Weaning

[bednobs]

hello abers! I am thinking about weaning my daughter who is now 20 weeks old.The advice from the HV is to not wean them before 17 weeks and between 17-26 weeks only use baby rice and vegetables. However, she can't tell me whether i have to adjust Phoebe's age as she was born 10 weeks early (ie add 10 weeks onto everything) I have been to the library an consulted annabel karmel who i gather is the jamie oliver of babies. Not all that helpful as in one of her books she states prem babies need even more nutrition, so it's important to wean them on time, the in another book states you shouldn't do it till 17 weeks after their due date!
So anyone have any advice? and secondly if i did it too early what could happen to her? Super vom? super poo? or am i damaging her digestive system for life?>?

[Brinjal]

Has she picked up in size and weight. If she is nice and strong and hungry I would start giving her little tastes of solids. It can't hurt her.

[bednobs]

thanks, it's the "it can't hurt her" bit i was worried about

[ummmm]

When mine were little it was the done thing to wean from 3 months. Started my daughter (now 20) on solids at about 2.5 months. Just a few spoons, she loved it.

I would treat her age from the day she was born, not the date she was due.

[firewatch]

http://www.marchofdim...premature_howold.html might be of use also theres a baby page on facebook called faith for faith - she was born premature and they have just started her on light solids so might be able to helpx

[PringlesQueen]

There is some useful advice in this article from NetMums bednobs http://www.netmums.co...he-right-time-to-wean

[bednobs]

thanks everyone. I am about as confused as i was previously!

[Smowball]

Grandaughter is 4 months old - was born 3 weeks early. This week she was started on few mouthfuls of mashed banana, or few spoons from baby jar of porridge /rice pudding and she wolfed it down. no side effects.

[Smowball]

In other words, yes you can start her - she will be fine. You treat her age from when she was born, not due date. So she is definitely ready for it.

[ummmm]

Bednobs - the point I was trying to make is we weaned the kids early. No harm has come to them. They changed the rules since then...

Try her on some solids. I would. You won't harm her x

[annie0000]

I agree with Ummm - they keep changing the goalposts but as long as you aren't blending up a roast dinner then a few tastes of blended carrot or apple mixed with her milk would be good to try - baby rice has no nutritional value I think but you can use it to bulk up purées etc. Just take it slow and see how she does :) and when you get going with making her food, remember there is nothing wrong with tinned fruit in fruit juice - it blends nicely and you can make up ice cube trays of it to add to her morning porridge.

[daffy654]

Weaning should be done at 5-6 months according to the site that firewatch linked to.
I would have said do it when you feel she is ready. My son (not premature) was solely breast fed until past 6 months and he came to no harm because of it, in fact he is 6ft tall at age 15 and very healthy.

[annie0000]

I think that the guidelines are really confusing now - this article is saying that for breast fed babies, 6 months could be too late.

http://news.sky.com/s...than-just-breast-milk

[EvianBaby]

Is Pheobe the first prem baby your HV has ever come across? Seems odd that a professional appears not to have a clue. Enjoy the new poo!

[bednobs]

the hv said "some pediatricians say 17 weeks adjusted and some say 17 weeks from birth"

[firewatch]

our little one was weened at 4 months but she was A VERY hungry baby!

[MissCommando]

We weaned our daughter at 16 weeks, as she wasn't fantastic at drinking much milk. She was brill when she 1st had solids.

It's so hard when you're a first time mum (like you say regarding conflicting advice) but I honestly wouldn't hesitate about weaning at the age again if I was ever to have another baby. Years ago, babies were weaned much earlier than that.

No advice with a prem baby but maybe wait just a couple more weeks? Good luck. Remember to take some pics of her. We filmed our daughter eating her 1st solids.

[bednobs]

well i gave it a go and she was very equivocal about it, so might try again in a few days or weeks