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Weaning

Is my HV talking b*ll*cks?

30 replies

Lovage · 29/03/2007 20:25

My 8 month old is gradually sinking on the centiles - was born on the 75th, sunk to 25th by about 12 weeks, hadn't had him weighed for ages but got him weighed yesterday and he's now between 9th and 25th.

He's only eating small amounts of solids - maybe 4 or 5 mouthfuls 3 times a day (we're doing BLW as he hates being spoon fed). He's still breastfeeding 7 or 8 times in 24 hrs, including through the night. My HV said what I needed to do was get him to take more solids. The way she said I should do this was to cut down his breastfeeds to 3 or 4 a day and do some 'cold turkey' days where I leave him with someone who can only give him solids or milk in a cup (he never got the hang of bottles)

I'm finding it hard to believe that cutting down breastfeeding is going to help a baby who's not putting weight on well. I did say 'but surely there are more calories in breastmilk than solids' but she muttered something about 'by this age they need solids as well'. I do get that he might need solids as well - clearly his current diet isn't working brilliantly - but I can't believe restricting his breastfeeding is going to help. She said that by this age he shouldn't be demand feeding, whereas I kind of hoped to carry on demand feeding and that he would take to solids and stop demanding so often.

So any experience of getting a centile slipping, not that keen on solids baby to eat more solids? Do I really have to restrict his bfing to get him to take more solids? When I try to offer solids when he's hungry he just gets grizzly and wont' eat them. I'm already doing high fat food (butter and cream cheese on top of everything!), eating with him, miming pleasure and chewing, offering choice and no-choice and in high chair and in lap.

Sorry this is a bit long!

OP posts:
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BizzyDint · 29/03/2007 20:28

yes she's talking shite. you're doing the right things. would you be worrying if you hadn't had him weighed?

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TrinityRhino · 29/03/2007 20:28

bumping this for you

she is talking bollocks but I'll let someone with more experience tell you all about it

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emkana · 29/03/2007 20:29

It's not unusual for b/fed babies to slip down the centiles.

It's also not unusual for b/fed babies fed on demand to not be that bothered by solids in their first year.

It sounds to me as if you're doing everything right.

Is he developing okay, happy, alert, looks well?

If so I'd say don't worry and ignore her...

cold turkey days indeed.

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lulumama · 29/03/2007 20:30

DD has slipped down the centiles, not as much as your LO, but slipped nonetheless

loves milk, not so keen on food...! you cannot get food into a baby who does not want it

Milk should still be the primary source of nutrition and calories ( and comfort too!) for a baby this age ...

i do the high fat thing with dd, we are doing all lard diet this week !

if i make her eggs, they have cream and butter, cheese too, philly, hummous etc

she is 20 months now, still petite, weighs less than her contemporaries, HV not concerned as sh e is following her own curve on the charts. and is well, happy, healthy and meeting all her milestones.

if she is teething, cross, has a cold, or can;t be bothered, she won;t eat ! we have had a week of her barely eating as she is cutting her bottom molars...it just takes time to get comfortable with a child who does not seem to eat a lot

that is why giving her breast milk on demand, is a good thing, IMHO, then you know she is getting what she needs from you !

i don;t get the hurry to cut out milk and get babies, little babies, on 3 2 course meals a day !

restricting milk intake at this IMO< would be counter productive

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bristols · 29/03/2007 20:31

I'm no expert in this and I'm sure that someone who knows much more than me will be along shortly. But I think you're right - breast milk will have many more calories than a few spoonfuls of veg. Cheese or no cheese. I have read many times on here 'food for fun until they're one'. [See, I do take it all on board!]so maybe the answer is to increase the breast feeding?

As I said, someone far more knowledgeable will be along in a mo but hopefully this'll keep it bumped.

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kiskidee · 29/03/2007 20:33

yes, she is talking bollocks. dd possibly bf more at that age as she did not take any solids, 'cept yoghurt at 8 mo and only would take sloppy readybrek at 10 months.

she didn't do lumps till 13 months when she went straight to grabbing stuff off my plate.

she has stayed at the 25% since she was 4 wks old and at 2 yrs in 2 wks, is still there. she still bf like it is going out of fashion. she has been ill a few times and bf as much as they want will be a worry saver later on. you can bet on it.

stick to your norks.



and somebody, pass me my rifle.

