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to wean or not to wean!

babypiebabypie
in Baby
this is my dilema! My son is now 20 weeks and weighs 17lb 6, he was 9lb 5 1/2 at birth. He is exclusively breast fed and has been doing great. I am now thinking about getting on with weaning but i am very aware that they recommend 6 months now for weaning and this would mean waiting another 6 weeks. I have one voice in my head telling me he is ready now and to get on with it but another telling me to wait and i'm torn between the 2. He has been showing all the signs for months now and appears to be getting "bored" of milk, He is less interested in sitting feeding and wants to get on with things. He is still feeding once in the night which i don't mind but is becoming restless too, he will go back to sleep without feeding but will waken a wee while later again.I just don't know waht to do. I f i wait till he is 6 months this is gonna be a bad time to start as my dad is going in for a major operation and it will mean disrupting our routine to visit him a couple of times as he will be in hospital 4 hours from home. I would rather weaning was started before this. My elder son is 7 and he weaned at 14 weeks but that was when they recommended weaning at 4 months so he was only a couple of weeks early for that.
I think all in all i am pleased to of reached 20 weeks with a big baby and he's had nothing but my milkl but is now the time to move on? Sorry for rambling on just wondering what other opinions are.

Replies

  • WoWbabiesWoWbabies
    hi i acn't really tell u whther now is the right time or not, only u know what is best for ur baby, and when ur baby is ready, if ur ds is showing the signs ( which include watching when u eat, sitting well with support, wanting to feed more often, double birth weight, good hand/eye coordination, putting things in mouth alot) then it wld seem he is ready, but ultimately the decision is urs xx
  • TheHistoryGirl1TheHistoryGirl1
    Peter weighed exactly the same at birth as your son! I badly wanted to do baby-led weaning with him, so we held out until 24 weeks when I started offering him steamed veg and soft fruit to play with. He thoroughly enjoyed himself and, at six months, went full steam ahead for all foods offered him. It was messy, but great fun.

    Could you try sitting your son in a high chair and meals and offering him something like fruit to play with and see how he reacts? He may just throw it about which would at least tell you how ready he is for weaning.

    As a rule I think the closer you can get to six months the better, but every baby is different and your family situation clearly complicates matters.

    I hope your dad's operation is successful and he makes a swift recovery.
  • nikkiandneilnikkiandneil
    Apparently - they are thinking of changing the guidlines - to say that it is best to wean whenever your baby is ready, which will probably be at some point between 17 and 26 weeks, and that if you want to wean out side of the 17-26 window then talk to your gp/hv first.

    Apparently it's because if you delay weaning, then your baby will just lose interest, and might not take to the spoon when the time does come. I know this has happened to a few ladies on here!

    Just wanted to mention this, because I didn't want you to delay weaning, have a horrid 6 weeks, and then a difficult time weaning, only for them to change the 'rules' on you!

    BTW - I have no idea if the guidlines will change, or not. But there was an article in the BMJ avout it not long ago, and it all seems to make sense.

    Also - if your baby is not ready, they wont swallow the food - it will just get spat out! So it wont do any harm any way! (well your carpet might suffer!)

    Hope that helps.
    Nx
  • babypiebabypie
    he already sits great in his high chair at our meal times and plays with his toys and tries to grab my food. He had his hand in my oatibix the other day and gradded my toast off me. He puts everything he picks up in his mouth. He's already used to a spoon as he is on gaviscon for his reflux and has this off a spoon 5 times a day no bother.
  • Baby_BBaby_B
    My HV says in our area the team always say between 4-6 months as they think it's wrong to force babies to wait until 6 months if they are ready earlier - and she said from her experience most are. She said the only time she would really recommend waiting until 6 months is if you have loads of allergies in your family.

    I'd say that if you think he's ready give it a try. You can always go really slow to start with. We started at 23 weeks. I actually don't think Beth was ready as it's only been the last week that she has been sitting herself, really putting things straight to mouth and absolutely mesmerised by us eating and trying to grab at food. But she has reflux and her milk intake has always been really low so my GP and HV had been telling us to start for ages to see if she'd be better on solids (which she is! She loves it! Will quite often just drink 3oz of milk but then scoff 5 cubes of veg straight after!)

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