I wasn't able to breast feed my dd. by 3 mths she was on 9 x 9oz bottles a day and still would have taken more. She would have burst if I had given her more liquid bless her. She weaned on ground rice made with formular milk very easily and was on mashed vegetables with a little meat and mashed fruits by 6 months. She was a happy child after a long battle with wind when she was on milk alone she settled down and was sleeping through the night and more contented than she has been prior to weaning. She has grown into a healthy woman with no dietary problem and enjoys eating a wide variety of foods.
I breast fed my son until he was 6 months old, by which time I was exhausted and as he was also eating well by this time he transferred to drinking milk from a cup and we have again never looked back.
Interestingly, 19 years on I really can't see the difference that breast feeding my son for so long has made, compared to his older sister never having been breast fed and being given only formular!!
Neither of my children had any antibiotics until they were over 2yrs old and thought they both have had them in 19 years I can count the times between them on the fingers of one hand. I have had 2yr old mindees who have has antibiotics more often than that
they seem to be given them at the slightest hint of any illness at the moment.
Neither of my two or their cousins 4 of them all weaned by 6 mths have had any food allergies or health problems and they are all in their late teens/early twenties.
I know it is different for all children of course it is but I too hate to see parents effectively bullied by people into thinking they are harming their child if they dare wean them a day before 26 weeks when that is not always the best thing for the child.
I shall never forget a very distraught mum bringing her dd one day after she was one saying we had got to stop giving her child bottle from today. The child loved her bottle of milk and despite a few tries refused to drink milk out of a cup. I asked why, 'oh the Health Visitor said when she was one I should stop the bottle' I asked why so sudden to be told it would affect the child's teeth very badly. As if going over this deadline to make a major difference!! The effect of the strict advise was devistating to the mother though, who really though she was going to harm her baby if she used a bottle for a day after it's first birthday
I think as professionals we have to be very careful when dealing with parents over these such 'deadlines'.
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