Whine/Wean

I can only feel ashamed of the information disaster area that is our media when it comes to the google search I just did on weaning guidelines (in this case, introducing solids). It falls in with previous frustrations at the looseness of "facts" out there (Science and Myths blog from last year). I know what I plan to do, and it's not listening to bloody (sorry for swearing) Annabel-loadsa-money-Karmel!

To start off, here's the Department of Health: Weaning guidelines (NHS). I have a copy from my health visitor from when Abbie a baby (see Abbie right, 6 1/2 months old) and I think it is a sound publication to follow.

My point when it comes to what's out there in the media is to not judge the book by it's cover (the headlines aren't the full story, even the story itself may be biased):

BBC: Weaning before 6 months 'may help breastfed babies'
Telegraph: Ignore official weaning guidelines, says Annabel Karmel
Telegraph: Weaning too early or late could lead to childhood obesity
Telegraph: Only breastfeeding for six months may increase anaemia in babies: experts
Daily Mail: So when IS the safest time to wean your baby?
Gina Ford: Gina's Weaning Guidelines
Netmums: Weaning: When is the right time to wean
Mumsnet: Weaning babies

These news and info site articles are just creating confusion, and the obligatory 'balanced view' BBC doesn't help either! You just couldn't flip between all the other opinions without getting in a real spin. However, there are also some better advice sites out there (Net Mums/Mums Net seemed fair to me, but then, my name is also a palindrome), but who knows which is right or wrong, more right or more wrong and everything along that line between fact and fiction?

We need better protection from confusion.

Whose professional opinion/authority trumps others'? I can't help thinking that the World Health Organisation, followed by the Department of Health/NHS has got to be the most sensible direction. 

Although the majority of the newspaper articles come about due to a recent press release offered by a research group, the studies that make it into the press are only a small proportion of the publications out there. There are whole journals dedicated to publishing the latest research into nutrition (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and ICAN: Infant, Child & Adolescent Nutrition, as two examples). I'd rather let trained professionals (i.e., those that produce the WHO/DoH/NHS publications) scour through those journals and review them in order to convert them into public health advice on some reasonably periodic basis, than rely on a journalists' interpretation of an individual study or interview of a public figure.