The great weaning debate?

Question

I have a 17 week old son who, as yet, isn't weaned, nor any immediate plans to do so - he just doesn't show any of 'the signs'. However, without passing any judgements, I'd be really interested to know...
When did you wean your baby
Why did you wean them when you did?
What foods did you first try them on?
How was it?
I know there can be a great deal of conflicting views with regards to this issue - so I'd be really interested to hear REAL peoples views (not magazines, books, health professionals etc)

When I talk of weaning - I don't mean stopping breast milk, I just mean introducing solids as well

Answer 1

My kids were all different. My twins were born prematurly and couldn't latch on so I pumped exclusively and by 4 months I was supplementing more formula than giving milk so I stopped but they weren't ready for solids until 5-6 months. With my first son, I began trying to give him cereal at 4 months but he didn't lose the reflex to push it out of his mouth until 6 months. I weaned him at 13 months because it was just time. He was eating and drinking plenty by himself with out any problems and only nursed to go to sleep at night for comfort so I just began cuddling with him instead and had no problems with it. My baby right now is 6 months and he started eating rice cereal at 4 months. I always waited for the baby to signal that they were ready - taking great interest watching you eat, trying to grab your food, smacking while you eat, and I waited until they stopped pushing it out of their mouths. Just watch when you put food in his mouth to see if his tongue pushes it forward or draws it back. I don't mean they swallow every bit and don't make a mess. I started with rice, then oat, then barley, then mixed cereal. I used each one one time a day for three days each to make sure of no allergies. Then I started giving cereal in the mornings and tried one at a time peas, green beans, carrots, squash, potatoes and other veggies at dinner. Then one at a time began mixing different fruits in their cereal in the morning. I started giving juice and water sippies at about 7-8 months. By 10 months I began feeding three meals a day of things like spaghetti and 3rd foods and started giving finger foods like crackers, cheerios, biter biscuits, etc. At 11 months I began slowly introducing whole milk and by 12 months they had three meals, 2 snacks, one sippy of diluted juice, 3 sippies of whole milk, and several sippies of water so they had no nutritional reason to continue nursing or taking a bottle. Hope this helps some but all babies and all mommies are different. What works with some may not work with others so follow your baby's signals.

Answer 2

Good question. I have 3 kids, the youngest of which is 6 months and who I am still nursing. I actually breastfed my oldest (daughter) who is now 7, for 19 months! (I know some might say this is crazy.) I went back to work when she was 12 weeks and for me, nursing was a way to be able to reconnect with her after a long day at work and to keep that bond. The problem was I had no idea how to wean even though I was personally ready at about 12 months. Around that time, we were planning a trip to Spain and I decided it was easier to keep nursing than to worry about bottles, milk, etc on the trip. After the trip, (she was 15 months by then), I wanted to stop but when I would tell her "all gone" she would point to my shirt and say "not all gone". Well, what finally helped me wean was that a few months later I found out I was pregnant. I needed to have my body back to myself for a few months before the next baby came along, so I stopped. The night feeding was the most difficult and I would literaly just have to hold her while she cried and asked for milk. But it only took a few nights (although it felt like an eternity at the time.)

My son was a totally different story. I weaned at 8 months. When I went back to work (again at 12 weeks), my schedule was more demanding and I wasn't able to pump regularly which lessened my supply. At the same time he was getting bigger and more hungry so I started supplementing with formula. Eventually, he started to prefer the formula to nursing and weaning just happened because my supply just went away.

Sorry for the long answer - here are my bottom line tips: You need to wean when you and/or the baby is ready;
around 4 months, all my kids have started on rice cereal (mixed with breast milk - at first it should be sort of soupy and you can make it thicker as they get used to eating from a spoon) and they enjoyed it. As they try more foods they will want to nurse/drink formula less often. After rice cereal, I've introduced fruits - one new fruit every 4 days to make sure they don't have any allergies, then veggies.)

