Why I Cannot Weaning Too Early

Contents:

• Medical Video: Touching heart, Lori moaning for milk, baby wean too early.
  

Medical Video: Touching heart, Lori moaning for milk, baby wean too early.

Like many other parents, you will be advised to wean at the age of about six months. Some problems can arise due to early weaning, especially if you wean before six months, including:

• It's possible that your baby's digestive and kidney systems are not sufficiently developed to digest solid food safely. Early weaning can cause digestive problems, such as diarrhea. Your child is also at a higher risk of celiac disease, where the body cannot digest gluten, a substance found in wheat and other grains.
• Your baby may absorb less nutrients from breast milk (if he is breastfeeding).
• There are no positive health benefits for your baby.
• Your baby's risk of developing infections and allergies — and will have digestive problems and obesity in the future — can increase. Your child may have skin problems because early weaning can increase your baby's risk of skin problems, such as eczema. Eczema can cause swelling, redness, and itching.
• Excessive weight gain: your baby's risk of weight gain can later increase.

Another interesting reason to wait up to six months is because at that age, the weaning process will be faster and easier. At this age, your baby should be able to sit in a high chair, easily take food with a spoon, and be able to take and hold food to feed themselves.

Because of this, and because you can immediately offer a lot of food choices — you can make a healthy and varied diet quickly. If you start faster than six months, you will go through a slower and more careful process and the types of food you can offer to your baby are limited.