6 month old dropping centiles. Weaning advice pls

[moojie]

My ds2 is now 6 months. He has never really stuck to a centile and although he started on the 75th he has gradually dropped and is now right on the 9th. He is exclusively breastfed, extremely content and sleeps well.

He slept through the night 12 hrs from 7 weeks but due to slow weight gain I have been doing a dream feed so he gets an extra feed. During the day he feeds 4hrly. If I feed any more frequently I have to wake him from his naps and then he is grumpy.

My HV has been extremely supportive about not supplementing with formula as he is always content and shows no signs of hunger.

I'm now starting to wean and HV has advised that I push straight on with meals and calorie rich foods as if he has dropped down again in 4 weeks they will need to refer him to paeds

I have just been doing finger foods at the moment and he has taken really well to it but I need ideas of high calories foods I can feed him. I am not against a spoon but would rather only use it for things that would only need a spoon normally e.g yoghurt, porridge etc

I guess I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all as Ds1 was a big baby and a great feeder!

What can I feed him?

[mummysmellsofsick]

Avocado, chicken, sweet potato/ potato wedges, cheesy mash with cream, full fat fromage frais... And bf on demand, food calories aren't better than milk ones as some people will have you believe.

[ScaryBOOAlot]

Milk is higher in calories than the small amounts of food he will be taking in right now.

Avocado is a great finger food high in good fats.

[moojie]

Thanks! I think we'll be having avocado for lunch as I love it too. The HV did puzzle me yesterday as she said that I should start cutting down feeds to encourage him to eat more solids. Luckily I'm ignoring that advice and the also the bit where she said I should use formula in his food to give him vitamins???

Do I need to give him vitamin drops though?

[ScaryBOOAlot]

No need for vitamin drops, breastmilk is far better on that front. Also breastmilk is higher in fat content, too.

I can't stand this bullshit about needing vitamin drops if you're breastfeeding. How on early did we survive for thousands of years without formula?!

[moojie]

Well that's what I thought! I'll take their advice with a pinch of salt as ds2 seems perfectly fine to me. For lunch he had avocado on a rice cake, blueberry pancakes with butter and natural yogurt. Quite a bit went down and he really enjoyed it. Thanks for the help.

[moojie]

Also mummysmellsofsick I would love to bf on demand however he doesn't demand! We were out for the day on Monday and he was in his buggy and had a massive sleep and went 5hrs between feeds. I only realised as I was in agony! He literally never seems hungry and will cry more for a sleep. He seems really keen for the solids thought reaching out and laughing when I put things on his tray but I guess that's the novelty factor.

[Startailoforangeandgold]

DD2 was EBF and fell off the graph.
She wouldn't take formula and was weaned slightly early (5months) on to the usual purees and lots of yoghurt/fromage fraise.

She quickly climbed back on the graph, reached 50% at a year old and at 11 is still there.

BLW hadn't been invented, but I don't see why a mixture of finger foods and some yoghurt and fruit purée shouldn't make a good compromise without loads of messy savoury slop.