I know I know.. but Health visitor, bfing and weaning.....

[lunavix]

I hate these centile charts, I know they must only be designed to make parents paranoid, Ds was always nearly off the top, and now it seems dd will be nearly off the bottom!

She was born on 75th, dropped to 25th, and is now sinking towards the 9th. The health visitor said if when I go back in 2 weeks her weight is still dropping down the chart, I should start weaning.

Now I know a lot of HV talk rubbish when it comes to this, and some babies are small etc etc but is there any truth in it if they're dropping down the centiles? But not losing weight.

She was 19 weeks yesterday, and will be approaching 5 months in 2 weeks.

well, I have to admit, i would be a little concerned as she has dropped frm the 75th to the 9th.
is she putting on any weight at all?

how often does she feed?

but what did she advise you to ean her on that would have more calories than milk?

Has she displayed any of the signs that she is ready for weaning?

hairy - she dropped from 75th to 25th fairly quick, and has stayed on the 25th since. So we assumed the 25th was her line.

It's only over the last few weeks she's dropping again.

aitch - she started trying to say baby rice, so I scowled a little and said that I didn't believe in baby rice, so she said simple fruit and veg purees

LJ - not really, no. She's getting a real pain at nights, but I don't think it's hunger, more comfort. And sure she watches us eat, but she watches us talk, read, play with ds.... so I don't think that's a good sign either

well it could be a growth spurt if she's waking more at night.
feed her on demand and see if that helps at all. you could also try squeezing more feeds in during the day to help her get through the night

I am feeding her on demand, and a lot during the day in an attempt to get her to sleep better (not longer, but more settled.)

lunavix, just feed her more! My ds2 did this, but more extremely - dropped from 99.8th to the 2nd. He did go through a phase of looking thin, (cue my dad saying 'I was very worried about him'), but we held out to 25 weeks or so, then weaned, and he has filled out a bit. You know your own baby - if he seems happy then have confidence in what you're doing.

Ds1 went from 75th to 25th pretty quickly after he was born and was down at 9 for a while. He's now 2.2 and 25th for height and weight.

I think a drop in weight gain and the question of being ready for weaning are separate things tbh. You won't find any food which is as calorie rich as milk so I really don't think that giving her some pureed food will make that much difference to her weight. How about giving her more milk feeds until she is ready to wean?

lunavix - how often does she bf during the day ? Does she also feed at night ?

Can you tell us her weight as it stands now ?

Kellymom has a very good chart based on the unicef charts and unicef now have a new chart for bf babies. It may be worth looking at these to put your mind at rest.
I don't know if HV's are giving out the unicef charts to bf mothers, if not, they should be.

The myth among HV's is that baby rice helps a baby put on weight. It doesn't. I can't see why on earth a 19 week old should go on baby rice.

BM is the fattiest thing - well may be apart from lard - that you can give her. I think the first recommendedation should be to bf more often, if you can, and see how it goes.

I actually stopped seeing my HV when DS was 3 months old. One gets fed up of hearing rubbish. I bought scales and to this day weigh him every few months at home. I also ditched the Red Book chart and always used the unicef chart.

My son went from being on the 50th centile at birth, to hovering between 9th and 25th. At 2.5 yo he is still on the same line.

He is short and quite skinny (apart from an amazingly beautiful chubby cheeked face !)compared to many other boy toddlers. But that is because his mum is a short arse not beacuse he hasn't had enough breast milk !

I held on without any problems until he was exactly 6 months old, never bothered with baby rice, went straight on to fruit and veg. and very soon afterwards to chicken and meat in order to pump up his iron level.

In conclusion: as someone else has said, if she is alert, active and healthy, and it is just a case of SLOWING DOWN in weight gain, I personally don't see a problem. I would only get concerned if a baby didn't seem healthy. I would just try and get more breast milk into her, if at all possible.

is your baby losing weight or levelling off?

you don't have to go to see the HV and you don't have to have your baby weighed. if you aren't finding it helpful then don't go. some baby groups have scales so you can weigh your baby yourself, that's what i do, about once every 6 weeks or so. then you don't have to deal with interference from HVs.

how does your baby seem generally? happy, alert, progressing well? weight isn't really the be all and end all.

Apologies for going on about UNICEF -the charts are put togther by the World Health Org (WHO)

Here is the link to kellymom - kellymom says she will be updating her website with the new WHO charts soon.

this

ds always gained weight but did drop down the centiles and was off the bottom at one stage, although he was pefectly happy and dveloping normally. i was under so much pressure to supplement with formula and did end up starting solids at 24.5 weeks which was rather a shame in hindsight. anyway eventually HV referred poor ds to a paed who wrote my gp a letter saying i was neurotic and obsessed with weighing . the moral of this ramble? do not go to baby clinic.

lunavix, also see this thread from earlier esp tiktok's first post.

actually i am quite cross on re-reading your op - i bet yr bloody stupid hv KNOWS it is 26 weeks and arrogantly thinks they konw better

fishie that gp letter is disgraceful. The only neurotic people I have ever come across have been the health staff in my EX-surgery not a neurotic bf mum in sight !

Agree fishie. My hv said "It's not really meant to be 6 months. They only say that so that everyone waits until 4 months."

Haven't been to a single baby clinic with ds2 and I feel much better for not going!

Right ok, sounds like some HV's also need a couple hours doing maths lessons:

4 + 2 = 6

There is a 2 month difference between 4 months and 6 months !

My dd started off on about 51st centile and around 4 months dropped to 9th pretty rapidly. Fortunately I had a sensible hv who said so long as dd was alert, happy and had her baby fat there was no problem. She said if the only thing worrying me was the chart, throw the chart away.

yes, ridiculous but it does make me laugh now. although what a terrible waste of resources.

fof is hv and she believes herself so much better than all the rest of them - bf friendly etc etc. she still says "oh it's changed once from 4 months, it'll change again" so we are all utterly doomed.

Oh, twaddle. Fruit and veg purees have fewer calories than breastmilk so how in the name of all that is holy is weaning her onto them supposed to help her weight?

What sort of size adults are you and your DH/DP?

If she is not losing weight, is happy and alert with plenty of wet and soiled nappies, then I really wouldn't worry. You don't need to keep taking her back to get weighed, either.

Lunavix - Dd also dropped to the 25th centile for a while. She then dropped down to the 9th centile. The HV said it wasn't a problem at all as dd was/is very alert and meeting all her milestones. I started weaning at 6mths and dd eats very well but is still on the 9th centile at 9mths.

there is a big difference between a baby that is gaining weight at a slower rate therefore slipping down the percentiles

and

a baby that is losing weight.

i bet yours is the first i mentioned.

i bet that your baby is also more active. another documented reason for slower weight gain. and i bet he is hitting all his developmental milestones.

Weight loss does not = weaning needed, in my humble opinion