Weight gain when weaning

[1Pinkfluffyelephant]

DS is 7 months and we are baby led weaning. He currently only really has dinner with us and maybe picks at one or two berries etc from his older sisters plate if she has something but isn’t having much else so far. He still has on average 35oz of milk in 24 hours.
But I have noticed his thighs have suddenly become very chunky (not that this is an issue) but....We were told by HV they usually expect a bit of weight loss when they start weaning and especially as he is crawling, pulling to stand and cruising furniture - I was expecting him to drop a bit too??
Is he having too much milk? Should I be substituting a bottle for another meal?

[doireallyneedaname]

I thought that was just normal baby physique? My 8 month old was taking about the same amount of milk until a few weeks ago, and he has 3 meals a day. He is fairly slim everywhere apart from his thighs which are a bit chunky. I hadnt even thought about it tbh.

35oz is still within the guidelines. I’d speak to a professional If concerned though.

[doireallyneedaname]

Oh, and I would add that I’d definitely give another meal. I was given a very simple plan on here that has made the world of difference.

Milk - 7,11, 3, bed
Food - 8, 12, 5

He takes anything from 5oz to 7oz per bottle.

[1Pinkfluffyelephant]

@doireallyneedaname yes I love chubby baby thighs, it was just that he has always been very slim and with being told he would probably loose a bit and more so now he was active - I was surprised he got the chub 😂
Ooh thanks I will try that routine out. I just feel like as he isn’t showing a huge amount of interest in food, it seems like I’m adding another meal when he just isn’t quite there yet. But maybe if I do it often he will begin to take more. Thanks 😊

[doireallyneedaname]

I reckon that’s about right - if you offer it he may well take it. I’m not doing baby led weaning, we do a mix so when I feed him he’ll usually eat the lot! Although he’s got his chunky legs he’s still only on the 40th centile for weight (born on the 10th) so I figured it’s just nature beefing him up!

[MichelleOR84]

My DS gained weight when weaning . We too did baby led weaning. At first I continued nursing him as usual but offered food at dinner . Then gradually by the time he was one, he was eating 3 meals a day and dropped nursing from 8 feeds to 3-4 feeds . He went from 50th percentile to 97th percentile 😳! My Heath visitor wasn’t concerned and told me not to stress or hold back feeding or nursing him. My DS is now 20 months are has slimmed down a lot .

[1Pinkfluffyelephant]

Ah that’s good to know. As long is he is healthy and growing I'm happy. Just wanted to be reassured it’s normal and just to continue as we are and offer another meal as suggested above.

[LeGrandBleu]

You aren't exactly weaning if he only grabs a couple of berries from someone else's plate.

Have you ever tried to give him something. I am French, and this battle of approach between BLW or spoon is very strange to me. We give to babies food with cutlery for the food we would use cutlery for as adult, and use fingers for those we would use fingers for. IT doesn't have to be one or the other and you have an opportunity window to offer new food, new flavours, soups, risottos, which you can't really use fingers for.

BLW might be better accepted for older babies
"" “There are also concerns as to whether all babies are developmentally ready for grabbing chunks of food at six months. Professor Charlotte Wright, a pediatrician from Glasgow, found that, of a sample of six hundred families, only 40 percent of babies were in fact ready to self-feed at six months. By eight months, 90 percent were ready to reach out spontaneously for food. This indicated to Wright that it was “unrealistic” to expect children to rely exclusively on self-feeding when they started on their first tastes of solids. Another problem with BLW is that, as we saw in Chapter 1, when a “child waits until six months to start solids, they miss out on much of the crucial flavor window between four and seven months, when they would have been more receptive to acquiring new tastes.”

“BLW cannot be the one true way to feed a child, because nothing ever is. ”

Excerpt From: Bee Wilson. “First Bite: How We Learn to Eat.” Apple Books.

It is great that you eat all together, and maybe give baby something to eat as well.

[1Pinkfluffyelephant]

@LeGrandBleu thanks for your reply. I did mention in my post he has dinner with us. He eats exactly what we have we just done puree it. So he will have potato/veg (he loves broccoli and cauli given exactly as we eat them, toast and beans, meat etc he can pick peas/sweetcorn up one at a time, guide a spoon to his mouth for beans/mash etc he is brilliant at dinner. It’s just that, that is the only meal he currently has. Then will have berries etc if DD offers from her plate in addition to this.
Also when I saw BLW I’m not saying I’m against puree or any foods that need eating with a spoon as he does use a spoon for those foods too just like we would.

[LeGrandBleu]

Sorry, I misread your post.

[1Pinkfluffyelephant]

@LeGrandBleu not a problem. Thankyou for your reply.

[1Pinkfluffyelephant]

@LeGrandBleu really interesting to read about the difference in when babies were actually ready to reach out for foods and the way that impacts their acceptance of new tastes etc.

[GrumpyHoonMain]

Have you let him self-feed thick purees? We did baby led weaning with DS in that we let him feed everything himself (he wasn’t gaining weight and was stuck on the 9th centile due to issues at birth). That included thick purees / mashed foods like dahl / potage / natural yoghurt - he always seemed to feed himself that first before diving into the finger foods.

We moved from one meal to three after a week and then when he started cruising I began to offer snacks too. He’s also breastfed and is now an ok 25th centile despite eating loads.