To consider weaning before 17 weeks?

[ThoughtsPlease]

Background, my 3rd child is currently 14 weeks, he is exclusively breastfed.
He weighed 7lb 9oz at birth, 5 days overdue.
At 5 days he weighed 7lb 11oz, at 2 weeks 8lb 3oz, at 8 weeks 10lb 11oz.
So in the first 8 weeks his weight gain averaged 6.25oz.
At 14 weeks he now weighs 12lb, average weight gain for last 6 weeks 3.5oz. He has dropped from 50th centile at birth to 9th at 14 weeks.
He has slept 11/12 hours at night without waking to feed since 7 weeks.
In the day he feeds a lot, and certainly lets me know when he is hungry!
The HV wants me to go back next week to have him weighed again.

Now my 2 DDs followed exactly the same pattern, they were both EBF and at 14 weeks weight gain had slowed down, and both had lost weight by 16 weeks. DD1 the doctor told me to give her 1 bottle of formula a day which I did, but then weaned her about 2 weeks later, she put weight on again very quickly. When I saw the same doctor with DD2 he told me to wean her, as clearly my children did this. She also put on weight again very quickly.

I will go back next week and get him weighed again. But if he hasn't put any weight on, or very little, or lost weight i am against giving him formula for a few weeks when actually with DD2 from just weaning her at 16 weeks she put on 18oz in 2 weeks, went back up to the next centile line and has stayed there ever since.

Ironically when I took him to be weighed this week and the HV said do you have any concerns, I told her about my DDs while I was undressing him and she said oh he looks very healthy, he is very alert etc etc, let's just wait and see when I weigh him, I am sure he is fine. (As if I was being overly concerned or something). Then once she weighed him she wanted me back next week!

I wouldn't replace calorific bm with the sort of solid food he doesn't need yet anyway. I'd also stop all this regular weighing because weight gain isn't a constant, weekly achievement. If your ds is becoming more active, he may go through a bit of a plateau. But if he is clearly healthy I'd carry on as you are with the exception of all this weighing. I wouldn't start waking a baby who sleeps so well either!

You know your babies and you have weight-gain evidence on your side from your elder children. Go with your instincts, I say. YANBU.

Agree with everything Pandemoniaa has said. If your DS is gaining a little bit of weight and not actually losing any weight and seems happy and healthy, there seems no need to worry.

As someone else said, the advice has gone from 12 to 16 to 26 weeks in recent years. I think what we've lost is the knack of listening to what our babies tell us. Advice is advice and even that advice doesn't intend to reply that all babies are the same and develop at the same rate. I was told by a paediatrician that the most important thing is the tongue reflex. The baby should have lost this before you attempt weaning.

FWIW, I feel your pain. My son (now 11) was feeding every 2-3 hours, 9oz of hungry baby formula, not sleeping through the night. When we ate he tried to steal our food!! We took a punt that he was hungry and we began weaning at 14 weeks (4 week before the recommendation at that time). Never looked back, healthy happy baby. He was just ready. My daughter on the other hand didn't even want to look at solid foods until about 7 months. Nothing would persuade her to take it. she was happy with her milk. End result, another healthy happy baby. They were just different.

If you've watched your baby and he seems hungry then in the first instance increasing milk would be the best bet. If you're sure that you simply can't produce or cram any more milk into him, then it may be that your baby is an early starter and you need to supplement the milk with the beginnings of solid food.

Again, only you know your baby well enough to decide. Take advice from MN, take advice from your HV, take advice from family and friends. In the end it is your decision.

Good Luck

I would say your HV needs retraining, should only be weighing once a month even if there is concerns at this stage. (Though as a health professional I know the worry and the temptation to bring babies back sooner regardless of guidelines so don't blame her)
Also I plotted the weights you gave on the UK WHO chart and to me it looks like he hasn't even dropped a whole centile, that he started on the 25th centile at 3.4kg (ish) (birth centile is irrelevant is from old data, now only counts from 2 weeks) and is now between 25th and the 9th. Is this right or am I converting completely wrongly or have you got old charts? new charts here New growth charts It is normal to drop up to 2 centiles so his weight looks pretty good. Would obviously be different if he starts to lose like your DDs.

The baby is asleep for half the day. I'd say the first place to try and introduce more calories is through extra milk feeds.
I feel I "know" my baby, but how could I possibly know whether his gut is ready for solid food?