7m old gaining too much weight?

[NK6fd49648X1242ec2ece2]

hello
I've been reading these boards for ages but this is my first ever post so here goes...
My baby is 7months and the hv thinks I should try to cut down on the breastfeeding. I have no idea how we'd go about this as he's used to feeding very frequently - maybe roughly every 2 hours (day and night) but sometimes more or less than this. She said if I was ff she'd be telling me to reduce to 3 bottles a day by 9m so with bf to aim for no more than 6 times in 24h. This came about because I took him to be weighed this week and he's gone from 2nd centile to nearly 50th in the last 2 months.
Background is that after birth he was following 25th centile until about 8 weeks, when he dropped to 2nd - cue no end of hassle and interventions (grrr), then he followed that line perfectly until 5 months when he started solids (mostly mush as dp can't comprehend blw)

So is gaining weight faster than average really a big problem? Or should I just ignore it? Please help!

I would cut down on the solids before cutting down on the BFing. Maybe start doing more of the BLW stuff so he can control the intake himself, rather than having purées put in his mouth?

He is still a tiny baby and needs the milk more than anything else.

This is extraordinary advice, it really is....sounds like you would do well to find a second opinion, verylongusername.

There would normally be no reason at all for a breastfed baby to reduce his intake of breastmilk. She seems to be asking you to put him on a diet.

Give-away is she is using formula feeding as a benchmark.

IME, anyone who talks about putting breastfed babies on any kind of enforced schedule is talking out of their bum...

My sister repeatedly told me to cut down on breastfeeding when DS was about 7 months but when I asked my HV, she said my sister was talking complete rubbish. Trouble is, some health visitors get very little training on how to support breastfeeding mums so they come out with the same sort of advice as my sister.

Breastmilk is a perfectly balanced diet, and babies are generally the best judges of how much they need, so I would have thought that your DS's weight gain is what's right for him - it's not like you're feeding him sweets, chips and ice-cream!

Definitely seek a second opinion.

Hum I believe they say you can't over feed a BF baby. I'd go with Morloth suggestion before trying to cut brestfeeds out.

Baby's should be getting 80% of their nutrian from milk at 12months, so cutting back of milk seems a little premature at this age.

This is a usefull link for introducing solids to a BF baby.
www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html

Thanks for your replies - I thought the advice was a bit odd! Will try to let him feed himself a bit more, though its not like we've been forcing purees down him, we've always stopped when he stops opening his mouth/showing interest. I've managed to see another hv today through a breastfeeding group and she didn't seem too worried and said I should probably just carry on as he seems happy and healthy (he's just started crawling and can't stay still!) so we'll see how it goes