Give Peas a Chance
Moving onto solids – a decision made more difficult through parents having to wade through the controversy, myth, conflicting information, and out of date advice.
In America, weaning usually means stopping breast milk or formula – in the UK it means starting solid food, which is how I am using the 
term throughout this article.
X and I recently went to a talk from our children’s nurse on weaning. Among other things we were told that weaning may help your baby sleep through the night – specifically that not sleeping through the night may be indicative of the need to be weaned.
One parent of a 17 week old baby asked whether, as her baby was looking around when drinking her expressed breast milk, could she be unsatisfied by the milk and need weaning? She was very reluctant to wean so early, but worried about her baby. The nurse commented that, yes, weaning could be worth a try. From my experience and reading, the baby is more likely to have become more alert and interested in her surroundings. The message seemed to be that it would be OK to wean at 17 weeks.
The government guidelines used to suggest we wean at 3 months, then 4. Now the guideline is exclusive breast feeding for the first 6 months. Whether breast or formula feeding, the guidance is that babies should not be weaned onto solids until they are 6 months old. If weaning earlier, babies should not be given solids until at least 20 weeks.
Why is this? As parents we were probably weaned earlier than this and we survived! So what is the fuss about?