weaning premature baby - when?

[bewilderbeast]

I seem to be in a continual fight with my family about when to wean ds who was 6 weeks premature and is now 25 weeks old. Everyone else is calling me a mean mummy because I will not give ds solids, I am of the opinion that he shouldn't be given solids until he is at least 7.5 months old ie 6 months if he had been born at term. Maybe I should have put this in am I being unreasonable. Am I right, are they right, is no-one right. If anyone has been in the same position what did you do? My health visitor is useless so it's no point asking her. thanks!

[BizzyDint]

i would err on the side of caution if i were in your position too. i personally go by when a baby is capable of feeding themself. i believe when they can sit up stable, pick up food, chew it and swallow it then it's ok.

[gemmiegoatlegs]

my niece was premature (12 weeks) and her mum was encouraged to wean her at 5 months, as they reckoned she needed more nutrients than the milk would provide. She is now past a year old, eats well and has caught up with all her skills. But if it were me , I would not wean until I thought MY baby was ready. If you and ds are fine on the milk, stick with it.

[bewilderbeast]

bump for evening crowd

[Sterny]

Go to bliss.org.uk and click on the publications link. They have a booklet called 'weaning your premature baby' you can download for free. The message board is also ace for all prem questions. Hope that helps.

[ska]

my dd was early but on by 4 weeks. i was told to add 4 weeks to her actual age when working out how 'old' she was for stuff like that eg developmental stuff. Does that help?

[margoandjerry]

well I don't know but I was told they spend the last four weeks in utero building up their iron stores. If they miss out on these four weeks as mine did, their iron will start to deplete slightly early? Anyway, I am weaning at 6 months actual age which is 5 months developmentally. I don't know if this is what I should be doing but seems ok so far.

[kathryn77]

I do not have a premature baby but a few people at the baby group do and they were told by drs/hvs to wean at 4ish months. not sure why though so perhaps ask your hv?

[bewilderbeast]

Sterny thank you so much for that link it appears that I may owe my family an apology

[Lysettes]

don't know if you ahve looked on the bliss site but ds was born 8 weeks early and we were advised by bliss to wean at actual 6 months at the earliest, and not to go on corrected age.

but you do need to do it when you think they are ready - esp if you want to do BLW.

hope it's all worked out ok