breastfed baby too big at 5 months old?

[iamafitmama]

hi - not new to posting but have name changed for this thread.

DD is 5 months old and is quite big.

She weighs nine kilos and a half(20 pounds) and is 69 cm long.

HV said I need to cut on her milk (she's still breastfed- not weaning yet) and advised to start weaning her as she thinks dd is having too much milk as it's not filling for her - thus getting fatter and fatter.

When I see dd I see a very healthy baby, very long and lively. She can roll, kicks a lot and can already sit unaided (she cannot pull herself up, but if you sit her on the floor she will play with the toys in front of her sitting for up to 20 mins -half an hour before falling on one side).

However the HV has worried me and now I have pictures of the future in my head of an obese child/girl.
Anybody in a similar situation or gone through the same in the past? what was the outcome? is she really that big and should I really wean her to stop her from getting any bigger?

I thought we were doing really well... this serves me right...

[Aitch]

WHAT? is there anything this hv has said that makes sense? healthy, long, lively, sitting up etc, she sounds great. you're doing beautifully, i'll bet.

[BoysAreLikeDogs]

And I'll bet money that you and Dh are tall

[iamafitmama]

yes - we're both quite tall, I have very tall brothers too.
dd is on the 99th centile for weight and 98th for height, hence the hv said that the two need to match or that it's better that the height is more than the weight.

This is absolutely news to me....

[AnarchyAunt]

Bollocks. The woman is wrong.

I bet she advises people with small babies to wean early too - they need the extra calories blah blah blah.

Ignore her.

And actually I'd have thought that restricting a babies access to the correct source of nutrition (ie milk) is far more likely to cause problems round food and eating later in life.

[theSuburbanDryad]

Tell your HV that Breastfeeding helps to prevent obesity and also, that she is a twat.

[BoysAreLikeDogs]

Well then , tall parents from tall families can = long babies.Ignore HV she is a loon

You don't actually have to go for weighing, did you know that ?

No need to go again, you are doing perfickly.

[pats shoulder]

[tigga]

You are doing brilliantly. 2 of my children were huge babies but once they were up on their feet they stopped growing outwardly and shot up instead. They are now both very normal sizes and you'd have never known that one of them used to be so big that a hospital consultant told me off for overfeeding him.
You can't overfeed a breastfed baby.

[tigga]

BTW mine never got weighed after the midwife signed us off...I go by wet and poopy nappies and growing out of clothes steadily. The HV got told that I would contact her IF I ever needed her help... in 7 years I've only needed her help once.

[Sarimillie]

Iamafitmama - my dd was exactly the same at 5 months, and also exclusively breastfed.

I have taken her to be weighed just once, precisely because she was (still is, at 9 months, tho now on mixed feeding and solids) doing just fine, BUT I suspected that some busybody HV would suggest not breastfeeding her as much - and that seemed like a nonsense to me.

I don't have any expertise, but just wanted to say that if your instincts tell you she's doing well, there is a lot to be said for trusting them!

[Guadalupe]

Milk is not filling her up, so she's getting too fat? LOLOL. I think everyone will say carry on doing what you are doing, iamafitmama, you baby sounds marvellous.

[naughtymummy]

This is very bad advice./ Breast fed babies grow very rapidly in the first 6 months this is normal, then the weight slows down, this pattern is associated with a lower risk of heart disease,obesity and type 2 diabetes.My son weighed 8.8 kg at 18 weeks and is now much smaller than average. Sounds like you are both doing great. (i am a paed btw)

[gagarin]

Why did you go to have her weighed? Were you worried about anything?

If not then just don't go again. There is no reason to weigh a baby who looks and behaves like yours.

[idontbelieveit]

my dd was HUGE at 6 months, now she is probably below average for height and getting skinnier by the day (she's 27 months).
When i went to see the health visitor around that time she had a trainee with her and said to trainee "She's huge but it's nothing to worry about, you can't overfeed a breastfed baby."
Your HV is talking rubbish. Don't take her again!

[broguemum]

HV is bonkers. My DS (9.5 mo) is well over the 97 percentile line for height and weight and all I get from my doctor is a pleased grin whenever we visit - no tosh about too big. HV talking rubbish. You are doing fantastically!

[fedupandisolated]

Am a HV too - your HV is talking crap. Some babies do go off the chart but they go back into the normal range once active and crawling etc.

Honestly - take it from an MN HV - your baby sounds fine and your HV doesn't appear to know what she's talking about.

[WhatSheSaid]

Posting quickly while dd tries to climb on me!

Dd was nearly 8 kilos at 5 months and 9.3 kilos just before 7 months, she was 95th centile for weight and height. I am only 5 foot tall and dh is about 5ft 10, so not hugely tall for a man. Once she started crawling her weight levelled off a fair bit and at 9 monbths she was 9.5 kilos.

My HV wrote at 7 months in her book "Lovely little girl, breastfeeding on demand...etc etc...Well done, you are doing a great job". No mention of her being overfed, too big etc etc etc. What a difference a different attitude from a HV can make, eh?

Sounds like you are doing a fab job - enjoy your little girl and ignore the HV!

[iamafitmama]

thanks all for your good words - feeling better now.

Gagarin, the reason I went, funnily enough was because I wanted advice on weaning- but I want to start in October.

And by reading your posts I am not going to wean her now- I will definetevely wait until she's six months old (only 4 weeks to go!).

HV said that weight would hinder her phisical development! (that is why in my post I mention what she can already do)

I believe that dd is quite similar in her phisical development to most of the babies her age we meet at playgroup - but hv said that this could be now, but we need to nip it in the bud????

[zazen]

Hear hear to all the other posters on this thread - you are doing brilliantly - you are a fit mama!

HVs haven't a clue. Disregard everything she says. My DD was off the girl's length scale also and I swear the HV wanted to put a concrete block on her so she would fit into the girls height charts - she was 98th centile of the boys - all Dh's family are tall, and I'm the smallest in my tallish family.

Keep doing what you're doing and ignore the HV.

well done you!

[fedupandisolated]

Am constantly and by the utter bollocks which some of my colleagues come out with as posted here.

[fedupandisolated]

Oh not to worry SM - my profession absolutely deserves a slating sometimes. I just get so exasperated about the bollocks some of them come out with. I could honestly weep when I see some of the "advice" people have been given - like the OP here for example. What's wrong with her HV saying "Well done - you've done a really great job with him - don't worry about him going off the chart in weight gain as once he's crawling around that will correct itself - carry on doing a fantastic job"

Or am I being unrealistic?

[themildmanneredstalker]

ds1 was 9 kilos 36 at 20 weeks old.

he was a big boy-very long too.

he is now 8-off the chart for his height and very very slim.
please take no notice of the crazy lady!
you are doing a fab job!

[SmugColditz]

Ignore idiot with legitimising badge health visiter. She has no understanding of statistics.

[LaVieEnRose]

Ignore. My ds was quite big as a baby and the HV was convinced I was giving him formula because he was putting so much weight on! I wasn't, I was BF; he is just a big lad.

As soon as I told her he was BF she looked a bit perplexed and changed the subject!