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The perfect age for solids

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Mention solids on Twitter or Facebook and boy, you get an avalanche of advice and opinions.

Truth is, the 'professional thinking' changes from study to study.

So unless you are in the field of nutrition, you may not be that up to date with the latest findings.

And your clinic sister or even your paed may not be either.

When I had Dyl the thinking was no solids until six months on pain of death. This is based on the guidelines set by the World Health Organisation which, sensibly, has to address the majority of moms living in rural areas with poor access to food and clean water.

But the latest findings suggest that solids as early as 17 weeks is okay and in fact, could be a good thing in the bid to halt the 'allergic march'. Before 17 weeks is not okay though and unfortunately we still face many moms being forced by those who think they know best into feeding infants solids at the great risk of immediate danger and long-term damage to their health.

We unpack the food myths and the newest thinking about solids on page 36 but as with all things parenting: your gut instinct remains boss.

Listen to it, it's your baby and your home that baby lives in after all. Which brings me neatly to our articles about judging others.

We all say we don't do it but we have all experienced it or even done it ourselves. We all wish it wasn't there, but it's inevitable it seems: eight moms weigh in on page 44. Finally I have had my fair share of separation anxiety in the last few weeks.

Starting Evan at school was certainly not as easy as I imagined it would be. I kind of based it in my experiences with Dyl- how wrong I was to forget that no two children are alike!

Tears were shed- let's leave it at that. You feel like the worst kind of mom when you walk away from your wailing tot clearly distressed for life and forget that this is an entirely normal phase of baby and toddler life.

In fact, therapists agree that no separation anxiety is more worrying than too much! Read more on page 52. We love this issue and hope you do too.

Let us know what you think...

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