I’m a blogger. I talk about my life, my kids, chat to so many people and engage over social media. I share my children’s milestones, their fun stories…pretty much everything. Sharing is pretty much part and parcel of blogging. But I was scared to admit I was weaning before 6 months.
To be precise I’ve been fearful of admitting we are weaning Piglet before 6 months and this in itself is ridiculous but true.
Why?
Judgement.
This has probably stemmed from when I wrote a post about the end of breastfeeding journey with the gremlin and was tweeted by someone informing me I should not be weaning before 6 months; exclusive breastfeeding was advised. This person refused to see my point of view and rationale, even though I explained I had sought advise from a paediatric dietitian before commencing weaning. This quite frankly, really annoyed me. This person was so black and white.
It’s true the NHS and Department of Health both advise weaning should begin around 6 months. The British Dietetic Association however, advise not before 4 months and not after 6 months. Both my girls have been around the 5 month mark and started on baby rice and fruit and vegetable purées.
This isn’t a post debating when you should wean at all but guidelines are just that – guidelines! You may want to start before if your baby is showing signs of being ready. What happens when they hit exactly 6 months? A switch goes off in their gut?? Breast milk will give your baby what they need up to 6 months but with little Piglet staring at me with her mouth open when I ate and trying to grab all my food, I think she was ready! Both my girlies were ready and as I am giving Piglet purées at the moment; they both devoured the lot with no issues.
A blogging bud of mine was recently chastised for putting a pudding recipe in a weaning group as apparently it is wrong to offer your baby a pudding? Don’t get me started on that one. She wanted to share her recipe, which was completely healthy but was met with criticism. I can understand varying opinions but not publically trying to shame another mother for hers. It is really easy to do this hidden away, sat behind a phone or computer.
Why should I care about what people think and even more so, why should people think it’s ok to judge and tell me what is right with my children? Despite trying to shove those thoughts to the back of my mind, I did care and quite frankly did not like the fact that I did. That almost felt like a weakness.
We unfortunately live in a trolling world and I guess people will say, if you are going to share be prepared to have some come back now and then. But this sucks! It really does.
There are plenty of things I will not write about on my blog (I would love to) but the fear of the judgement overwhelms me a little too much. It’s much easier to be non controversial and have a quiet life and blog. I should be able to shout out to the world that my little bean is eating and enjoying her food (and I guess I have now) but I didn’t.
Sometimes this is what is wrong with blogging and social media and I don’t like it at all.
