7 mo old 9th centile at birth now 91st referred for dietician apt

[Shantotto]

Sorry this might be a very long and garbled.

My just turned 7 month old is 9.5kg. He gained a kg in a month. HV at clinic said they needed to keep an eye on his weight as he's gone from 9th to 91st. This has been mentioned before but no actual advice given!

I rang my assigned HV who knows our history and she's referring me to a dietician to see if he is overweight or has high bone density as I'm over 6ft and he seems quite long.

He's weaning but very gradually - after a couple of days of Jim self feeding purées he had an awful cold and ate nothing for a week or so. He then started to refuse all food from a spoon. He's doing fairly well with toast, vegetable sticks, bit of omlette or thick porridge with his hands. However HV insisting he needs purées. Talking about. Urging down on his formula already - seems a bit much at 7 months? Says if he is only having a few bits of finger food he's not getting enough nutrition. I thought it was a gradual process!

I have to mix feed as BF didn't work fully for me. It's also been suggested he's getting more BM than first thought so I'm beating myself up about giving him too much formula. Of course they don't know for sure!

He has 4 7oz bottles a day, around 3 in the day, 1 at night with a 10 min breastfeed on each side first. HV suggested giving 5oz after breakfast so that he is hungry around lunch and might eat some purée. Surely he should still be on mostly milk?!

I'm happy to drop his formula by an oz, I was going to try that anyway. But I'm not sure about her advice, and how a dietitian can help a 7 month old?

Just wanting to get this out as I've got post natal anxiety / depression from by BF struggles and I get really stressed out over his formula feeds anyway.

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience of seeing a dietician or having such big centile growth or similar? Thank you for reading!

Goodness , my ds was 21 lbs when he started weaning at 23 weeks and nothing was ever said about his weight. His formula intake sounds fine too - a minimum of 20oz is recommended from 6 months to 1 year but they will obviously take more if they are not taking much food yet.

If you don't want to use purees then don't. Finger foods are fine from 6 months and some babies never have purees at all

It might be because he's gone up 4 centiles. Apparently after 2 they worry.

I'm not going to worry too much about purées - just tried yogurt again and he was pushing the spoon away!

It's so stressful! Then they tell me not to worry after they've referred a 7 month old to a dietician!

Was he prem/ early at all? To be honest, if you are over 6 foot then I suspect the dietician will take one look at you, laugh, and send you on your way. Some babies are born bigger than they will be naturally, and some smaller, sounds like yours is finding his natural line. And you're right, food before 1 is just for fun and all that - I would ring the central HV office and ask to speak to someone about that, as she's giving very outdated advice.

I would drop a bottle.

Try
Bf bottle BF
9am breakfast
Sleep
Lunch
Bf
Play
Bf
Sleep
Tea
Be bottle bf
Bed
Be bottle bf at night

It's a good opportunity for you to get back to total breastfeeding if you want.

In another month drop the nighttime middle of night bottle. And just do bf. I think the 20oz is from all calcium.

Is his dad tall? Was he full gestation?

I don't know what a dietician could do either. Sounds like a normal 7 month old eating some solid food (purée or not doesn't matter) and mostly milk. I have to say I did drop a feed fairly soon after starting weaning and then reduced other feeds not long after that, but I think we were on more formula to begin with than you are. I was led by DD starting to refuse some or all of bottles as she ate more solid food, so yes a gradual thing. I certainly can't see that you're doing anything wrong and if you are tall and he looks to be going that way that should be taken into account.

I don't understand. Are they going to propose you put him on a diet?

He obviously isn't off the scale massive, and you aren't overfeeding him. The only "red flag" was his low centile at birth, which is of not much consequence imho.

I don't even know how much my (heavy) 9mo weighs, because I can't be arsed to take him to baby clinic he has milk when he first wakes up, then breakfast, then lunch, then milk around 3.30, then dinner, then milk before bed.

Plus snacks when he's shouting and driving me mad and I need some peace.

