To think HV is talking rubbish and babies can't be overweight?

[IdiotSandwich05]

Hi all.

DS is two months old and, according to his HV, overweight. He weighed 6lbs 12oz at birth (born at 37 weeks), at six weeks was 12lbs 10oz, and when I weighed him at baby clinic yesterday was exactly 15lbs. So yes a chunky monkey but I was pleased with this! He is EBF.

The HV insinuated I was overfeeding him and shouldn't 'feed him every time he cries'. I don't! She also mentioned him being at increased risk of obesity ect. Basically making it seem like I'm doing something wrong. This is my first time BFing and I thought it was going well! Neither me nor DP nor our daughter are overweight.

DS is also 63cm long which is on the 99th percentile, so to me that means he's big but in proportion rather than overweight. He is healthy, happy, and meeting all his millstones. He goes 2-3 hours between feeds in the day and 3-4 hours at night, so it isn't like he's feeding constantly. And even if he was, I thought you couldn't overfeed a BF baby?

Am I BU to think HV is talking out of her rear? He's not even solids yet, so how

DD was a massive baby (formula fed after 6 weeks), DH definitely overfed her, she was genuinely just a little ball). Normal healthy weight according to NHS BMI calculator now at 2.5. I really worried over it when a doctor mentioned it to me but she’s fine.

Chubbiest baby I have ever seen was ebf (literally rolls on rolls), totally normal weight now (was so impressed with her mum though). They grow so fast and their weight drops rapidly when ill so no I wouldn’t be worrying about changing anything. At 2 months as well, it’s ridiculous.

She's talking rubbish.
As long as the baby is happy and thriving then continue as you are and take no notice of her.

EBF babies fed only from the breast cannot be overweight.

Babies fed from a bottle (breast or formula) can absolutely be overweight.

My ebf baby looked like a sumo wrestler...
He grew up looking like a drainpipe.. now a teen his is broad and slim.

Hv said i was feeding him.gold top so they weren't concerned

Babies can be overweight - but not BF ones. Ignore…

The reason you can't overfeed a EBF baby is because it's natural, perfect food.

Think about if adults ate as mother nature intended: just food that came out of the ground or sea and wasn't processed. If all you ate was fish and veggies (with nothing added to it) you wouldnt physically be able to overeat and become overweight

The reason we overeat is because we have manipulated food so that it has that moreish ratio of fats to carbs. Nobody would binge-eat teaspoons of sugar but chocolate- yes. Would you binge-eat plain white bread? No: if that was all there was to eat you'd stop when no longer hungry. But add butter to it and it's addictive.

OP, I doubt that was an HV.

I expect it was a nursery nurse or at a push, a staff nurse.

There's a national shortage of HV and I know for us, we'll do the new birth visit and then ask the nursery nurse to do the 6-8 week review.

Look in your red book, it should say.

But either way, I would inform the HV service because it's such awful information and advice.

Ignore her. Some HVs are obsessed with babies’ weight. FWIW my EBF Gds was a real roly-poly Michelin Man baby - he soon lost it once he started running around and now 6 is tall without an ounce of chub. Might add that he did lose some baby chub when very ill with bronchiolitis (ICU twice). IMO babies need some reserve chub because they can lose it alarmingly quickly if they’re ill.

People say this all the time but what does it actually mean in terms of what can be measured? Overweight for older children is based on height/weight ratio, or it’s BMI in adults So what is overweight for a baby? Is there a maximum that no breastfed baby has ever attained which has been attained by a bottle fed baby? If so, is it published anywhere? Otherwise ‘EBF babies fed only from the breast cannot be overweight’ just sounds like a mantra.

@ImEasyLikeSundayMorning

I have no doubt there are excellent health visitors but I also know from experience there are terrible ones and some just not very good ones.

Only one HV has ever been of any use whilst my children were babies.

Only HCPs and Teachers seem to suggest that it’s not possible to come across a poor example of a person in their profession.

I come across rubbish accountants all the time.

Some of the views on this thread!

It is possible to overfeed a baby, but it's unusual, however they're fed. Bottle fed babies push the teat out or sick it up, you're not just pouring milk into them! More likely to be a result of making up the formula so it's too concentrated. But it's unusual.

Likewise with an EBF baby. Breastmilk isn't perfect, some mums make milk with the nutrients in less than optimum amounts, leading to the baby taking more and gaining too much weight. Some babies have a metabolic or other problem so they don't get the satiety feeling and keep feeding. Some mums have oversupply so the baby takes too much milk. There's more about it here:
kellymom.com/bf/normal/weight-toomuch/
Research into excessive weight gain in EBF babies:
www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jpem-2017-0028/html?lang=en

But these are unusual. The problem is likely to be dubious weighing by a clueless HV. Or maybe someone who isn't even qualified. If they genuinely thought there was a problem then the baby should have been referred to paeds.

And I would add that as there doesn’t seem to be a definition of overweight in a baby, the NHS BMI calculator only starts at 2, OP could ask the HV what she is using to say the baby is overweight.

She's an idiot. Crack on doing just what you are doing! xx

I wasn't suggesting anything of the sort 🤨

I was suggesting that many many areas are not sending out HV's for the 6-8 week review so it might have been someone totally unqualified in healthcare.

Either she had a shit HV, or a shit nursery nurse.

I was simply pointing out that the latter might have been more likely given the current circumstances but should complain.

What you took from my post was quite literally not written there at all.

Ages ago now, but I remember a friend being told by the HV to treat her 2 month old baby ‘like an alcoholic’ 😱 and restrict his feeds. He was just a big, hungry baby. Pleased to say she ignored her.

I had a nephew the same - bottle fed - at 2 months he was getting through 2 full bottles per feed. Now in his late 40s he’s fit and active, as always, and has never been remotely overweight.