When r babies really ready for weaning ???

[NIfirsttimer]

ruby shows no signs of readiness yet & still loves her milk.. our plan is to wait until 6m+ and BLW.... but my hv informed me last week that the guidlines are set to change again to 'between 4 & 6 months' its all very confusing, i think the best bet is tog o by your own baby as they are all different!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

ruby shows no signs of readiness yet & still loves her milk.. our plan is to wait until 6m+ and BLW.... but my hv informed me last week that the guidlines are set to change again to 'between 4 & 6 months' its all very confusing, i think the best bet is tog o by your own baby as they are all different!

That's very odd about the guidelines changing. I've heard elsewhere that babies digestive systems are not always even ready at 6 months.

My baby is 28 weeks and certainly doesn't 'need' solids yet

 

[NIfirsttimer]

yep i agree! i guess its maybe just an attempt to acknowledge that all babies are different?? i think they would be better with an official line like 'from whenever your baby is ready for it'! i think its because most people go the puree route and therefore assume their baby is 'ready' becasue they can tke the puree (not suggesting that everyone does it too early - not trying to start anything lol) ... whereas the BLW route is much more of an indicator that the baby is 'ready' as they are either physicaly able to do it, or not!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

yep i agree! i guess its maybe just an attempt to acknowledge that all babies are different?? i think they would be better with an official line like 'from whenever your baby is ready for it'! i think its because most people go the puree route and therefore assume their baby is 'ready' becasue they can tke the puree (not suggesting that everyone does it too early - not trying to start anything lol) ... whereas the BLW route is much more of an indicator that the baby is 'ready' as they are either physicaly able to do it, or not!

Exactly. Maybe they would be better off changing to 'from 4-9 months'!
I don't see Ruby swallowing much more than little bits of solids for quite a while yet...at least when you know the theory behind BLW you know not to worry if they don't eat!

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Have always wondered about the sitting up unaided bit! As I know some babies can't sit up unaided till they are say 8 months. Does it mean sitting on the floor unaided... or just being able to hold themselves well in say a highchair?

Just wondered on the theory behind this.

Not weaning my little one yet... but in the next month we will be starting. Can't believe in a month he will be 6 month

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I counted sitting up unaided when Ruby sat on my lap unaided, i.e without me holding her, at 4.5 months. She now sits on the floor unaided at 6.5 months. But she doesn't sit well in a highchair for some reason...

 

[Foogirl]

Ruby LOVES watching me straighten my hair that doesn't mean i'm going to do hers! lol

So true!

 

[angelstardust]

I started weaning the boys when they started to demand more and more milk, but were throwing it up because they were drinking too much. However, that was when the guidelines said 4 months and they were weaned about 15 weeks on advice from their consultant (early babies).

Amber is starting to show signs of guzzling milk but not being satisfied by it, but she still has the tongue thrust reflex, so I'll wait. She has had a bit of a dodgy tummy recently so it could just be the re-fuelling from that.

I disagree with following every guideline to the letter, and that is all I'll say on the subject.

However, I have some nice veg in the fridge and will probably puree it up to go in the freezer if I get time later. Build up a freezer stash.

 

[Kitten]

See, I was told waking in the night and doubled birth weight, but he doubled his birth weight by 13weeks and there was no way I was weaning then!! He's still gaining about 6oz a week but he's upped his breastfeeding considerably to achieve that and is waking loads in the night but I'm determined to hold out til 6months. I told the hv I'd only consider early weaning if he started losing weight but that's not going to even be an issue now as I'm not getting him weighed again until he's 6months now. I asked if there was any harm in waiting despite him showing 'the signs' (he's a devil for snatching at food and trying to drink from my mugs and has learnt to come off the breast when he's full and fall asleep in my arms instead of comfort sucking or feeding to sleep as well as the birth weight thing) and she said not at all. The only issue is really my sanity as he's acting like he's on a constant growth spurt in terms of feeding and sleeping behaviour and as he won't take a bottle of EBM it's very difficult for me but it's only another 7 weeks so I'd rather err on the side of caution as I have allergies and stuff.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

The waking in the night, doubling birth weight etc are now discredited as signs of needing to be weaned. But most HVs don't seem to have been updated on this, nor about the fact breastmilk or formula contain more calories than solids, so early weaning is no good for weight gain. Ruby tripled her birth weight before starting BLW lol

 

[mumtosam]

I was told that weaning my LO would make him start sleeping through the night. I ignored this and waited until he was 6 months old to start weaning. We have been trying solids for about 2 weeks now but he is just not interested. He also slept through the night for the first time last night and he hadn't had any solids yesterday so I think its rubbish that solids will always make a baby sleep through the night!!

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

mumtosam: I agree with the solids making them sleep thru being rubbish to. Everyone told me to start my little one...baby rice is a miracle cure to everything don't you know *rolls eyes*

anyway we waited, and he has started sleeping thru a couple tiems a week now. they do it when they are ready I beleive

 

[mumtosam]

Yes I totally agree with them sleeping through when they are ready. I think it probably also helped that he is finally in his own room now!! Sam hates baby rice!

 

[cherrished]

what is BLW ? ? ? and what is the tongue reflex thing ??? sorry to be dumb x

 

[angelstardust]

Baby Led Weaning, rather fancy way of saying 'let baby deicide when they want food and what they want'. Tbh, I don't know, in 4 years since I had DS2 there is more and more overcomplicated parenting ideas to wade through.

Tongue thrust reflex, the way the tongue will push out anything except liquids when the baby is young. If you were to try feeding them before this has stopped, they will just push out the food. You can test it by putting a spoon in their mouth, if it gets pushed back out, they still have the TTR and there is no point weaning yet.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Actually baby led weaning is not complicated at all...in fact far more simple than traditional weaning IMO. No pureeing, no worrying how to spot whether LO is ready or not. just offer your baby normal food at 6 months, there's only a few foods you have to avoid, and when they are ready to eat, they will feed themselves.

 

[mumtosam]

Actually baby led weaning is not complicated at all...in fact far more simple than traditional weaning IMO. No pureeing, no worrying how to spot whether LO is ready or not. just offer your baby normal food at 6 months, there's only a few foods you have to avoid, and when they are ready to eat, they will feed themselves.

I totally agree with this. I started off trying to spoon feed Sam purees and he just pushed the spoon away and clamped his mouth shut! He is much more interested in feeding himself. Some days he eats, others he just plays with the food I offer him but it is so much easier.

 

[angelstardust]

I just don't get BLW, how is it different? I don't mean to be offensive but I just don't see how it is different from the weaning I did 8 and 4 years ago. I just see it as putting a name on something that most parents would do without thinking about it too much.

We used purees (actually it was just veg squished with a fork in my case) then squished it less and less. The boys were taking finger foods about 4 or 5 weeks after beginning weaning, really when they were onto 3 meals a day they would have something that they could feed themselves.

Think I'll just stay in the dark ages, I'm happy here.

 

[kirsten1985]

Pure BLW isn't just about the baby eating finger foods, it is the principal that you don't put ANY food into their mouths at all, no spoon feeding, no 'top ups', you just offer food and if they want it they eat it. You don't feed them yourself at all.

A lot of people think it is the same as feeding purees and then giving finger foods as well, but it isn't. The idea is that they get confident at feeding themselves and don't see mealtimes as a battle at the same time not seeing food as something they get praised/punished for eating/not eating etc etc.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

BLW is not new, either - people have been doing it for years, it's only relatively recently it's had a name given to it!