Does it matter if he is not on solids at 6 months?

[Sarah&Ady]

Ok.. so like the title says really. I want to do BLW... HV is positive about this (first thing ever!) However, she is banging on about baby rice ...what is this? He is 12 weeks old, weighs 15lbs. He is in the 75 percentile for weight and head measurement but in the 91st for height... she says he'll be a big lad and will probably need this baby rice. He is already watching when we eat and copies the mouth movements... so cute! So really, I just want him to reach on over when the time is right and grab a load of Daddy's dinner Do I have to give him this rice thing??? And what is it?! Cheers!

 

[lesleyann]

baby rice is like gunk to be honest nothing like BLW its more like err porridge
https://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRARs0MPJQJRr_bQKX3buTm4jMDe4lEEmmYHiyKIu2yArDl6jt1

^^ baby rice which a side of some other mush lol If your doing BLW your child will eat "adult" food and eat what he needs when he wants it

 

[Parkep]

I never gave my LO baby rice the one time i did she had horrible gas ect. I dont see the reason to give baby rice in the first place whats her reasoning?

 

[xemmax]

i personally don't see the point in baby rice and wouldn't bother if you want to do BLW. is the health visitor suggesting you give this before 6 months?

 

[Siyren]

i wouldnt say you need to do this at all.... he's waaay to young for solids imo (no offence to anyone who's weaned for medical reasons is meant here) if he's stil gaining weight then theres no need to wean.
and when he is ready to wean theres no reason you can't just go on to baby lead weaning at all.
we tried Traditional weaning first and lyssa just wasnt for it, baby rice smells foul to me lmao so i can't blame her.
i personally would wait until the time is right for your LO, im sure he'll know when he's ready
i hope that helps?

 

[Sarah&Ady]

She just said it was how I was meant to start off the whole eating thing... I dont want him to have anything I wouldnt eat.. and looking at the photo... I wouldnt eat that I am confuzzled! I think in hindsight she may have been thinking that he would be wanting to eat earlier than 6 months as he is already showing an interest so all he could have was babyrice as his system wouldnt be mature enough for anything else???

 

[Siyren]

oh i see sorry i misread-

yeah theres no reason to start off eating like that hun, just start him on some soft cooked veg from your plate when he's ready x

 

[Sarah&Ady]

Awesome. I just really want him to do it at his pace. If he is still not establsihed on solids at 8 9 10 months old then I am not going to worry. He totally loves watching us eat so I think he'll be just fine. There just seems to be this 'pressure' to have him eating the moment he turns 6 months! x

 

[xemmax]

She just said it was how I was meant to start off the whole eating thing... I dont want him to have anything I wouldnt eat.. and looking at the photo... I wouldnt eat that I am confuzzled! I think in hindsight she may have been thinking that he would be wanting to eat earlier than 6 months as he is already showing an interest so all he could have was babyrice as his system wouldnt be mature enough for anything else???

baby rice isn't any easier on their digestive system than anything else, and it's really not essential to give him anything like that. have you read baby-led weaning by gill rapley? this explains the whole weaning process really well and is well worth a read!

health visitors are all too ready to get people to wean early it seems. there is much more damage from early weaning than there is from delayed weaning so it's worth holding out as long as possible in my opinion.

babies show an interest in food very early but it isn't really a sign they're ready to start eating it. the main signs you should be looking for won't appear until later usually.

