Bf myth or not?!?

[fanjobiscuits]

A friend from nct has just been told this by a relative:

" was advised (by a nutritionist friend, they think) that 16/17 lbs is a critical weight for babies, as past that point it is almost impossible to breastfeed them as much as they need to settle to sleep. She suggested giving baby rice, which worked for her at 4 months."

We are all pretty sure this is incorrect but just wanted to check our facts?

As we understand it, WHO guidelines say exclusive bf to 6 months, with no reference to a weight limit and bm has more calories in it than solids anyway. Also if this were true how do people bf twins?!?

Anyone have any links to credible orgs/studies regarding the above? Or experience of ebf heavier babies?

Any factual/credible input appreciated!

Advice is to ebf until 6 months as this is nutritionally best for baby. I had big discussion with my HV about this as my LO is a big boy (and a hungry one!) I wanted to start solids earlier.

In saying that, I started baby rice at 5.5 months. He started sleeping through at 6 months....although, he's decided against sleeping through now he's 8 months!

Well my ds2 weighs over 16lb now and he's 12 weeks. Not weaning him any time soon! He doesn't sleep too bad- 7-8 hour stretch on a good night, then wakes to Fred and straight back down for another few hours.

Feed not Fred!!

Sounds bollocks to me. How could it be impossible to breastfeed them enough? It sounds like a very old theory from back when sleep regressions were not known about or understood.

I saw a baby that was a stone born in the papers recently, by that idiotic advice the baby would probably be on solids after a few weeks. I have seen women who have massive babies who have managed to get to 6 mths because that was what they expected to happen. In the caves when we did not have blenders or baby rice babies could not be weaned until they are older early weaning is a modern phenomenon.

Expecting babies to sleep through the night at four months is also a very modern idea. Of course you can continue to breastfeed, just might have to do it a bit more frequently than certain people think is acceptable

That sounds absolutely insane. Also more of the bizarre notion that the ONLY THING THAT EVER WAKES A BABY UP is hunger, and hence if you manage to calculate how to stuff the scientifically reckoned quantity of the right sort of calories into them they will automatically sleep for twelve hours straight. No mention of the fact that regardless of what you feed them they will still often wake up looking for comfort because they're trying to roll over in their sleep/they had a dream/sore teeth/wind/are a baby.

Both my dss were ebf until around 6 months and both were sleeping through for a great deal of this time (ds2 changed his mind about sleeping through at around the time he was weaned as it happens ). They obviously didn't get the memo about this critical weight.

FWIW, it seems to me that some people think you should introduce solids early because a baby is too light, or too heavy.

Even if your baby is bang on the 50th centile, sleeping through, cheery and alert and as interested in food as he is the cat, or a leaf, or a rattle, there will be someone telling you that you're starving the poor mite.

Do what you feel is best, based on the best evidence you can find plus your knowledge of your baby and what suits your family.

It used to be "12 lbs or 12 weeks" for weaning, then changed to "16lbs or 16 weeks" (according to older relatives)...no evidence base for any of this! 6 months has been the evidence based recommendation for years now. And leedy is so right about there being a multitude of other things that wake babies (and adults!) at night.

My two year old is exclusively on solids, as you would expect, and still doesn't sleep through the night! Load of old tosh I reckon.

Sounds rubbish.

What does it even mean? Settle to sleep for how long?

My eight week old is just shy of 14lbs, so I figure I'm in trouble by the time he gets to 16lbs in a few weeks... Sounds like nonsense without any basis.

Thanks so much all!

Total crap.
Happy to help

:0) moondog

It's bollocks. The WHO advice is to breastfeed exclusively for six months then supplement with food until two years and beyond. A large baby's digestive system is not anymore developed then a smaller baby. And baby rice is shit, and should be confined to the pages of history.

Total bollocks. My bf had 2 big babies the second of which was nearly 10lb at birth. Both were bf and both slept through from 2 weeks.