Answer 3

My first weaned himself at about 11 months, but I introduced cereals at 6 months. By the time he stopped nursing he was eating pretty much anything we ate.

My second was weaned to formula by three months. I was working, and pumping at work, freezing and storing, all that was just too difficult. She, too, got cereal and fruits at 6 months.

My third wouldn't (couldn't?) nurse. Since I firmly believed that breast is best, I tried at every feeding, then went and got a bottle of breast milk when he couldn't latch on. After 6 weeks, I decided that my beliefs had to take a back seat to my sanity and switched to formula. No solids until 6 months.

My kids are grown up now, and none of them have any problems with overweight. They are slender, healthy young adults. None has any food allergies. Now, their ancestors were not prone to overweight or allergies, either, so draw your own conclusions.

As to how it went, the first broke my heart! He didn't want my milk anymore! Whaaaa! To be honest, I don't remember much about the other two. Often, as they grow, we realize that some of the things we worried so much about when they were little were not the things we should have been watching after all. The decision about exactly what age to wean seems to be one of those, in retrospect. Introducing solids is more important, in that too early introduction can trigger lifelong allergies. In the end, how we love and teach them is so much more important than any of those things, though.
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Answer 4

Congratulations for breastfeeding- it is truly a wonderful experience. Weaning might not be the best term for your situation right now, simply because you wouldn't be. Weaning is taking your baby off breastmilk slowly, but completely and replacing his meals with solids. You don't necessarily omit breastmilk, but just add solids. Sometimes, your supply may decrease because of the suppliment, but there is no cause for alarm- nursing babies change their needs very often. Where there is demand, there will be supply.
The best time to introduce solids- meaning baby food, or rice cereal (rice because it is an easier carb for an infant to digest) is when your baby can take a spoonful and not push it back out with his tongue. That action is actually a reflex all babies have, and gradually lose as they get older. The reflex is involuntary and begins in utero~ sucking of thumbs, and eventually nursing after birth.
I would not anticipate your baby wanting anything more than breastmilk at such a young age. Starting slowly between ages 4-6 months is a good plan.
Remember though, there is no definative rule that babies need to start solids at any particular time. Whatever works for you and your baby is what is important. Some babies nurse exclusively up to as much as 15 months.

{my personal experience with my 3 girls- I nursed them (age 4) 11 months, (age 2)13 months and (5 months) presently nursing with babyfood ~respectively~. Each one started solids between 4-6 months and it was either baby food- like Gerber 1st foods and rice cereal. We went very slow and the transition was good for all of them.}
All my best!

Answer 5

I'm not totally sure of which "weaning" process your speaking of - though i am going to assume from milk to solids. If this is the case your not weaning as milk/formula is still a very important part - the main part of their diet, rather introducing solids. There is a lot of debate because every child is different. Looking in the text books i do believe they say six months before you start your infant on solid foods. I have always went with my individual child. Some ways to know when your infant is ready for solids is sleep and eating patterns. My oldest son started on rice cereal at 3months of age - Prior to that he went from sleeping approx 8 hours to 6 hours to 4 hours down to 2 hours and eating a 6-8 oz bottle at each of these intervals. The formula was not keeping him full and so cereal was introduced through his bottle in order to give him something to sleep on. On the other hand - My youngest, one and only daughtor - I tried her on cereals at the 5 month mark as she was drinking 56 oz - no word of a lie - 56 ounces within a 24 hour period and the Dr said we've got to do something. But as an infant she didn't start pooping regularly until she was 2 months of age as she felt it was a dirty job and didn't go till her body couldn't hold it anymore. Anyways - when she got up to 56 oz a day we decided we had no choice but to introduce solids and we worked on the "7 day rule" and it did not matter which cereal, stopped that and went right into fruits (they say start veggies first) anyways... it did not matter what we fed her she was constipated and in pain. So to make a long story short, each child is different, my oldeest at 3 months was ready - my daughtor wasn't ready till she was a year old. My advice to you is sleeping patterns. At 4 months old his sleeping patterns (may or may not be - but on average) should be worked out. If not by actual times, you know whether he sleeps a solid four or a solid six or a solid eight hours, your mom, you know. You also know what he is taking in to sleep for this length of time. Once that stops and he seems not to be getting full then introduce the cereals - Rice is the least likely to cause an allergic reaction - UNLESS parents have wheat allergies! On the other hand, the earlier you start the solids the less likely a child is to react (allergies) so you could start "playing" with a teaspoon of pablum a day to introduce the spoon and texture of it all. As a full time mother of 4 my favourite saying is "your mom, you know best"! I don't care if your a mother of 1 child or a mother of 10 children - each mother/child relationship is all about bonding and MOM knows her child BEST! Good Luck!

