to wean at 2.5 months?

[BigFatHeffalump]

my doctor is very concerned about ds's weight. They have tried pushing me to give formula as a supplement but this affects my supply every bottle I give (seriously).He is in the 9th centile and VERY long so looks really scrawny. He was 9 pounds at birth but I feel that is because I grow large babies (dd was 9.7) he was also 16 days over due- but he very much takes after my husband who is also long and scrawny.

I feel I grew a big baby but that it's his nature to be slim so he is falling on the charts. But his doctor is making me nervous and I feel like I could be put on some kind of register if I don't make an effort to fatten him up. So would I be very unreasonable to start weaning him now or in a few weeks time?

I don't want to switch him to formula because he enjoys breast feeding and doesn't do well on formula. I was thinking of adding avocado for the fat content to his diet?

Your DS sounds alot like my DS (now 21 weeks). He was born 8lb 8 at almost two weeks overdue but has dropped steadily from the 75th to the 9th percentile. He is very very long however (has been over the 90th percentile for length since birth). He's gaining weight steadily, just more slowly than the norm, and is alert, lively, content etc etc. The HV has muttered occasionally about formula but I'm inclined to trust my eyes rather than the charts. I'm not at all 'ideological' about BF v FF. I just amen't sure what it would achieve for a baby already fed on demand and apparently satisfied after each feed blah blah. Perhaps I'm being complacent, but maybe some babies are just naturally longer, leaner than the average, just like some adults. I've been borderline underweight all my life and I eat like a horse.

Go ahead and wean him if you want him to choke horribly and be seriously I'll.

that is so sensitively worded

OK was having trouble typing everything I wanted to yesterday as ds was feeding.So couldn't respond to all the helpful suggestions (or even the unhelpful ones I'm talking to you weathermerrier).

But basically ds does not in anyway seem unhappy at the end of a feed. he mostly goes to sleep or just pulls away and smiles like the village idiot at me.
we have all the requisite wet nappies.

Firstly there is a tendency in America to induce at an earlier date than term I have noticed so I haven't met anyone with as heavy babies as mine (not that mine are massive by a long shot) but I think the doctor may just not be as used to large babies and the possibility about them falling on the centile chart (to where they should naturally be). I am a heavy set woman and it was mentioned early in the thread this could cause a large baby and dh is 6'3 and slim and ds looks just like dh's side of the family.

I have no feelings personally that he isn't getting enough milk or is anyway unhealthy. DD I mix fed from the beginning because she wasn't getting enough (due to latch issues) I would never risk him by not feeding him formula due to me being anti formula etc if I felt he needed it.

I really was just wondering if anyone had any advice about early weaning in special circumstances.

Thanks for all the very helpful suggestions I am going to ask this be moved to bf like chipping in suggested.

Hello,

At the OP's request, we're are going to move this thread to feeding because it's a better fit.

Thanks
Sandy
MNHQ

Can you google the uk growth charts, that might give you another perspective?

I haven't read the entire thread, but are you under a paediatrian.

The 9th centile is normal and babies often slim down after birth if they were born large. DD was on 0.4th centile at a year old and we are over the moon that she is now on the 2nd centile.

Before six months babies cannot digest solids and if you gave him solids then they would just pass out the other end undigested.

I think you need to follow the advice of a paediatric consultant. Prehaps mix feeding with a specialist high calorie formula would be better solution than introducing solids. Sometimes health professionals suggest adding a small amount of baby rice to thicken a feed in the case of severe reflux. However you need medical advice from a real life health professional rather than some random person accross the internet.

It might help to take freenugeek to increase your milk supply

If your in the states then you could try contacting your local LLL group to give you more help with breastfeeding www.llli.org/. Not sure how well trained the lactation consulants(hospital basied ones) are but the LLL seem to be very good.

Good idea to contact LLL - there are loads of them in US and they train the same way as here (LLL began there).

breast compressions help with the falling asleep and slow sucking, it is like 'Holy cow! Here comes some more!' and they start sucking like mad with a surprised expression on their face.

The feeding on one side for more than one feed is so they get more of the calorific stuff, otherwise they just take a lot of the watery milk.

I found Jack Newman's articles very useful when I had my second slow to gain kid. Here is one about knowing if they are getting enough.

www.breastfeedingonline.com/4pdf.pdf

Here are the rest including videos
www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml

Rational brain, genuine question from the mother of a second centile baby, but thanks.

I had a similar situation when DS was 2 weeks old. We were told he would need to be readmitted to hospital if he didn't put on X amount if weight. My midwife suggested expressing after every feed and then feeding that milk to DS at the end if the next BF. it was hard work but worked well and helped stimulate supply which formula wouldn't ( as you were concerned about).

Sorry if someone has already suggested similar, I didn't read all the posts.

Hold on.
Big babies do lose weight at first often, we had a panic because of that early on with a big baby. Remember 9th centile means that nearly ten percent of babies are smaller than your baby.

It's trends and progress of your child you should heed. If he is putting on weight and the graph is going up no HV would worry, unless there were other factors, like real health problems etc.

Sounds lie he needs some consistency, and being pressured in different directions by different advisors isn't going to help. Remember doctors don't see small babies day In and day out, they only know facts, or about health problems, that's what they are there for. Heath visitors, for their faults, do see babies all day, and they know more of what 'normal' means, and how broad it can be. I've been told all sorts of weird things by GPs about babies.

Perhaps he's just settling down to be that shape and size? Also remember that the charts are a amalgamation of thousands of children, so they look constant, but no real child puts on weight steadily, they all have spurts and plateaus....

Good luck