 

[Siyren]

lyssa kind of "got it"- iykwim at around 8 months. before that she's play and suck on random bits of food. but at 8 months she just got that food was for eating,
we never pressured her to drop milk
she dropped her bedtime feed herself at around the same time, and stopped bottles alltogether at 14/15 months.
so its entirely do-able hun
we now have a happy healthy 17 month old who'll eat with cutlery (she can use both a spoon and a fork correctly)

hope that gives you some more confidence? you know your baby hun, and he knows what he needs x

 

[PeaceLoveBaby]

Awesome. I just really want him to do it at his pace. If he is still not establsihed on solids at 8 9 10 months old then I am not going to worry. He totally loves watching us eat so I think he'll be just fine. There just seems to be this 'pressure' to have him eating the moment he turns 6 months! x

Exactly this! Just do as you feel is right and follow his lead. Hence the name BLW

He'll be just fine!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Unless there is a medical condition like reflux that means solids earlier than 6 months maybe helpful, it is fine just to wait until 6 months then do BLW.
Ruby was 21lb by 6 months and even then didn't eat anything until 7.5 months.
Their milk intake often slows down at 6 months as their growth tends to slow.

If your LO is a big lad then presumably he needs real food not ground up white rice which has virtually no calories.

 

[binxyboo]

Daniels first experience of solid food was a stick of steamed carrot at 6 months and 1 day old!
He never had baby rice.

 

[Hannah's Mom]

We didn't bother with baby rice, we did BLWing with Lil from when she was about 7 months - tbh I think it's daft when HVs say well s/he's a big baby so needs solids sooner Lily was and still is 91st centile for weight and 99th for height and was only interested in milk until then x x x

 

[Sarah&Ady]

lyssa kind of "got it"- iykwim at around 8 months. before that she's play and suck on random bits of food. but at 8 months she just got that food was for eating,
we never pressured her to drop milk
she dropped her bedtime feed herself at around the same time, and stopped bottles alltogether at 14/15 months.
so its entirely do-able hun
we now have a happy healthy 17 month old who'll eat with cutlery (she can use both a spoon and a fork correctly)

hope that gives you some more confidence? you know your baby hun, and he knows what he needs x

This is excatly how we want it to be Thank you everyone for your great replies... Much welcomed advice!

 

[Sarah&Ady]

have you read baby-led weaning by gill rapley? this explains the whole weaning process really well and is well worth a read!

health visitors are all too ready to get people to wean early it seems. there is much more damage from early weaning than there is from delayed weaning so it's worth holding out as long as possible in my opinion.

babies show an interest in food very early but it isn't really a sign they're ready to start eating it. the main signs you should be looking for won't appear until later usually.

I will get that book, thanks I dont get why the HV are so keen. Is there some different advice they follow? I cant see how it would make my life or theirs easier if I were to start earlier... he did have bad reflux but that has tailed off since having osteopthy. So it cant be that

 

[xemmax]

have you read baby-led weaning by gill rapley? this explains the whole weaning process really well and is well worth a read!

health visitors are all too ready to get people to wean early it seems. there is much more damage from early weaning than there is from delayed weaning so it's worth holding out as long as possible in my opinion.

babies show an interest in food very early but it isn't really a sign they're ready to start eating it. the main signs you should be looking for won't appear until later usually.

I will get that book, thanks I dont get why the HV are so keen. Is there some different advice they follow? I cant see how it would make my life or theirs easier if I were to start earlier... he did have bad reflux but that has tailed off since having osteopthy. So it cant be that

god knows! to be honest i haven't seen our HV since oliver was about 2 months i think. she moved the baby clinic and nobody told us so she can't be too concerned about him!

i think it's just an oldschool way of thinking. it's like a huge rush to wean babies and i really don't know why, it just does more harm than good! it's so much easier when they're just on milk too!

 

[Vinushka]

Funny, my Vin is a little baby and stopped putting on weight at 4 months and dropped from 40th to 20th centiles. The HV's advice? Baby rice...

 

[LesleyP]

health visitors are all too ready to get people to wean early it seems. there is much more damage from early weaning than there is from delayed weaning so it's worth holding out as long as possible in my opinion.

babies show an interest in food very early but it isn't really a sign they're ready to start eating it. the main signs you should be looking for won't appear until later usually.

This

 

[aliss]

Lol hun, mine is 96 % percentile for weight and I still waited 6 months, he was fine! We did BLW

Trust me, big hungry babies survived for millions of years before Gerber invented this powder called baby rice. Agriculture is still fairly new.