I have a friend who's baby is 15 weeks & she put on fb about her daughter waking up 3 times in the night & about maybe trying baby rice to help her sleep. I thought she was being sarcastic but everyone else has posted saying that's what they did. I did post about the 4 month sleep regression & how weaning a baby onto solids doesn't help sleeping. Another friend who's son was born the beginning of August (so can only be 10 or 11 weeks) was saying that she was thinking of starting her son on it too as she'd heard it doesn't do any harm (she also had him sleeping downstairs from birth as he was keeping her awake). I've tried to find a good article to explain why it's not a good idea but can't find 1 from a source that would be credible to everyone (like the NHS). Can anyone help me with this so I don't come across as 1 of those mums who quote guidelines!!

Thanks

Sorry can't help on the article but would love to know where they get the idea that it will make them sleep through the night from?! On the advice of my GP I have started weaning F who is five months and for all he takes there is no way it could make any difference in fact carrot gave him such bad wind he was up half the night!

Theres a bounty guide which talks about the risks of weaning too early, not sure how good it is though:

www.bounty.com/.../when-to-wean

Or there's this Nhs one that says that weaning early will not help with sleep and that it's normal for babies 3-5 months to wake more

www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk/.../babies,weaning

All I can find is this:

www.nhs.uk/.../babies-introducing-solid-food.aspx

On the advice of my health visitor  i started weaning W at 17weeks. And although some would argue that it's not right and shouldn't be done, it's working for us. W was sleeping fine, but never seemed satisfied after a feed and would regularly scream at me when his 8 ounces bottle was finished. I think it's silly to try and stuff your baby at night so that they sleep though. It's not always hunger that wakes them.

I'd just link to the NHS page as posted above, I suspect that anything else wouldn't be seen as credible. I would be prepared for it to fall on deaf ears though, they sound like the kind of people who see guidelines as a grand conspiracy. RKB, yours is a different situation to me as W was 17 weeks so the minimum age and it was under medical advice.

I saved the cloudy/sunny Baby Mood Chart to my Pinterest board. Week 15 > 19 is known growth spurt territory which can be why babies are more unsettled and hungry than usual. www.pinterest.com/.../132574782753002069

I did wean my first two earlier than today's guidelines, but that was based on the advice given back then.

Thanks ladies, I'm glad I didn't open an early weaning can of worms. It just worries me when people say they're going to wean so early (around 12 weeks for 1 friend by the sound of it) just because they want to!

Sadly, this doesn't surprise me as I've overheard a friend of SIL talking about weaning her 9 week old because she knows him best than some scientist.

An old school friend posted pics if her 8wk old having baby rice, along with another pic captioned "mmm, she liked that hot chocolate" complete with hot choc filled bottle!! We weaned earlier on recommendation but nowhere near this early!!