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AitchTwoOh · 29/03/2007 20:41

i don't know from personal experience as i found getting dd weighed when she was tiny so stressful that i swore never to do it again. i can tell you that i have observed her stretch and grow and get slimmer and fatter over her first year, but the thing is that she was always bright and healthy so i never worried about it. everyone has given good advice here, and the only thing i would also suggest is that he may enjoy eating on the run, in the buggy, as well. french toast is good, if you're doing egg now.

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BarefootDancer · 29/03/2007 20:42

Please don't worry. If he is not losing weight, is healthy and happy he is fine.

My ds was born on 91st centile. By 4.5 months had dropped to 25th, then stayed down there til 1 year. bf exclusively til 3 months, then weaned, ended bf at 11 months. By 1.5 years he was up at 50th centile. No idea what he is now. Just a healthy skinny kid! Like you I worried and HV didn't allay those worries. Wish in retrospect I had not had him weighed after the first 3 months or so. You can tell if they are well and gaining weight.

I think the charts may be based on data for bottle-fed (white) babies (not sure about this). If so, they are only accurate for those babies.

Get a paediatric doctor opinion if you are really concerned, but I don't think you need to fatten him up. He is not malnourished, probably just undergoing settling into his natural weight, and normal fluctuations for bf babies.

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lemonaid · 29/03/2007 20:44

She's talking bollocks. If he's happy and well then quit taking him to be weighed and don't worry about it. He is eating solids, and he'll pick it up at his own pace.

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BarefootDancer · 29/03/2007 20:46

Sorry, that sounds a bit bossy. What I mean is we are made to worry like this when usually it is totally unneccessary. Babies being individuals, not standard statistics.

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BarefootDancer · 29/03/2007 20:47

me = bossy, not lemonaid!

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chirpygirl · 29/03/2007 20:49

Another vote for 'talking bollocks' here.

Is your DS crawling/sitting himself up/rolling/ or anoything else enregetic yet? When DD started crawling she dropped 25 centiles in a month, just because she wasn't eating anymore but was burning it off.

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ilovethis · 29/03/2007 21:04

(i'm malaleche) Hi, im in a similar situation right now. DD2 6.5mo has not gained at the same rate in the last 2 months as from birth to 4 m. She went up a centile and is now one below her birth centile (cant remember but think it was the middle one). At her 6 m check-up paedeatrician (no HVs here in Spain) told me to give her 180ml of formula with 4 spoons of baby rice in it and apple, banana and pear and orange juice twice a day. Er, ok. First of all DD1 got ezcema when i started her on milk products at 10 mo having already established her gradually on cereals and fruit and veg from 6 mo so i wasnt going to rush in with DD2 incase she reacted to anything, then i started reading about BLW and got confused about what to do, then i thought oh wtf i'll do it like i did with DD1 - so ofered DD2 baby rice and cooked pear, sstill wasnt sure so gave her some BLW type stuff - rice cake, banana, pumpkin. I just feel like im making a mes of things and have lost my way. In the meantime i ws worried my milk supply was dwindling so started taking fenugreek capsules and it worked - now have plenty milk. DD2 is not half as amenable to having baby rice shovelled into her as DD1 was and i cant see her getting much from a couple of rice cakes here and there. Ive printed out the list of what to introduce when for potentially allergic babies but today i decided to stop sweating it and leave it a few days. Sorry this is a very rambling post...wwith no real point to it except 'im fed up with weaning'!

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AitchTwoOh · 29/03/2007 21:08

awwww, poor malaleche... [squeeze]

deep breaths.


if your dd is only 6.5 months and you are happy to BF her, it's really not going to do her any harm to just have milk and the odd rice cake for a few days while you work out what to so next. you sound worn out, poppet.

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Karmamother · 29/03/2007 21:21

The percentile charts in the child health records were created using data from mainly bottle fed babies, as barefootdancer said. BF babies don't follow these charts so don't worry. He is still very young & your milk will provide more nutrition than a tiny bit of food. If he was 18months old & preferring to drink gallons of milk rather than eat, well thats a different matter. Try to stay relaxed where food is concerned, he'll eat when he's ready. Good luck.

