Weight gain stalled at 6 months

[CinderellaSweepsUp]

I don't know if this is the best place to put this, as there are a few things going on, but hoping someone can reassure me.

My 7 month old DS was EBF to 6 months and is a big baby, between 98/99th centiles and at a weigh in 2 months ago he was around 22lb , which was in keeping with his 'line'.

I started weaning him at 25/26 weeks. He took to solids really well, but became ill with a cold at around the same time, which led to respiratory difficulties and required him to have an inhaler for a couple of weeks, so although he was still enthusiastic with his food he didn't take on too many solids during this time, averaged out at 2 smallish meals a day during this time and I tried not too push it too hard, just made sure it was always offered and that he was getting plenty of milk still, as I thought this was most important at this stage anyway.

I had him weighed again once he'd got better (a month later) just to see how things were, and his weight had stayed the same, the first time he hadn't gained weight since he was born. HV was fine with it, we attributed it to his bout of illness and she said to push on with the weaning and come back in a few weeks.

I thought things were going well, then this last weekend he became very ill again suddenly, and required hospital treatment, with what turned out to be Bronchiolitis. He stopped feeding and refused breastmilk for most of the day. He is still unwell but is recovering now and has taken both solids and milk in the last day, and had wet nappies, but what worries me is when they weighed him in the hospital he weighed a little less even than the time before.

This would be two months nearly with no weight gain, and yet to my knowledge he hasn't dropped any milk feeds, and he still wakes regularly throughout the night for feeds.

I don't know how much to worry, is it usual for weight gain to slow this much due to illness/weaning? Shouldn't they always be gaining something at this stage even if they are 'big'?

I am away from home at the moment as due to baby's illness I've had to stay put with relatives I was visiting, so can't see my health visitor until next week at the earliest and would just like some reassurance or advice in the meantime. HV put such a heavy emphasis on solids, 'pushing in extra spoonfuls' and dropping milk, it doesn't feel quite right to me but this weight issue has knocked my confidence and I'm feeling a bit anxious about the whole thing.

Sorry this is long, any thoughts appreciated.

As he is ill I think you need to keep checking with the docs.

But, hopefully to reassure you meantime, If he is bright and active and hitting all his milestones he could be getting all he needs from milk. There is a growth chart for BF babies on kellymom website.

I only have experience ad a mum of four, but my kids did all lose weight from about 6m gradually as they got more active. They could be on or off eating solids depending on development spurts, illness, teething. Often they got fussy about being spoon fed and were happier to help themselves to finger foods or hold one spoon whilst I got in another. Currently my youngest is refusing to eat baby food and has only been tempted back to solids with fresh fruit bits which are not going to affect weight gain. I just make sure she gets plenty of milk whenever she wants and a vitamin supplement.

It's obviously been a very stressful time for you. If you could start fresh tomorrow, as if nothing had happened, what would your instincts tell you to do based on how he is?

I'm sorry you and DS are having a tough time. Unfortunately I am very experienced in dealing with bronchiolitis (DD3 had 10 admissions for it in her 1st year!).

When DD3 was 26wk we started her on BLW (first meal a roast dinner) and when she was 27wk she was again admitted with bronch. The Paediatrician took her off solids and back to ebf until she was recovered as bm would be easier for her body to deal with. She didn't go back onto solids for about 3 weeks for various reasons and re-started them just fine.

On the weight gain front DD3 was a biggish baby at birth at 8lb 10oz, just before the first bronch. episode she was 11lb 4oz (8 weeks), at 6m she was 13lb 4oz (in 18 weeks she put on 2lb and had had 4 bronch episodes) at 12m she was only 17lb 13oz so a gain of only 9lbs in 1 year. She is 2.1 now and weighs about 26lbs so is climbing now (she has asthma/viral induced wheeze now she is too big for bronch.).

Bronchiolitis can really effect weight gain, firstly they use extra muscles to breathe during an episode (you may have noticed DS's tummy bulging and his shoulders rising when trying to breathe), their heart rate is often sky high (DD3's was so often over 170 they turned the alarms off!) they are often put on 'short rations' by the hospital as a full stomach inhibits their ability to breathe (puts pressure on the diaphragm) or they may well not feel able to feed properly so don't take their normal amount of milk of their own accord and being ill does burn a lot of energy.

DD3's paed. has never been worried by her lack of weight gain and encouraged me to continue to bf and offer solids but to not worry if she was ill and went off her food, just to keep up with the bfs as and when she wanted them.

We did give her a very high fat diet once she was back on solids and she had at least a pint of double cream a week in her food (porridge with double cream and fruit, mashed potato with DC/butter/cheese, scrambled eggs with DC/cheese, rice pudding with DC & fruit, pasta with veg in DC/soft cheese/cheddar sauce, etc) lots of cheese, olive oil, bananas, anything calorific (yet nutritious - I wasn't giving her Big Macs!) which did help the weight gain but it was still on the low side. She still had fruit and veg but I tried to make sure she was getting at least as many calories in her food as she would have got has she had a bf instead (so no 35kcals a jar baby food or piles of carrot as a lot of 'weaning foods' are very low kcal).

All this rambling is just to say it's normal for a baby who has had bronch. to have lower than expected weight gain or even to lose weight (it may well be that the scales were off at the hospital or they weren't very accurate at weighing - DD3 got weighed in her wellies at her last admission so I didn't put that in her red book!) as long as they are well in themselves it doesn't seem to be a major concern/red flag.

I really hope your son starts feeling better soon and you get a chance for some rest at your relative's house - it's tough staying in hospital with a poorly baby.

Thank you so much for replies, my husband had to go home for work last night and have been feeling quite isolated, so it really helps to get some perspective.

Frankenonsense what you describe about feeding is exactly how it's been with my ds, he likes loaded spoons and will happily dig in with his hands and so I have been doing combinations. I was fairly relaxed about it as he seemed to be enjoying his food and quite a lot seemed to be going through judging by nappies, but have started to doubt myself.

Since he's been poorly he has been refusing 'gloopy' spoon food, but has been having a go at toast with cream cheese and slices of ripe pear so have been letting him get on with these and not forcing the issue. Trouble is I have my mum in my ear saying I should be making sure he gets a jar full and implying I was starving him when I let him 'just' have milk.

Thanks for sharing so much of your own experience with bronchiolitis, TruthSweet. It's helpful to hear from someone else who has been in the same situation, and so much of it makes sense. He has been working very hard physically with his breathing, and as he is very mucousy I think that must obviously affect his desire for solids. Good ideas about high calorie solids, I've been torn between thinking he should eat more, and then worrying about filling him up on low calorie stuff.

The doctors seemed happy enough with him as they didn't think he required tube feeding, and were not overly concerned with his weight, but then he does look large, and to be honest I probably wouldn't have noticed anything wrong if I hadn't seen the scales. Felt guilty that I had been blase about his feeding and missed something.

Since he has been back from hospital, he has been very bright eyed and bouncy and enthusiastic about his toys despite still being extremely wheezy and tiring easily.

Sorry for the ramble, just trying to think things through. DH isn't coming to get us until the weekend when baby is better for the journey, so helpful to sound some of this out.