Don't stress about the formula either. I'm not quite sure what agenda the poster above is pushing, but whatevs. Certainly don't pressurise to get back to "total breastfeeding" if that's not what you're looking to achieve.

4 x 7oz bottles is exactly what DS was having at that age. He naturally dropped a mid morning bottle a few weeks ago. My cue to stop was him not drinking much of it. If your DS drains those bottles, I don't see the problem with carrying on with them

Firstly,jumping from 9th to 91st is almost identical to my little one. Except she was on 2nd to start with. No one battered an eyelid at 6 months when this was realised.

Secondly, don't listen to HV as you know him best. If you want to carry on as you then do so. In my experience HV are a waste of time. I actually don't understand the point and stopped taking mine about 1 year old.

I agree a dietician is overkill. Usually they send you to gp for a referral!

Mine was below the charts at birth and 95th at his 6,month check they questioned his feeding amounts, solids etc a bit but looked at me 5ft, first child and OH over 6ft and said not to worry he was just getting to his expected line. I don't remember exactly how much formula he was having but it was double the guidelines on the box.
He is.two half now still eats well compared to.kids his age (although less then his little sister) and isn't at all overweight. In fact nursery have been worried he is now getting too skinny. You can't win!
Go to the dietician assure them you aren't giving him.milkshakes or purred Mars bars and carry on with gradually dropping milk and increasing health suitable.foods.

Stop weighing him/seeing the HV. You'll find the problem disappears :)

Seriously, unless you think he has some sort of clinical issue- insatiable appetite for example, that could be causing inappropriate weight gain, carry on as you are. & months sounds to me like that growth stage before they hit a developmental spurt like getting more mobile.

I'd carry on as you are. Upping bf and cutting formula sounds about reasonable to me, but what else can you do?

Thanks everyone! I feel much better. I have been advised before to just not go and see the HV anymore!

I go to weigh him once a month for my own curiosity really and went this last time for a bit of advice on weaning. Which they were also a bit useless at.

Hedgeh0g over 6ft might be a slight exaggeration- I'm 6ft1! Partner is around 5'10/11 - we argue over his actual height frequently

DS was 8 days early. I was surprised I gave birth to a small baby, I was expecting a 10 pounder I'm so big.

I'd love to just do BF but as was well documented on here at the time, I had real issues with supply. No wet/dirty nappies, bad jaundice not improving, tongue tie (was snipped, made a difference for one feed, the only one I ever heard him swallow anything!) I took domperidone, fenugreek, drank nursing tea, pumped... Didn't improve. Even when he fed for about 20 hours in one day!

Just going to carry on with the finger food and not try and spoon feed an obviously unhappy with it baby.

Compared to other babies he does seem longer too. I don't think I'm imagining it!

Don't worry. Perhaps he was born on the small side and is now finding his natural weight/height?

DS1 was born on the 9th centile and was 91st centile by 15 weeks! He grew so exponentially that we were referred to the hospital at 13 weeks who recommended he was weaned. (Yes - at 13 weeks!) The advice was to avoid baby rice and to just give pureed fruit and veg, which I did. Didn't seem to make any difference to his appetite though.

DS2 was born on the 2nd centile and was over 50th centile by 6 weeks. I stopped worrying by then, as I'd worked out I obviously just grow them small inside me and then they balloon once they are out.

I think the key thing is whether their height and weight is in proportion i.e. if your DS is 91st centile for weight, but only 9th centile for height that's more of a concern than if he's growing all over.

Mine are now teenagers. Both tall-ish but very, very slim. They definitely don't look overfed, although they have very good appetites!

PS Given your heights, surely it's not that surprising that you have a 91st centile baby? You must both be 91st centile for adults yourselves, I guess?

only an agenda to be kind and do good in the wold vagueideas just responding positively to the original poster who was saying she was disappointed breastfeeding didn't go according to plan at the beginning and was sad at bottles