perhaps solids should come earlier than six months?

New research from Britain recommends that introducing solids before six months might benefit breastfed babies.

I particularly like this comment left on the article:

“I am so tired of hearing health professionals, midwives and health visitors pontificate as to what is best for babies. Every baby is different and every situation is different. I started weaning my two children as soon as they showed an interest in reaching out for solid food. Both wanted solids at 4.5 months old and started on baby rice. Perhaps we should stop listening to blanket guidelines (which cannot possibly be completely correct since they are changed every five minutes) and listen to our babies instead!”

My mother insisted that River needed some cereal earlier to fill him up. Not only was he large and ravenous, but I had trouble producing enough supply to fill him up. I think I acquiesced somewhere around four months. He was interested and perfectly happy with his cereal. We moved quickly into other foods and I gave him some cow’s milk around 10 or 11 months because it was cheaper than formula and I figured he was getting a good supply of vitamins from the wide variety of food he was eating.

Forcing a baby to wait until six months, regardless of the individual baby’s development and circumstances, didn’t make much sense to me. Blanket guidelines serve a purpose by providing general recommendations. But as the commenter points out, probably the best source of information about what is right is the baby itself.