help! bad health visitor advice

[sunglasses]

Had dd 4 and a half weeks weighed yesterday. she was born at 38 weeks and was around 7 lbs on 50th centile. she is now 8 lbs 6 oz and still on 50th centile if plotted correctly at 2 weeks after edd. however health visitor changed what had already been recorded in book and put the mark at 4 weeks after edd so it looked like she had dropped down a centile. i had asked to see her for some advice re bottle feeding -how often and how much. she couldnt tell me how much in a 24 hour period for her weight despite me asking several times- just said look on the tin! i told her she was feeding every 3 and a half hours and taking between 4 and 5 oz- i was a bit worried i might be overfeeding her and was also concerned that sometimes she seemed to look for more food only an hour after feeds, yet other times i had to wake her up for feeds. hv said i should feed her 5 oz bottles every 3 hours starting at 7 a.m and finishing at 10 pm, then to wake her up again at 11 pm to give her more so she would hopefully sleep through the night!!! i hadnt had any concerns about her waking in the night she usually only wakes once around 3 or 4 and surely she is a bit young yet. anyway came home and looked on internet for advice re amounts to feed. for her weight would need around 22 oz per 24 hours where as hv advice would mean she was on around 35 -40 oz a day!!!! what is she on about.
can anyone advise. i am really annoyed as i really wanted some well informed advice and she just didnt seem to know what she was talking about. i really dont want to overfeed my baby and i am concerned that she seems very unsettled sometimes after feeds- really twisty and tense. she cant bring her wind up very well at all and i dont want to aggravate the problem by stuffing her with more food. any help re wind problem greatly appreciated- tried everything and sometimes just cant put her down. like now sorry about no caps!

HV sounds unhelpful! I would say trust your own instincts! Have you tried giving dd infacol? I think it helped my DS who was a bit windy/colicky

yes very unhelpful- why are they so useless -i havent met one who can give definite advice. thank heavens for mn. will try infacol. thanks

Oh dear, how useless. Gotta go with schneebly trust your own instincts, feed her when shes hungry, if you try to overfeed she probably wont take it, either that or puke. Have you tried offering water between feeds, she could just be thirsty.

have been told by other mumsnetters that water is not needed as formula has water in it already and giving extra could be bad for babies blood. this is why it would be useful if health visitors were the fountain of all knowledge and could give clear guidelines. my baby currently seems to be hungry all day! after feeding she is windy and colicky which then after an hour of trying to settle turns in to rooting for food again. really baffled- thought formula fed babies followed much more of a pattern than breastfed ones but not this one!!

I think that 38 weeks is considered term so you need to plot her at 7lbs as if term and now as at 4 weeks. So she may not be 50th any more but she may not have dropped either. HV doesn't sound very helpful or reassuring anyway though.

but the red book gived a space to plot her birth weight at 38 weeks so 4 weeks later is 2 weeks after edd. she hasnt been around for six weeks so she cant have a reading for six weeks after she was born iyswim.

If she is 38 weeks then it is classed as full term. My daughter was born at 37 weeks and son were born at 38 weeks and they were always plotted as full term babies

LIZS and Christywhisty are right - she is considered term and should have been plotted since birth as such.

Hi

I have breastfed 2 so not sure about formula. My Sis in law uses Ms Ford's advice re how much and when and though its a v rigid routine the general advice seems ok on feeds for bottle fed babes. Otherwise though I think we could all benefit from less worry about the red book. I also find hvs hopeless, rude and patronising. With my first they didn't offer clear advice when I asked and now I don't want their advice they are angry that I hardly go. My dd is 6 months and very wee (as was I) and they are worrying my that she is bottom percentile though she is healthy, happy and feeding. Us poor trying hard Mums can't win. Must trust yourself. baby will let you know fi she is really ravenous. Often they are just unselttled at first and it v hard to know if its food, sleep, colic etc etc thats wrong. Infacol can help as others have said. Good luck.

In my red book says

"for a child born before 37 completed weeks draw a vertical preterm line at the appropriate week and plot measurements from this line for at least 12 months. for all later deliveries plot fom the EDD line."

