So, ds2 is 5 weeks and STILL isn't back to his birthweight.. Guess what the HV said....

[Olihan]

Keep going as we are at the moment, ie exclusively bfing . No mention of formula, or top ups or weighing him every day, just lots of support of the bf.

Is this right? Should this woman be practicing as a HV? Surely she's breaking every rule in the HV's handbook.

Next she'll be advising me to wean him at 6 months.

I was so I didn't know what to say.

She must have to have an armed escort when she goes to and from work, to protect her from the baying crowds of off-duty hvs calling for her to be stoned to death

can we give her a gold star or a badge or something?

or does she have a pasta jar?

I could probably find an 'I was a good girl today' sticker from my teaching days for her next visit.

I hope she has some kind of police protection from the formula companies!

When I was bf DD2, using nipple sheilds the whole time, she didn't make her birth weight till 6 weeks. HV at the time was nothing but supportive - gawd only knows what i'd've done if she hadn't been. They are a rare breed - but had a few good ones in Yorkshire. Must be statistical anomaly or something. Perhaps its a secret HV/BF sisterhood.

Did she try a funny handshake or anything?

she can get the award for the only sane HV apart from lulumama's then !

Emmy, now you come to mention it, she did have an odd way of rubbing her nose...............

ohmygod!!!!!!!! you need to clone her!!!

When I told my hv that I am still bf my skinny 16 month old dd, she said: 'carry on, that's the best thing for her with the antibodies your milk contains'!!!!

(my hv is in Belgium btw, where I live, and even in Belgium, she is the exception.)

I prefer yours to mine.

mine speaks to me whilst doing paperwork, obviously its so hard being a HV there's no time to just talk to mums............

The weird thing is, when I had ds1 3 years ago, she was completely the opposite and virtually made me feel like I had to ff.

Perhaps the real HV has been abducted by aliens and this is an imposter!

lol Olihan...but glad your HV changed her tune then, from 3 years ago....maybe she has had a bit more experience of bf now, maybe she reads forums like this and sees her fault and learns!
Must say, when living in Old Dalby the HV was fantastic there,. but then, she was an ex bfc aswell and very into bf herself, bf'ed hers past a year!

Look....I don't want to spoil the party, but not being back at birthweight at 5 weeks is very unusual, Olihan, and I am expecting your HV has checked everything else out.....your baby's gaining weight, yes? And doing all the sort of things a 5 week old should be doing, yes? And feeding often day and night? And weeing, and with a history of frequent pooing (might have slowed down now at 5 weeks)? And you are not sore, and you are confident your baby is feeding effectively?

Some babies do take a long time to reach birthweight, it's true, and support for bf shd not cease just 'cos of that, but if I were your HV I'd want to know bf was going well and didn't need to be 'improved', by, for example, more frequent feeds.

Argh, tiktok, been keeping an eye out for you so I could check this out! DH has been hogging the laptop for ages tonight - typical!

TBH, I know he should be well over his birthweight now and I am stressing a bit about it. It was just nice that the HV didn't instantly start banging on about topping up. Any advice you've got would be VERY appreciated.

Brief history if it helps:

Was 10lbs 2.5oz born, went down to 9lbs 9oz on day 11, crept up to 9lbs 13oz by 15 days, 9 lbs 15.5oz at 26 days and now 10lbs 1.5 oz at 34 days. So he is going up, just very slowly.

I saw a bf counsellor last week because he was feeding literally ALL the the time (I mean, 20 mins on, 20 mins off, all day, he went a bit longer at night) and she adjusted by latch a bit - moved him across so he was taking the skin around my areola with his bottom lip and my nipple brushes his top gums as he latches on. That's meant he does go longer between feeds now - about 2 to 3 hours in the day and 3.5 to 4 hours at night. He cluster feeds in the evening from about 7 - 11pm, with half hour or so breaks between feeds. Feeds last about an hour, using both sides. My breasts do go soft after he's been on and I can collect about 20 - 30 mls of drip milk from the opposite side at the beginning of the feeds.

He is weeing regularly and until last weekend was pooing 3-4 times a day. He had 3 poos on Sunday and then nothing until today when he's done about 6. They are nice and yellow and runny. (HV saw one and said it looked fine)

He's very alert when he's awake, content, settled, etc. We're co sleeping, although I get out of bed to feed him.

HV advice was to feed him every 3 hours round the clock and to make sure he's actively feeding when he's on. He does tend to keep dropping off towards the end of the feed and I sometimes have trouble keeping him latched on in the right place as he fidgets his mouth to his preferred latch! However, I've had no pain, cracked nipples, blocked ducts or mastitis at all, even before the bfc changed my latch.

I've got a 3 yo and a 17 month old too (neither of which I bfed sucessfully past 3 weeks - they gained no weight either) so it's quite busy. I often have to cut feeds short to do the pre school run, and I suspect I'm not always aware of how actively he's feeding or how well he's latched because I'm having to concentrate more on them.

I really want the bf to work this time so your help would be invaluable!

OK - I think all this indicates a healthy baby and the fact he started off really quite big might mean his true physiological size is not reflected in his birthweight, so we'd accept a slow gain.....but it would not harm to do breast compression at the end of feeds (check it out either here or elsewhere on the web). Carrying on doing what you are doing and ensuring he continues to feed round the clock is good, and will help ensure you continue to make a good supply

Thanks, tiktok. That's pretty much what the HV said so I'll keep going at the moment and see what's happened when he's weighed next week.