate the conflicting info but for proper solids my HV said it did used to be 4 months but now is 6 months.

im only giving chloe a few teaspoons around lunchtime and will see how it goes defo couldnt imagine her eating solids at this age. The HV dont see the point of puree foods though! but i really believe every baby is different, chloe lunged towards a woman in class today who was drinking from a bottle then when the HV was showing us some 'finger food' i had to hold chloe back lol

Shes been great at eating the puree she really doesnt make a mess and opens her mouth when the spoons close shes being a diamond. Her, poo and digestion seems normal still so i think she can cope but if ever i think its too much i will certainly back down with it all shes just so activer alert can sit up alittle unaided and constantly trying to stand up when you hold her so think she builds up an apetite. xxxxx

 

[Cantstop]

Worth bearing in mind a bit that Cow and Gate want to sell you their stuff as much as possible, so of course they're going to champion a start at 4 months and going through their stages. Not saying you should not do that, but it's definitely just an option rather than the 'right way', whatever that may be. Not saying that you're saying Cow and Gate is the only way LucyAnn.

I started weaning my LO at 5 1/2 months - I wanted to do BLW and started that as soon as she was able, but she had terrible colic and after trying everything else we got advised to give her a little bit of rice to lie on her stomach to get her through the evening hours. I was dead against it but tbh it did the job so for a couple of weeks we did that before moving to BLW.

In the BLW book it suggests that since you don't make your baby do anything else before they are able, like crawl, talk etc, it is unnecessary to make them eat before they're able to do it themselves and that showing interest is natural curiousity rather than a signal that they want it themselves.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do though, it really is hard to know what's best.

 

[DW1978]

Jax is 16 weeks on Monday but I'm personally not going to try weaning him yet. He's not a huge eater anyway and only drains about a third of all of his bottles (5oz). He's not overly interested in what we eat and dh has put a few things near his mouth and he's just looked at him like he's a nutter!

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk

 

[Sassysugar]

You get different information wherever you are. In UK (Lincoln) I was told by my hv that you could start at 17 weeks, if they were able, just on purees and baby rice, (trying something new every 3 days) or if you wanted to wait until 6 months, then you give them more solid foods but rush them through it so they are not picky on foods if that makes sense.

I'm living in Denmark now and have had the hv out to see Colby. She said they recommend not doing anything until 6 months. She is coming out to see me on 21st to discuss weaning, so will be interesting to hear what she thinks I should give him, whether its to start puree then or to go straight to solids.

Part of me is thinking I want to be blw now, so just go with the flow and see what Colby wants to try each day and if he doesn't want anything that's fine too. It's so hard to know what to do as every child is different. Colby seems quite content on just milk atm so I suppose thats what makes it easier, if he was seeming really hungry then I would probably have started weaning him already.

DW, I love your profile pic

 

[Jayceesmumma]

I'd do what ur baby wants, you know best for your own child.
I fed Jaycee rice from 12weeks (as it was done back then) and she has always been a huge eater loving every kind of food goin apart from grapefruit.. Ellie had gastric reflux that flared up bad at 12w so I had to stop the rice til she was older and she's the fussiest eater I've ever known! She used to have a tiny amount of porridge for breakfast, nothing for lunch (or she wouldn't eat dinner) and a fish finger or a small amount of pasta for dinner and that's it!! She loved her milk til age of 3 I had to stop it.. Refused to eat just wanted milk the jars she would only eat the purées never had the chunky stuff she hated the texture.. She's better at eating now she's at full time school and using more energy.. I don't know if it was the late weaning that done it for sure but I believe it was.. So when lily wants food she will get it! I'll prolong it as much as I can but I'm not going to risk what happened to Ellie again! All stage one food is 4 months now (used to be 3) so surely it's not that bad? I think it's best to gradually get them on food with purées rather than throw them in at the deep end with solids.
My opinion

 

[Danti]

Personally I'll be waiting for as long as poss to start weaning as my mum had to start me on solids early and I've suffered terribly with IBS my whole life because of it.

 

[Jayceesmumma]

I had ibs develop as an adult coz of major stress anything can cause it.. Not saying ur wrong just saying its not just early weaning..

 

[Danti]

Oh I know, that's why I said personally because I know its what caused it for me and it'd be the last thing I'd want for lo, sorry if I gave the impression that it would happen to every early weaned baby :S xx