Dietician at 19 weeks!!!

[laura20]

My baby (bobby) was born 8lb 5oz and since has been putting weight on at a very fast rate. Last week I took him to get weighed at 17 weeks and he was 21lb 15oz. The health visitor explained I needed to come back in 2 weeks and if his weight was still increasing at the same rate he would need to be referred to a dietician. Has anyone else been told this? I just wonder how we can visit a dietician when the only thing bobby has is cow and gate hungrier baby.

He doesn't really drink an excessive amount, during the day he won't drink full bottle but will have an oz or 2 every hour. We've tried to hold him off until he's hungry enough for a full bottle but he screams and then will just drink a couple of oz so he snacks really all through out the day. He will have around 6\7oz before bed and then wakes twice during the night drinking about 4oz each time.

He is quite active we have him on his playmat doing floor play and he'll roll around putting his foot in his mouth. We also have a jumparoo for him which he spends about an hour aday in jumping up and down so surely this is burning some energy.

Am I being worried over nothing?

[Sid77]

What centime does that make him in his red book? Am only asking as my DS1 was a big baby, but I can't remember his weight...

[IglooisnowinSheffield]

I have no idea what a dietician can offer at that age? Can you try normal baby milk?

He must be big though? My DD is 20lbs at 22 months. Is he tall?

[GingerRodgers]

Well he's above the 99th centile but I've no idea what they might suggest. Maybe they'll look at his 'snacking' ? Maybe see if they can work out exactly how much he's having and give advice on how to lengthen time between feeds?

[siblingrevelry]

I would be concerned over two things: hungry baby milk (don't understand it anyway), and his habit of snacking. I worry that you're storing up trouble for later on, that he will get used to screaming for food and having his needs met with a fatty/sugary alternative. Does distraction work-when he's screaming but you know he's been fed only an hour previously (so can be confident he's not 'starving'), can you do something to distract him away from wanting food, like carrying him around the garden or going for a drive/walk?

[lollipoppi]

I would take him off the hungry baby milk and put him onto normal cow & gate
Maybe it's filling him up too quickly so that's why he is only taking a couple of oz at a time

As for the HV, I have no idea what a dietician would recommend!

[laura20]

He is slightly above the very top line (99.6th centile) on the book.

The normal food wasn't satisfying him at 3 weeks neither was my breast milk so that's when we put him on the hungrier baby. He is tall and doesn't look out of proportion.

[OcadoSubstitutedMyHummus]

That weight puts him off the chart for weight - above the 99.6 centile line. So only 4 in a thousand would be above that.

I'd want to know whether his length and head circumference are also at the same point and so whether he is just a really big baby or whether his weight is out of kilter.

If he is taking on too many calories then a dietician may want to discuss early weaning with some lower calorie foods or looking at other ways to cut down his calories.

[LittleBearPad]

Agree with other posters above - try normal C&G milk. He may drink bigger, but fewer bottles of it.

[Lagoonablue]

Hungry Baby Milk........not sure of the point of it tbh. Probably best to take him off it as very calorific.

[siblingrevelry]

Please ignore me if this sounds patronising, but are you completely confident that his cues are hunger and not something else? Thinking things like 'not satisfying him at 3 weeks' could actually be you mis-interpreting his crying for him being hungry, rather than tired/cross/wet/needing a cuddle etc. You might have assumed his screaming is hunger which is causing you to overfeed, when it could be something non food related?

[laura20]

We will never give him a fatty/sugary snack when he is older to satisfy him. We have tried everything to distract him but nothing works and when he does his hungry cry nothing can stop him until he is fed

[IglooisnowinSheffield]

Has he been checked for silent reflux? DS had this and wanted to feed constantly for the soothing effect which made things worse as he screamed more from the pain of it coming back. We had to give him medication, spread his feeds and wean early.

He choked a lot when weaning and didn't tolerate finger foods till 11 months. He is fine now at three. He was BF.

This would tie in with him not being satisfied at 3 weeks, DS seemed like this and I tried topping up with formula which made things worse.

[Gerty1002]

Wow, that's quite a weight jump. What centile line was he on at birth? My DS was born on 98th at 10lb 4oz, was extremely hungry and has silent reflux. He was drinking 9oz of formula every 3 hours, at 6 weeks old. We moved him to hungry baby milk and he would then wait four hours, but during growth spurts he was having up to 70oz a day! Yet he's only just above the 99.6th centile line. He also screamed a lot until we put him on reflux meds and symptoms improved further with early weaning.
It seems bizarre to me that he doesn't drink huge amounts yet put on so much weight. Hungry baby milk isn't more calorific (I could be wrong but am fairly sure) it just takes longer to digest. I'd be asking about silent reflux too - if he was happy in himself and putting on lots of weight I wouldn't be too worried but it sounds like he's unsettled in general. I have a friend whose baby had reflux and only snacked throughout the day, but it has improved vastly now at 5 months and with the introduction of solids.

I hope you get sorted, it must be frustrating feeding him so often and seeing him unhappy.

[laura20]

The health visitor said weaning might.calm it down and sort out more of a routine but she can't tell me to do this until 6 months. I would try him but I'm just worried this May make him even bigger.

[Gerty1002]

Do you have any idea how quickly you'll get to see the dietician? I'd hold off on weaning until then personally, but if you do start then perhaps just veg purees, which aren't very high in calories.

[OcadoSubstitutedMyHummus]

Have you asked for a paeds referral? This would help rule out underlying causes such as silent reflux.

[ElizaJanina]

What's his length? It sounds similar to my baby who went through a serious growth spurt at a similar age. She's in the 99.6th centile for length but didn't get measured till she was 6 months old so I was worried I was overfeeding her. She's settled down a bit now - her weight is only in the 91st centile now. A dietitian sounds bizarre for his age. I too couldn't manage with just breast milk but I didn't go for the hungrier milk option. Her feeding did calm down after a while. She still eats often but much smaller amounts.

[naty1]

How is he when lying down?
The weight only really matters in relation to length.

[laura20]

He is 72cm in length.

[ElizaJanina]

He's really tall! He's fine. Whoever told you you need a dietitian doesn't know what they're talking about.