40 weeks is only an average pregnancy. A normal pregnancy is defined between 37 and 42 weeks.

like bigcar said I don't think she'd take it if she wasn't hungry. Is it possible she thinks she's full but once she has a good burp there's a bit of room for "seconds"? My dd has always taken more than the 2.5x lb weight but thats breast milk so it might be different. Also she seems to have a growth spurt every week could that be it?

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules re feeding tho, like us somedays they fancy a bit more than others. As long as she's gaining weight which it sounds like she is (ignoring charting) I'd say you're doing great!

why do they have a space on the graph to plot weight at 38 weeks then? she didnt weigh her birth weight on her edd she weighed it when she was born at 38 weeks. In fact she actually lost weight and was nearly admitted back to hospital. None of this is plotted on the graph as it was all recorded in my notes which the midwife took away. I understand all your points about being term and not premature but then why have the graph marked out as it is if you can just ignore it and say she weighed her birthweight on her edd when in fact she had already been around for two weeks by then and was a different weight. it doesnt seem to make a difference to how she has progressed on the graph but it does mean that on her actual birthday she was 50th centile but if you plot that on her edd she was 25th. dont know if that makes any difference but its not accurate either way is it?

Megancat-funny how hv's differ isn't it? my dd also bf and between 9th and 25th centiles gaining some weeks and not others and they've said as long as she's happy and producing nappies not to worry!

dd was born at 41 wks and still started graph on edd. I think its easier for them to work out when they use those spinning date wheel things. I've also been told that it doesn't really matter what line they are on, they're just supposed to follow one - not that dd does!

I guess that we can only take from all this that it doesn't really matter what the line does as long as you are happy that babe is happy.

"why do they have a space on the graph to plot weight at 38 weeks then?"

Because if your baby was premature (eg born at 34 weeks) then they would plot her weight from a line drawn at 34 weeks, and 4 weeks after birth she would be plotted on the 38 week mark.

My ds2's date was changed in his red book because he was over 4 weeks early. I was told that all his weight/length etc would be adjusted for the first year but that was only because he was a preemie and quite ill when he was born. 38 weeks isn't technically premature.

I know where you're coming from sunglasses. My DS was born at 37 weeks yet was plotted from EDD and HV commented how small he was. If you plotted his weight from 37 weeks he would be on 50th centile and utterly average!

if my ds had arrived 8 minutes earlier he would have been born at 36+6, premature and height/ weight adjusted...it's all a bit arbitrary really but there has to be a cut off somewhere.

I was told that it often takes 6 weeks or more for a baby to settle down and find "their" line.

After all a baby is usually born at a weight their mother can carry, but their true physique will probably be a mixture of the mother and the father. So if you have a tiny mother and a huge father the chances are you will be born small but move up the centiles after birth.

Basically I wouldn't worry too much - easier said than done, I know.

Agree Missgolightly

Daughter was born at 37 weeks with positional talipes. Her feet were all bent inwards and it was pretty obvious she was squashed in the womb.She was 6lb 7 and on the 9th centile
I had seen the midwife the day before and she said to me as I left.
"Will say see you next week, but i really don't think so" She was born the next day.
She was never really interested in eating and lost a lot of weight in the first 2 weeks so put her on the bottle and she started putting on weight after that. By first birthday she was 50 centile.

my son ia 4.5 months and weighs a wjopping 19 pounds, I've had all that busines about him being too big, he was 3 weeks early and 8 ounds 13 ounces, he big bro was just the same 5 weeks early 7 pounds 1 ounce and his weight was big too and he is now a 5 year old tall skinny string bean. My HV's have annoyed me so much they have plotted his book sooooo wring the are lots of crosses outs and scribbles I am taking it in next week to have new page! They all seem to plot slightly differntly, some take off the 3 weeks and some don't and this makes a big difference to the curve! We've only just found our groove, with steady progress till then, at 4.5 months with routine and feeding and he has tailed off, not draining the bottles, leaving some in and going 4-5 hours between, 4.5 weeks is far too soon to be worried about weight, we had a wind problem, grip helped as did little and often and walking up and down stairs to joggle out the wind,. they do your head in don't they with coflicting advice, but she is your baby you do what you want and her sleeping, waking once is fantastic, well done, keep on doing what you are doing! xx