To wean or not to wean

Well, Bumble is 4 months old and Bumble's Dad and I are looking at weaning.  This seems to be yet another topic where the NHS, NCT etc are absolutely militant about babies needing to be 6 months before they start on solid foods.  This is discussed under the heading of "it's harmful to your baby not to wait until 6 months".  Having a background in stats, and a natural desire to be an "evidence based parent" (and seeing scant evidence in any NHS publication) I decided to have a look at the research that is out there.  (If you are interested I'd recommend looking at the Cochrane library) It seems that the amount of high quality research into this topic is limited.  The key conclusion of the decent research is that weaning before 12 weeks is linked to a higher risk of diabetes, obesity and related health problems in later life.  However, from four months there is no associated increase in risk and it seems from some small studies that waiting until 6 months could itself be detrimental.  

The NHS publications reference WHO guidelines which do recommend waiting until "the middle of a baby's first year" (interpretation of that could be interesting in itself) but any awareness that the WHO guidelines have to give the safest option for all babies (some of whom are growing up in unsanitary conditions in the third world where access to clean water etc is very limited) is sorely lacking.  The WHO also recommend breastfeeding for 2 years - again, having looked at the research, the major factor behind this recommendation seems to be that breast milk is the safest drink in some areas of the world.  

As the evidence based parenting guide "Bumpology" says - the current NHS advice is to wait until 6 months but there is no evidence to suggest that weaning between 4 and 6 months is harmful to your baby.  So, now we are beyond 4 months if Bumble's dad and I decide to offer him (suitable) solids at least I feel confident that we won't be setting him up for long term health issues based on current research!

One anecdotal aside - I am yet to meet a single parent who did wait until 6 months to start weaning...