For a start, any sorts of solids in a bottle is widely acknowledged as a choking hazard and is potentially very dangerous.

Secondly, how to do we know all those babies developed normally. With all the food intolerances and bowel conditions around at the moment, how do we know that early weaning has not contributed to all these? It is also about a statistical likelihood – early weaning does not mean that things will happen to a particular child, but it makes it more likely that they will, based on current evidence.

As I already said, there are, clearly, exceptions to everything and it is my understanding that solid foods, given early under the guidance of a paediatrician can help a baby with severe reflux. However, as I understand it, the diet will be carefully controlled and it is considered that the risks are outweighed by the benefits.

And just because there is a trial to investigate something, does not mean that it will be proven to be the case – we’ll have to wait and see on that one, and it will take many years. I’d like to see your HV’s evidence about changes of thought in the WHO too.

As for the guidelines / rules, the SIDS guidelines (atlhough admittedly the co-sleeping guidelines are not based on the available research at the moment) say that you shouldn’t put a baby to sleep on their front. Since this advice was widely followed, SIDS (cot death) rates have dropped 80%. But should a mother ignore that bit of advice just so they can get a bit more sleep.

If you think this was a judgemental post, then I guess you have your own issues about weaning to address, because with the exception of the last paragraph, I was calmly and clearly outlining some of the reasoning behind the guidelines, which I have found most people have not been told.

I’m surprised you didn’t trot out the “happy mum, happy baby” line. Parenting is hard, but we chose to become parents and that means putting the needs of our children before our own at times. After all, they are so often not capable of doing that for themselves. I will not risk the future health of my child so that I can get a bit more sleep, and if others decide that, then that is their choice. I hope for their child’s sake that they can look at their child when it is grown and not see an adult with allergy or digestive issues and wonder if that extra sleep might have come at too high a price.

And have you ever watched a video of a tiny baby being fed. The constant scraping of food and putting it back in their mouths, past their tongue which is still trying to push the food out of their mouths? That means that they are physically not ready for it. It was those situations that I specifically judged. How can they be mothering instincts if those ‘instincts’ are overriding those of your baby?