Bf 7mo baby born on 98th centile now slipping off 75th. Feeling bit annoyed about weigh in experience today...

[stottiecake]

The hv was saying he is not getting enough food/ milk (dairy)

He is bf and feeds on demand and loads during the night (yawn). He naps on my lap at least once a day and feeds on and off then too. I am doing blw and most of it ends up on the floor but a fair bit must be getting in as it's coming out the other end!!

I thought it was 'food for fun 'til they're one'?

Hv says he's not getting enough vitimins and we might need to see my gp.

Ds1 is cmp and egg allergic so have so far not given these to ds2.

Pah. Just feel that she's suggesting my milk's not good enough when I'm almost certain she can't be right... but there is doubt there now.

DS2 is very long - in 12-18mo baby grows and 18-24 for some brands.

He looks fine - he's not a chunky dumpling but there is some squidge going on and he's very twinkley.

Oh I don't blame you for feeling annoyed. DS is nearly 9 months and also has dairy and egg allergy. He was EBF till 6 months and I think in all that time he was weighed at MW visits, HV visits and only once or twice in addition. In fact, he hasn't been weighed since 6 months, where he'd dropped a couple of centiles. I may be shot down but I've always held with the belief that as he was growing out of clothes, had chunky thighs and chubby cheeks and seemed happy in himself, everything was fine. DS is also a very long, lean baby BTW. Trust your instinct - it sounds like you're doing a marvellous job.

You know you don't have to get them weighed, don't you? If it's not helpful, don't go.

All bf babies after 6 months are supposed to have vitamin drops anyway.

Threatening you with the GP sounds ridiculous.

Thanks abigboydidit

My instinct is that he is doing fine. But I might offer more feeds and see if that makes a diffference.

How are you getting on weaning without egg/ dairy? I used to do a roast every day for ds1. (nightmare...) But he also had other allergies which he has grown out of thankfully...

RitaMorgan I was just interested to see how he was doing as he hadn't been weighed since 3 months and I thought it would be a fun trip for ds1 (surestart centre - nice toys!!)

I didn't know that about vitamin drops - ds1 didn't have them.

Hi, vitamin drops is a newish thing but worth it for vitamin d for all babies from 6m to 5yrs now and iron from 6m for breast fed babies. Boots do one called wellkid that ticks the boxes...I'm sure there are others.

If baby hasn't dropped 2 centiles and otherwise happy why worry! One little extra though...my ds is dairy and egg allergic too, his growth was faltering and just got his results back, he's allergic to wheat too so if your Lo does continue to drop your paediatrian might look for other allergies.
Are they looking at charts for breast fed babies? Red book ones are for formula babes and expect them to be more chunky.

Sounds like you're doing great job with breast feeding...good luck with weaning with the allergies.there are lots of dairy free recipes out there. I just made rice pudding with soya cream to up the fat content for him...was quite yummy and did in microwave so now in chunks he can pick up-we're blw too.messy but fun.

passthestuffing It was the chart in the red book. How interesting that it was designed for formula babies.

Will look into the vitamin drops - thanks for the info!

My ds1 was intollerant to wheat but his grown out of it but have been keeping a close eye on any reaction to anything in ds2. Ds1 has oatly as he was intollerant to soya also - grown out of now but we've stuck with Oatly as he likes it!

Rice pudding - great idea - will look for a recipe! (or would you mind sharing?)

I phned ds1's consultant today for advice with weaning ds2 so hopefully someone will phone me next week.

Today I have been offering milk lots and food between feeds and he's had lots of both so hopefully we are on the right track!

Thanks for your message

My 6mo DS has gone from 98th to 50th. HV was initially worried but spent a good hour or so with us one afternoon then proclaimed him a 'happy healthy and extremely well loved baby. He's clearly thriving. Ignore the silly charts'. I could have kissed her. I think what I'm saying is, you know your baby best. If you're worried, see your GP but if the charts are your only concern then ignore them

I'm pretty sure chart in red book is now based on breast-fed babies or a mix-it's definitely been up-dated. My son went from 75th to 50th to somewhere above 25th. We were referred to GP as he'd crossed two of the lines and actually it was fine, not like punishment at all . It is policy to do this if child moves across two of the major lines in either direction. My HV was apologetic though as my son was clearly well and alert and not overly skinny. My GP was very pro BF and just gave my DS a thorough check-up and monitored him for a month. This was between 5 and 6 months. Just wanted to say that it's not necessarily a threat of the GP but can be supportive and helpful.

The charts were changed in approx 2009 and are now bf baby charts (some supplementation allowed though I believe). The previous charts didn't differentiate between bf/ff and the growth patterns were slightly different.

You can check the data set the charts in your red book are based on - it should say on the charts themselves or at the start of the weighing/measuring section (I can't remember off the top of my head). If, by some small chance, you have the old charts you can ask to have the weights plotted on the new ones.

My dd was born and told that she was on the 90th or 75th or something like that... And she's definitely dropped and is stable at 25th percentile. She's been that since 1-2 months and she's 16 months old. She's bf (still) and we did baby led weaning. I am 5ft 3 and under 8 stone.

Dh is 6ft 2. Our DS was also placed on the 90th percentile and is still on the 75th. He's 4.

As long as your baby is eating well and happy it'll be fine. I've stopped weighing in since I went back to work 10 months ago!!

To all above who kindly corrected me on growth charts thank you - you are completely right. I've rechecked on ds's red book and it says they are now based on breast fed babies internationally. Looks like I was out of date...every day's a school day!

Sottie, the rice pudding recipe I used was this one: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dairyfreericepudding_93141

I replaced milk with soya cream to increase the calorie content and I got bored of it trashing the pan so tipped it into a pyrex dish and microwaved it....put extra cream in. Microwaving means that it goes more solid so won't resemble normal rice pudding but it does mean you can divide it into baby fist sized portions for them to pick up. I used pudding rice and didn't bother with honey or orange. I guess you're probably getting the hint that I can be a lazy cook at times! microwave at 5 min intervals and recheck whether it needs more cream adding.

Good luck with baby, as others said I wouldn't worry too much about growth if baby's well in himself. It's good to get checked out as I said above there can be physical causes that it's best to get excluded, we would not have known without checking about my LO's wheat allergy as his other allergies are quite obvious with very impressive rash as soon as any dairy/egg gets need him but his wheat allergy is a bit more hidden and probably is affecting his gut absoprtion hence the growth faltering.

Thanks everyone for posting and for info on growth charts!

passthestuffing thanks so much for recipe link -will check that out in a mo. Finding it really hard to think up high calorie/ dairy free foods for him. But will definitely give the rice pudding a go!

dairy free ds1 stayed above the 90th centile in his first year (stopped getting him weighed after that). He was a really chunky monkey but now he's long and lean. I guess they're all just different! (mind you ds1 seemed to be attached to my breast most of the time whereas ds2 is a little more independant!)

thanks again