Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

DS, 10 months, dropped from 91st to 75th centile. HV wants me to top up with formula, what do you think?

53 replies

blob2be · 16/08/2007 18:36

DS is a good eater, and a very good feeder (breastfed, never had formula). At his development check today the HV was concerned that he has only put on 4oz in 2 months, and is now on the 75th centile, whereas he's always been on at least the 91st before. However, he is only on the 25th centile for his height so I think he's just evening out. I can't be bothered with the expense and hassle of formula, and I don't like giving him anything processed TBH. But DH is more inclined to go with the health professionals on this one. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks.

OP posts:
MyMILisDoloresUmbridge · 21/08/2007 00:12

actually, Lizzer, I thought you meant, What-F**ing-Tosh!

fortyplus · 21/08/2007 00:18

ds2 was a bf baby and at one stage was on the 75th centile for height and the 2nd for weight!

He's now a perfectly fit, healthy 12 year old. A child on the 25th centile for height and 91st for weight would be obese at his age.

You carry on with the bf and ignore your silly HV!

The centile charts are based on bottle fed babies in the 1960s and the government has recently announced that they should be revised as they could be a contributory factor for childhood obesity as they are leading to HVs encouraging mums to top up feeds and wean too early.

elkiedee · 21/08/2007 00:23

Bizarre. What does she think is in formula which isn't in breastmilk? Perhaps you could ask her that question specifically. I didn't succeed in breastfeeding but I feel furious that you're being given such bad advice.

crayon · 21/08/2007 08:35

Is she mad? why in the world would you do that after 10 months? Apart from anything else, this might just be a blip on his chart. I'd trust your instinct.

kiskidee · 21/08/2007 08:39

what is wrong with some health visitors????

gringottsgoblin · 21/08/2007 08:42

it is obvious what the problem is, you are not spending enough time on mumsnet. 3 whole days you werent on here! you will soon find that if you stay here long enough you have absolutely no need to speak to your hv as we know everything

(btw the woman sounds like a loon)

numptysmummy · 21/08/2007 08:48

Mine(except dd1) have always started on the 50th and gradually fallen back and,at the request of bloody hv, when we saw the paediatrician we were told that as long as they then maintained a fairly steady line it doesn't really matterb where that line is. Dd1 was on the 2nd percentile until she was about 7 and now,at 9 she has caught up and is actually quite chubby. Far healthier to be lean.

prettybird · 21/08/2007 08:48

The reason it is unusual for babies of 10 months to be breastfed with no formula is becasue of crap advice like hers.

numptysmummy · 21/08/2007 08:50

Sorry - shoul add that all of mine were brreastfed until they were 12 - 16mths. Bottle feeding was often mentioned by various people but i had this strange deafness!

tiktok · 21/08/2007 09:13

Regular mumsnetters will have heard me say this before, sorry! Fortyplus - the charts in use in the UK are not based on bottle fed babies of the 1960s.....it is reasonably recent data, and the babies' feeding was not differentiated. There has been no announcement from the UK govt. about replacing our charts. Not sure where you have read this! There is discussion in some circles about using the WHO charts which show the growth of breastfed babies, and this may happen in time. The problem isn't the charts but the health visitors, in my view

elesbells · 21/08/2007 09:24

my old hv told me the same thing about vitimins depleting at 6 months and i was a first time bfeeder and she made me nervous. her words to me were 'baby will lack in iron if you dont top her up'

by pure luck i went to the clinic and a new hv was there who happened to be a bfeeding advisor, who told me that was crap! purely through her i carried on bf. dd is 17 months and i still feed her (morning and night) the best decision i ever made tbh.

keep at it

crayon · 21/08/2007 22:47

I was told to supplement with vitamins too and went out and bought Abidec - only to get home and find it contains peanut oil. Thanks Mrs Health Visitor

MadAsABagOfFrogs · 21/08/2007 23:23

b2b please listen to these ladies advice it is spot on. You definatly need to be on here a bit more the ladies will soon give you all the confidence you need to deal with just about anything.

BTW our red books now say the charts are for solely breastfed babies. I live in Wiltshire.

Twinklemegan · 21/08/2007 23:26

! You know I swear that some HV's think the centiles work like exam marks.

Desiderata · 21/08/2007 23:30

Blob, forgive me because I've only read the OP.

But, 91st centile is kind of overweight, so to see a drop is surely a good thing? Especially in consideration of his current height.

You're doing all the right things, kid. He needs to get his height/weight on a more even keel ... and this will happen naturally, with breast milk.

BeanyBoo · 22/08/2007 04:02

OK couple of points: a single drop in centile is no cause for panic, and changing the feeding to formula not necessarily the solution. In fact if there's any problem (unlikely), it could mask it.

if yr ds is 25th centile for length then he could just be evening out to be more in proportion as he becomes more active.

But...

...if he continues to drop centiles then that is possibly a cause for concern and will need looking into.

Personally I would do 3 things;

1 see a doctor who will give better advice than HV

2 get him weighed regularly and see where he's going from now on

and

3 make sure he's getting plenty of iron in his diet as bfing provides less iron than formula and at 10m, he will need more iron than you provide. If you feed him meat/fish etc he will get it from that. If you are veggy, seek advice on high iron foods.

If you monitor weight for a bit and the doc is concerned and your son drops more centiles then as a precautionary measure, doc will refer you to paediatrician who will check he's ok.

Habbibu · 22/08/2007 09:59

Oh harsh! 91st centile isn't overweight! Yes, in relation to the OP, her little one is probably evening out to match his height, but my 10 month old girl - exclusively breastfed to 6 months, BLW and breastfed currently - has been 98th/99th centile for height and weight since birth. I just don't want parents of big babies to think they're "overweight" if they're simply in proportion...

Tapster · 22/08/2007 10:04

Snap a 91st weight and 98th height at 9 months and never been given ever formula. Went to hospital yesterday about allergies they were wondering how much formula she was drinking as on the large size - luckily they shut up when I said she was still BF.

Next time I'm going to buy my own scales stopes having to see the HV.

Habbibu · 22/08/2007 10:22

Should add that her dad is 6"3, so she does have big genes...

tiktok · 22/08/2007 10:42

Oh please....91st centile overweight???

kamikayzed · 22/08/2007 13:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

phdlife · 22/08/2007 13:39

my ds dropped from 98th to 91st at 16 weeks (had a little bfing strike) and my HV told me to start weaning!

think the problem is some of them think what they were taught in the 60s is still the best advice going. I even have one, retired fortunately, who keeps telling me ds should've been getting solids since he was 10lbs. You know, when he was 2 weeks old!!

good onya, blob, you'll know if something's wrong with your ds, for heaven sakes.

Highlander · 22/08/2007 15:42

I think you should stop weighing your baby. Unless you're concerned about his health, there's really no need after a couple months old

Habbibu · 22/08/2007 16:11

Bloody hell, phdlife - should I have been introducing purees in the womb?

lemonaid · 22/08/2007 16:26

tiktok -- I think fortyplus may be referring to this recent news story, which in turn relates to the publication a couple of weeks ago of the report of the joint SACN/RCPCH Expert Group on Growth Standards on the Applicability of the WHO Growth Standards in the UK.

Dawn Primarolo apparently says that they are going to do a pilot study.

Swipe left for the next trending thread