To keep saying it’s impossible to overfeed a bf baby

[bigBigbaby]

To my HV?

My 13 month old is really big!! Jumped up to the top centile line (was on the 25th a birth).

Ebf till 6 m. Eats healthily and actually quite small portions (I think)
Has a small bottle of milk after bath each day as we introduced that as part of bedtime routine from 8 months

Breakfast each day is porridge (1oz milk, dessert spoon oats, chopped berries and 3-4 slices mashed banana )

Lunch is usually a sandwich and veg sticks or a savoury pouch, and a yogurt.

Dinner is a small portion of whatever we have.
Small bottle after bath

She drinks water with meals but is breastfed mid morning and mid afternoon before naps and in the night this is what I’m being told is making her so heavy and that I need to cut the feeds but I’m disagreeing I think there are still benefits to having breastmilk but I’m being told those are cancelled out by the negative effects of being ‘obese’ at a young age

I just don’t agree I think once she’s running about more she will slim down surely ?

@bigBigbaby

The HV said the food intake / type of food is not concerning her at all as it’s predominantly savoury except breakfast but she thinks it’s the breastfeeds, I didn’t realise the over feeding only applies to ebf under 6m but then it’s confusing thst if you can’t over feed a baby who is only having breastmilk why after 6m is breastmilk the reason for weight gain if baby is still breastfed.

I think it’s hard as well as I don’t know if she’s feeding and getting 1 oz from me or 10 oz !

The milk isn't the reason for excessive weight gain after a baby is no longer ebf, the milk plus food is too many calories combined. HV is apparently of the opinion that the milk should be cut down but it's up to you whether you cut down milk, food or both - or whether you feel there's a chance your baby is just hungry and will lengthen out.

i would listen to HV
she knows about babies/toddlers/preschoolers.

@FortunesFave

Why is she having "vitamin liquid"? Especially one with sugar in it! Her diet is varied....what's your reason for giving a one year old baby vitamins? With added sugar!

All vitamins are best consumed through actual food.

It was the one recommended to me by the hv she said it had to be put in the milk and that I needed to be careful she didn’t get iron deficiency as it’s common in breastfed babies

how long do you intend to breastfeed?
do you have an end date in mind?

If you phase out anything I'd phase out the bedtime bottle. At 13 months she doesn't need a bottle or the extra milk. If she wants/needs milk she'll take it from a cup.

Breast feeds won't be adding to her weight as you say most will be comfort sucking.

I think it sounds like HV wants you to give up the breast feeding and she is using the weight gain as a reason. Which I don't think is very ethical.

But yours isn't a breast fed baby. She's a one year old eating 3 meals a day, and having milk as well. Sounds like quite a lot of milk.

This.

YABU because of course it's different if they are not only on breast milk

@HurryUpAndWait23

This information is absolutely useless unless you have a length for comparison.

Are you or your husband tall?

I’m 5’6 and dp is 6’1

I don't think weight before age 2 means anything really. My DS was very chunky as a baby and was 98th percentile for weight til age 2. After he started moving alot the weight started to decrease and by age 6 he was just under 50th centile where he has stayed (he's 9 now).

I can't remember what he ate really as a little one, but I do remember he ate A LOT once solids were introduced!! And he was always hungry! He had his first children's meal in a cafe age 7 months and ate ALL the fish fingers, chips and beans!! I'll never forget that!!

I breast fed at night til about 12 months I think, but he was eating so much and drinking loads of cow's milk by then, so didn't need any more breastmilk)

So yeah - don't worry! Get you baby active when they start walking and if they are still chunky age 4, that's the time to start worrying I'd say!!

Jigsawtrain Wow I had no idea! But why are they putting bloody sugar in it? I suppose it's to make it more palatable...but still!

Those saying it sounds like a lot of food, it doesn't to me but then I always think a lot of people get confused about portions...what people think is small is often too large.

This guide shows portions for children aged 2 to 4 and it might be more like this sort of amount that OP is giving to her 1 year old,

mumsgrapevine.com.au/2019/10/how-much-a-toddler-should-eat/

I'd wait a couple of months until she's walking to make any major changes op. Once she's mobile and toddling along all over the house she will probably slim out quite a bit.
Maybe if you feel up to it replace the formula with breastmilk at bedtime.
I wouldn't change the porridge breakfast either otherwise you might find she digesting it faster and hungry sooner.

@MrsLargeEmbodied

i would listen to HV she knows about babies/toddlers/preschoolers.

They're individuals as much as any other professional, some will be great, some will not. Is she up to date with all advice rather than personal opinion?

I found my hv absolutely useless to the point I worried about more vulnerable mother's believing the tripe she trotted out and this was confirmed to me when I moved and the next one was great and said she had some trouble with undoing the work of poor hv advice with other parents.

Honestly, I think you're doing great because you're thinking about it all and feeding healthily as well as BF. These centiles are skewed at times. DS1 was off the chart for weightband height from the age of 3 months. He stayed this way all through childhood- chunky. He was 17 this week and is a rather unimpressed 5 foot 10 (his mates are all way taller as is his wee brother!) and there's not a pick on him- 27 inch waist.

