9 month old weight loss

[bumpsnowjustplump]

Hi all, I am just looking for some help if I can. My dd3 is 9 months old on Saturday. She is bf on demand and also has two meals a day + snacks. She is very active and alert and hitting all her milestones. I am not at all worried about her development. However on paper she is not doing very well at all. She was born 9lb6oz and now at 9 months is 16lb. She has dropped from the 98 centile to just above the 25th centile and has yet to double her birthweight. In the last 5 weeks she has lost 2 oz which isn't much over the 9 weeks before that she only put on 4 oz.

I spoke to the HV today who said I need to cut out breast feeds at meal times and only feed her inbetween meals if she needs it. I need to up solid food and stop blw and start spoon feeding her. I dont want to stop BLW as it is easy for us and it is a struggle feeding DD3 as she doesnt like me spoon feeding her. I also dont want to cut down BF as she is showing no signes of hunger at all and when i forced my son to stop feeds he totally weaned himself. But at the same time i dont want to ignore advice and cause her any damage.

I thought up to a year BM was the main food source so if that is the case surely I shouldn't be cutting out feeds should I? I feel really confused how can she be losing weight but not be hungry? I dont know what to do now, I am second guessing myself.

Has she been ill? teething so off her food? Just started moving? Could any of those explain the weight loss? Its such a tiny amount, I wouldn't worry yet, but go back in a month, and see what she weighs then.

If you do want to do something now, I would suggest totally the opposite to the HV. if I want to loose weight, I cut down on full fat dairy, so I'd offer BM MORE often, and keep up with the solids - and increasing the calorie content of those - so apple crumble and custard, not apples, iyswim?

But all that advice comes with the warning that I have no medical qualifications, just 2 little BF boys.

She hasnt been ill in the last 5 weeks. She was on the move before this time as well. She has started climbing in last week or so. I am not too worried about the 2lb it is more the failure to put on weight over the last 11 weeks that is more of a worry. 11 weeks ago she weighed 15lb 12oz today it is 16lb. So only an increase of 2 oz in 11 weeks. However in those 11 weeks she has started moving, two new teeth (although no decrease in foods noticed), and did have a chest infection about 8 weeks ago. Surely bf on demand is the right thing to do, then i am giving her what she needs when she wants it. I am worried that if I withhold milk she will not eat solids because she wants milk and then my supply will drop and no longer meet her demands.

What do you think about spoon feeding to ensure she is getting some? To me it seems a step backwards, she is very good at feeding herself but there is a lot of waste. I just feel like I would be forcefeeding her...

Personally, I'd stick with the blw, but thats pretty much what I did (tho soup, wetabix and yoghurt were spoon jobs!), so is obviously my preference!

Remember the growth rate has to slow down at some point - they can't keep gaining at the rate they did when newborn, but I've just got DS1's book out, and his growth didn't slow til 9-12 months (when he lost 3oz in the 3 months, no gains, and noone said a thing). He has put on 9 lb in the past 2.5 YEARS!

DS2 hasn't been weighed nearly as much, so can't give those details, sorry! At 15 months, I have just moved him forward facing, when he weighed about 21lb.

Thank you nextphase, I dont know why I am second guessing myself she is such a happy, alert little girl. I am going to carry on as we are and see how things go in a month or so . x

I think your HV needs retraining. Milk should still be their main calorie source and is more calorific than anything they can get from solid food right now.

Truthsweet on here has a great chart regarding how much of their intake should be from milk and how much from solids. What they need from solids is quite a small amount at this age.

I would have thought that withholding milk to try and make her eat food is not the way to go!

I would, if it were me, stick to BLW, but up to 3 meals a day or offer food whenever you are. And I would also offer BM whenever you can during the day.

I know at that age when they're on the move and interested in things, they 'forget' to drink boobie milk. So offer all the time!!

Thank you, I am glad that I am going about everything correctly. I have just shown this thread to dp as well as he was starting to worry as well. So glad I posted thanks

I get the feeling I have a reputation for being monomaniacal interested in complementary solids & bfing .

Here's my spiel:-

6-8m need 130 kcals of complementary foods and 485 kcals from milk (approx 650ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) total 615 kcals a day

9-11m need 310 kcals of complementary foods and 376 kcals from milk (approx 500ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) total 686 kcals a day.

12-23m need 580 kcals of complementary foods and 314 kcals from milk (approx 420ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) total 894 kcals a day.

Full details here on page 18. Pleae note that there is different values for industrialised/developed countries and developing countries. I have listed the industrialised/developed countries figures.

If your HV says something along the lines of 'Well the WHO is not really for the UK it's for poor countries so we don't follow WHO guidance in the UK', this guidance is specifically split between developed (i.e. the UK) and developing (i.e. 'poor' countries) in the recommendations for calories coming from BM & complementary foods. She may find it interesting read (hopefully!) but don't be too hung up on the ml amounts as it's just really a guidance not absolutes (i.e. if a 10m baby is only on 1 bf a day and isn't taking any formula then there is pretty much a guarantee they aren't getting enough BM as it would be difficult to have 1 bf and drink 500mls!).

If your baby doesn't eat much in quantity make the most of what ever it is you are giving her calorie wise - so make sure her foods are calorie and nutrient dense (pages 21 & 22-24) rather than low kcal/empty kcals IYSWIM.

Also worth ruling out any food allergy/intolerance - DD3 went from 91st%ile to 2nd%ile and this was put completely at the door of her repeated bronchiolitis attacks (10 in her 1st year alone). It turns out she has a wheat allergy (mild luckily) but since going wheat free she has grown so much (4cm and .5kg in 2m - which doesn't sound much but she is nearly 3y so it is comparatively!) and her development has just shot forward too.

Truthsweet thank you so much for that it gives me a come back next time although I am very tempted to just lie, it seems easier. DD had bronchiolitis at two weeks old and has had lots of chest infections (although touch wood nothing for about 8 weeks). We only introduced Wheat 2 weeks ago and she hasn't had any dairy yet (well except in my milk) but we are introducing that as from Saturday (9 months). Were their any other signes of wheat allergy? My mum is a celeac (sp?) and there are lots of allergy's in the family.

DD3 had really bad eczema (constantly wet and infected - pics on my profile if you have a strong stomach), wheezy all the time, if she ate wholemeal or half and half kind of bread she had gritty loose stools with bleeding nappy rash (her skin blistered on contact with the poo and the skin would just wipe off leaving holes ). She would scream while pooing too.

She isn't a celiac luckily she just has a low grade reaction (by RAST test - a kind of allergy test done in a lab with a blood sample) but she does have eczema flares if she eats too much barley/malt/non-gluten free oats as there is a lot of cross contamination in the storage/handling of grains (she's fine with one serving a day but when she has two or more it seems to flare).

Ah no really bad pics on my profile - I just checked and I must have taken down the one of her lower back which was grim (it looked like putrid raw meat in real life). I shouldn't say it was really bad as there are definitely worse cases out there but it was just a couple of dry patches on her knees/elbows like some baby eczema can be (DD2's for example)

Oh no poor baby how awful. :(

DS gets really bad eczema. We put this down to dairy and have tried to cut out some of the dairy he has. But we have noticed blisters like warts coming up all over his bottom and back. He says they dont hurt but they itch. Going to insist he be seen by someone now.

God I can't type today my posts haven't made sense at all (well not to me!). It wasn't just a couple of dry..... not it was just! And the low grade reaction should be low grade IgE reaction!

Your poor DS, eczema is nasty (I have psoriasis to a very mild degree and it can be horrible with the itching). Def. get the blisters looked at - I have no idea what they might be but they should be checked.