Answer 6

I weaned my kids respectively off breast milk at 10 months and 5 months of age. I did because I felt like it. It was easy, as my kids already took bottles because I pumped exclusively for them both.

Yeah, I imported 100% pure Himalayan yak milk from some monks to feed my babies...C'mon, obviously, the only thing you can feed an infant is formula and some baby food once they are 4 months or so.

I think if people like Mom2Bingo ran the world, all women would be forced to breastfeed for 6 years. There would be breast polizei (BP) in the streets outside new parents flats ensuring her laws were meted, and followed through.

Penalty would probably be forfeiture of the infant and imprisionment for 3-7 years. Working on a sustainable goats milk farm, milking goats and taking mandatory classes on breastfeedery.

Answer 7

Why are you considering weaning already? Breast-feeding is the best thing you can do for your baby. You should continue as long as possible without medical complications. Even if you have to be away from him, you should still breast-feed him when you are with him. Nature is a wonderful thing and your body will adjust. I breast-fed my daughter until she was 17 months old. Although I returned to work prior to that, I still breast-fed when I was at home. Believe it or not, your body will adjust to whatever schedule you have. It's amazing. And, when you start supplementing with some soft solids, please don't make the typical American mistake of french fries, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. We are the ones who turn our children into carbohydrate junkies. I hate the answer about the inside of the fries and mashed potatoes. How about some veggies and fruit. Eating habits are established very early on and it is our responsiblity to our children to see that thery have healthy habits. Good Luck!!

Answer 8

I weaned my first off of me when she was 3 months old. I had no choice, I dried up on one side and didn't have enough to feed her with the other. The first food I gave her other than cereal was the soft potato inside the french fries from McDonald's. She loved it. With my second child, she weaned herself when she was 1 month old. She had to be on 22 cal. formula as well as breast milk but found she either liked the bottle better or the formula over breast milk. Again I tried the cereal first and then anything that was mushy, like mashed potatoes. She loved that as well. I do wish that I could have nursed longer but I had no choice but to stop.

Answer 9

I have two daughters, now ages 3 years and 22 months.

With my older daughter, I started her on rice cereal shortly after 4 months at the advice of my pediatrician. (I was hoping it would help her sleep better at night, but no such luck! :-P) Anyway, she *loved* solids almost right from the beginning. I only offered one "meal" per day of 1-2 oz. at first. After the cereal, we moved on to veggies, then fruits, and even if she didn't like something the first time we tried it, she was usually happier to eat it by the 2nd or 3rd day. We never forced her to eat, just offered. We started a 2nd meal around 8 months and offered 3 solid meals a day around 10 months. By a year, she was also eating solids for a couple snacks and still nursing 6-8 times per day. I partially weaned her to 2 nursing sessions per day at a year, and she weaned completely after a biting incident when she was 14.5 months old and I was pregnant with her sister.

I started my younger daughter on solids at 5 months old, and she was not thrilled with them at all. In fact, she ate a bare minimum of solids per day until she was close to a year old, and she *never* liked baby food, only table foods. She still breastfeeds 4-8 times per day.