My daughter in law had her first baby six months ago tomorrow. Her and my step son are wonderful parents. They are attentive and relaxed. They give their son all the time and input they can. He is being raised in a loving home with able parents. He is being raised in a bi-lingual environment, he will be able to speak English and Mandarin. He is clearly healthy, weighing in at 9.6 kg and being in the 93rd percentile on the length/height charts. He’s strong, active and on target or ahead on all the NHS measurements for growth and development. These new parents follow all the rules…..
…and therein lies a problem. The bloody RULES. Not guidelines. Rules.
When I had my son 20 years ago, solids were introduced at 3 months. By just shy of 3 months I was desperate to feed my son something more than breast milk. He was obviously always hungry and I and hubby were obviously always tired. It was zombie-like in our home. The rules now say no solids until 6 months. SIX MONTHS!!!! Our grandson is the size of some 1 year olds. He is happy, smiley , active and healthy. He is also hungry every 30 minutes throughout the night.
This week we visited and I had a chance to reiterate the story of our son, and to properly offer suggestion that they might dare to break the RULE. So at 5 months and 3.5 weeks my daughter-in-law felt brave enough to break the health visitors rules and she fed solids to our grandson. He slept. She slept. For the first night in almost 6 months she slept in her own bed and not with the baby. Normal life can continue.
Health visitors, PLEASE, treat each baby and family as individuals. Stop spouting general rules. It’s not always helpful, beneficial or in the best interest of the baby and parents.
What a gorgeous boy he is! Ha ha – the rules. Yes it can feel like diktats from health visitors sometimes can’t it?! The ‘guidelines’ changed from 4 months to 6 months when my eldest was a baby so we split the difference and went for 5 months. I think we did similar with the twins too but I can’t really remember it was all a bit of a blur when they were little! Enjoy your beautiful grandson. #thesatsesh xx
Oh I empathise with your step son and wife. I had a super hungry baby with the second eldest though seems to have stayed with him !!!
I gave Dee some baby rice mixed with breast milk a couple of days before she turned 6 months. It didn’t help her sleep at all! Health visitors have to have some general guidelines and they’re usually evidence based. As long as parents are informed though then of course they can make their own decisions about what’s best for their baby and their situation.
So cute x