The great weaning debate

So I am now going through my 4th time of weaning and every time I have done it guidelines have changed, there is new advice and it seems to get more and more confusing.

Now I am a firm believer that every child is different so must be treated as individual so guidlines are just as they say guidelines.

My 1st and 2nd were weaned around 3 and half months as adviced by the doctor because they were such hungry babies and the amount of milk they were taking is ridiculous. I went down the root of starting with purees. However a lot of you will read this and think I must be a bad mother for not sticking exclusively to milk for 6 months. Both Elise and Freya are happy and healthy and will eat anything and everything given to them.

Then I have my 3rd child, my lovely Gracie. She was weaned around 6 months but it was a very difficult process. She was never a fan of her milk, I always struggled to get her to take it and she was exactly the same with her food. I decided to try BLW (baby led weaning) mixed with a bit of mashed food. To this day (she is almost 3) she is a very fussy child, picks and chooses when and if she likes something. Still the amount of people I have heard say if you wean early you will get a fussy eater, well it seems to be the opposite in my house.

Then I have Layla. I started to wean her at 17 weeks because again the amount of milk she was taking seemed to be excessive and more often than not she was sicking some up. I started with just mashing food up and now at 24 weeks she is already eating the same food we are just cut down smaller. She is also beginning to pick up food and feed herself.

I can say that all of mine have always been fed with fresh homemade foods, I know not always convinient to do for all families but I am lucky to be a SAHM and I have the time to do this.

As you can see, my children have all been different but all of them are happy and healthy, I think some children are just destined to have allergies, problems with food. I don't think this necessarily depends on when and how you wean them.

So what is everyone elses thoughts, what route have you gone down, have you done the same thing for every child?? Let me know your thoughts as I am genuinely interested.

xxxx