I have the opposite issue trying to keep weight ON DS3 (age 9) with health professionals weighing him. He'll balance out too.

It is also worth considering that HVs have almost zero experience of babies still being breastfed after 1 year.

I haven't read the full thread but going off on a slight tangent, my baby wouldn't drink milk from a cup either but would from one of these

Are the pouches pure veg or complete meals? If they contain pasta/rice etc they may be quite carb heavy when had in addition to a sandwich. Also I think it can be harder to regulation appetite when spoon-fed ( Disclaimer I can't remember where I heard that so may be nonsense). Babies do often slim down when mobile, so maybe reassess then?

she is probably experienced enough to know that you will want to stop breast feeding at some point

It’s very difficult for anyone here to help really as it depends so much on very individual circumstances.

The food sounds ok - although maybe a little too big a portion for only 13 months old and given all the milk in between and at night. I would say your dd doesn’t need vitamin drops given that she has a good varied diet. She also doesn’t need formula at bedtime - small amount of warmed cows milk in a cup is better imo. And she doesn’t need nighttime feeds either.

Despite mine and others’ opinions, really it’s down to what you feel is right for your little girl. I’ve seen many friends and family’s babies being very chubby and stocky as toddlers - totally slimmed down aged 5-6 onwards, and even more so much later after puberty.

I would definitely keep porridge, and vitamin liquid, both are brilliant for kids.
You could give a cup of blue milk at night, you don't need to go down to just water (is that because you also breastfeed right after?)
It's a little hard to measure how much milk they get from a breastfeed when they are starting to eat very well, it can often dwindle down until they stop themselves at this age and are just habit/comfort feeding, so introducing a cup of blue milk is still good for nutrition.

Your post with your plan of action sounds sensible OP. I also agree with PP that, because your baby never crawled, that she has not been as active as many of her peers and this will contribute to weight gain. Babies and toddlers usually slim down once they are crawling and walking/running in particular. I've always continued to BF on demand (when possible) my toddlers and it is still an important element of your baby's diet (as advised by the WHO).

Dropping the formula bottle sounds like a good idea. As for your HV saying babies over 9 months only need water at night, well, a lot of babies haven't read that particular rule book!

I think you sound like you have a sensible approach. Monitor how things go, but don't get too worked up by it all. Your baby will be running around very very soon and very likely you'll notice a change then. Health visitors do not always get it right (far from it in fact sometimes) and your instincts as the mother are very important. Also, you and your husband sound quite tall. Likely your baby will follow suit. Lots of toddlers will get chubby just before a growth spurt.

To me it sounds like baby is having too much milk and not enough solids. At that age mine we’re having porridge with full fat cows milk or 2 weetabix for breakfast, fruit or veggie fingers with dip mid morning, lunch or a sandwich, noodles with veg, pasta and homemade sauce for lunch. For size we’re talking about 4 dessert spoons of each pasta and sauce with a teaspoon of cheese. Mid afternoon snack of similar to morning. Tea of fish/chicken with rice, curry, spaghetti Bol etc of a similar size to above. Dessert would be Yoghurt. I breastfed only to sleep at night and during the night.
I’d swap the bottle for a cup and baby will naturally drink less of the evening milk. Get rid of the formula and change to full fat, distract during the day and increase solids to reduce milk intake. At 1 the benefits of breast milk are obviously still very much there but most of babies nutrition should be coming from food.
When baby becomes more active they will drop in centiles but it doesn’t sound like they’re having the right nutrition.
Also I never recommend vitamins added to milk, get the ones you put on a spoon. If they don’t finish the milk you don’t know how much they’re having.

@GintyMcGinty

It is also worth considering that HVs have almost zero experience of babies still being breastfed after 1 year.

Very much depends on the area the HV works in. Very common where I live (and worked, when I worked with HV’s)

I'd drop the night feeds. I did that with mine at about 8 months and stopped day feed around 14 months. As soon as the night feeds went within a week he slept all night and still does at 26 months🤞

On what planet is a 13 month old weaned-onto-solids toddler who has bottles “a bf baby”?

I would probably take a bit of a wait and see approach until your DC is walking, my DD was never overweight but dropped a lot of chunk as soon as she could charge walk about everywhere.

nojob - OP gives a sandwich or a pouch .. not both. She’s also said toddler feeds herself at meals (throwing some items on the floor), only at breakfast does she spoon feed her, and she stops when dd indicates she’s had enough.

@MrsRobbieHart

It only applies to exclusively BF babies which yours no longer is. So yes, your baby could be being over fed but I honestly doubt she is being. And if she was, it won’t be the BM that’s doing it.

Food is for fun until 1, your baby is only just over one so milk really should still be making up a good portion of her calorie intake. I’d just smile and nod at the HV and then ignore her.

Except that line about food before 1 is actually nonsense. [https://www.childrensnutrition.co.uk/full-blog/criticalnutrients]