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ilovethis · 29/03/2007 21:21

thanks Aitch, you gave me good advice somewhere else too...This too shall pass, this too shall pass, meanwhile DD2 has got a snotty cold anyway and will not be comforted even with tit...

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AitchTwoOh · 29/03/2007 21:30

oh yikes, a cold. that is awkward... i have been known to feed dd milk in the bath (mmm, hygenic) when her nose is bunged. as you're bfing, you could get in there too.

you're right, this too shall pass... especially if you buy one of those weirdy gizmos that let you suck the snot out of her nose.

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ilovethis · 29/03/2007 22:03

I've got one of those snot-sucker things, just washed it out in readiness this evening. I never have baths, our bathroom is too cold and the hot water trickles from the tap, it would take hours to fill it and by then it would be cold,,,I'll stick with my snot sucker thanks!

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yomellamoHelly · 29/03/2007 22:07

This happened to ds1 : 75th percentile at birth to below 2nd at 8 month check. The way I see it is that your placenta determines a baby's weight when it's born. After that they self-correct to the weight they should be. So long as he's happy and alert and filling plenty of nappies etc etc I'd put what the hv said out of your thoughts.

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Lovage · 29/03/2007 22:08

Wow thanks for all the speedy and comforting replies!

I am generally relaxed about the weight charts and hadn't had him weighed for 3 months for that reason. But he isn't following his own curve or sticking on a low one, his curve is declining (slowly, but definitely) and this does make me a little worried - not really worried but just a bit concerned. He is generally happy and meeting his developmental targets, although he does get colds and coughs more than the other babies I know (I know all babies get loads but he's had something practically the whole time since the new year)

I actually went to see the HV to ask for tips on getting him to take solids and cups, not to get him weighed, but you know what they're like! Unfortunately I agreed to go back in a month... Will arm myself with counter-arguments

OP posts:
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AitchTwoOh · 29/03/2007 22:21

well, what you should ask is at what point a paediatrician would be concerned. you're right, you don't really want a baby to be falling wildly through the centile charts, tbh. but at the same time you don't want to panic for no reason, which is something that HVs do. a lot can change in a month anyway, so just keep at it.

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ENTP · 29/03/2007 22:37

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LadyOfTheFlowers · 29/03/2007 22:38

without reading op/.....
probably.

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puzzle · 29/03/2007 22:47

My Health Visitor said exactly the same thing to me when my dd was about 7 months old. I didnt agree with her and continued to breastfeed just as much as I felt she needed it. A mother usually knows what is best for her child, follow your instincts.

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nachomama · 29/03/2007 23:26

{hands up for HV talking bollocks} Yes, here's another vote from me. I am still new to the game (DS just 9 months) and I too have got in a sweat about weaning and dropping centiles and HV concerns BUT I feel so strongly that milk is what babies need most. Their guts aren't fully developed and they haven't even got teeth ffs. If they eat, great. If they don't eat so well, but they are having plenty of milk and are developing well, then there should be little to worry about. That's what I tell myself anyway. Cold Turkey BF/weaning is AWFUL advice IME. Apart from the confusion and upset it would cause LO, it will mess up your milk supply and no doubt be most uncomfortable for you physically.

I am still demand feeding, which isn't a popular concept in many circles, but I don't care. Last night my baby was violently ill- prjectile everywhere (thanks for sharing)- and he could take nothing but BM, not even boiled water. I was so glad that I could give that to him.

It is a worry when they seem to get slimmer, especially if they started out lovely and chubby, but you can only do what you can do. You're right in that babies get far more out of BM than a few spoonfuls of baby food that you have to make the poor tyke eat, so the enjoyment goes out of meals which will make things much more difficult in the long term.

I do not castigate different methods of weaning, but I get so hacked off that there is such concern shown over the dropping centile babies who are healthy and happy and BF and given food lovingly and thoughtfully by parents, and yet no seeming worries for those "growing well", fattened up by all manner of crap from jars and packets. I am not saying there is no place for these, but it just seems an unbalanced way for the health professionals to approach this issue.

And many babies have stretches of disinterest in food. Mine certainly does. One thing that I found helpful is that even though I do demand feed, I give him a blast off the breast 45mins-hour before meal-time, and that has (usually) stopped him clambering for the boob when I'm trying to pry him out of my arms and into the high chair.

Hope you will let us know how you got on.

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