what is the actual proceedgur if you hv thinks your baby isnt gaining enough weight

[kittenbaby]

just so i know
what im talking about when i see the hv today
so i can properlly challange her if she tells me to top up again

what should actually happen if they actually think there is a real need to top up?

should my dd be refered to gp?paeditrician?
in what order
sorry bout terrible spelling but im feeding dd up

My midwife once told me that i know my babies best. She was right. It's been my mantra

also last week she said that about now 8 weeks the milk starts getting thinner due to the mums getting out and about and doing more?
which is also total crap

esp im my case as im still recovering from my repair op and not gting out that much

how can the milk get thinner when people can ex bf a 6 month old baby?

tt that sounds like th beset idea to say well i want to ex bf baby and that im worried that topping up may effect my supply

Part of me wonders if we are too informed about everything now that we have forgotten how to use common sense and instinct and trust them!

kitten go see another hv if youare not happy about your current one.
sometimes differnt personalitis get on better

I think your right numptysmummy x

Milk gets thinner at 8 weeks???

This is spectacularly rubbishy. She must just make stuff up.

How would a mother's energy levels work to reduce the fat content of the milk? Does it work with other bodily fluids - blood, for instance? Bit worrying, that....

Seriously, this woman needs a kick up the arse.

It would be good if you could note down all these stupidities and complain about them officially, KB.

Tbh i wouldn't bother with her at all. Are you worried or is it just her making you worried?

I do so little my milk must be like icecream, it's a wonder the wee fella can get any

after all that when i got down to the surgery all th women where stripping there babies off in the waiting room as the hv was in a mad rush
dd got weighed and had gained 8 and a half oz

hv didnt say anything just rushed the next person in

ill save all your tips for next time
thanks for your support you really are keeping me going with the bf

thanks

Ha!

I think not to say anything was very rude of your health visitor, to be honest....she must (surely) have been aware of your anxiety about your baby's weight.

Now....if you take your baby to be weighed next week, you need to expect she will not have gained 8.5 ounces again.

In fact, maybe you don't need to take her to be weighed again, unless you have reason to be worried.

yes i know you are right tiktok
thanks for your help and advice
you are so kind helping all us struggling mums

think ill try and skip next week esp as this week dd gained so much
dont know if ill manage it though
i might crack

also tiktok what sort of weight do you think she shpould gain a week at least 6oz?

and how oftn would you reccomend i get dd weighed?

thanks xx

Kittenbaby - I used to go every week and got in a right tizz if she had a slow gain that week. I weaned myself off it by going fortnightly then after 6m once a month for 2/3 months. I haven't been since! I know she is still growing as she has grown out of clothes and she sleeps though more now so I know she is not going hungry.

Yesterday just goes to show how worried the HV really was - if she was really concerned you wouldn't have got away so quickly!

KB, there is no doubt that babies are weighed unnecessarily often. A healthy baby beyond the newborn stage who is clearly feeding well (judged by behaviour at the breast and contentment after feeds, plus the visual signs the baby is growing) doesn't need to be weighed at all - ever. It can be fun and interesting to see a baby's weight, I suppose, but plenty of mothers just don't bother once they are confident (this is especially the case with second and third babies - it's too much hassle to get to the clinic with other children in tow, anyway).

Guess what - the sky does not fall in

Healthy babies have a 'wobbly line' if you track their weight - the charts have it all straightened out because that's how the 'flatten' out the data.

There is no minimum weight a baby must gain every week.

The overall picture is the one that counts - what the baby's growth is over several weeks, not week by week.

So be confident and brave and trust your own judgement - it's got to be better than your HV's, on what you have said here about her

well that is one of my worries dd doesnt seem content after feeds
she does in the am
but as the day wears on dd gets madder
even in the eve she actually hits me
shes only 9 weeks old
she hit me about 30 times in about a minute last night
i dont tell the hv this by the way as i know shes very anti bf
she never has just been fed and fallen asleep or seemed content

if she was doing all th things you said tt i prob wouldnt bother getting her weighed as it is a hassle xx

Those charts are just a guideline. I think you can tell a healthy child regardless of the chart. Unless the child is very very underweight, then I can understand some interference but some babies just have less than others etc same as us really. Their is a big difference between being average and being malnourished - far too much weight is given to the standards set by the red book.

kittenbaby, when you talk about her hitting you, what do you mean? My DS does this but it's just his arms flailing about and accidentally hitting me, not really related to his satisfaction in feeding I don't think. He does it less at night when he's tired and more when he's active and awake.

(not that I'm implying you're being beaten up by your DD )

Kittenbaby - The hitting is familiar!
DD did this until she was old enough to hold a comforter (I experimented with different things and found an old silky cami top was her fave) it seems wierd at first but she would hit me quite rythmically (sp?) or pull on my hair whilst she fed, she would pull at the nipple sometimes and break off crying. All I could conclude was that she was tired and restless and a bit miffed that my milk did not gush out as fast in the pm as in the am.
I went through a phase of offering her one breast, she would not want it so gave her the other. Sometimes she would chop and change 4 or 5 times until she would settle in and feed

Many babies are more unsettled in the late afternoon and evening. Cluster feeding is also very common where they will want to feed almost constantly from maybe 5pm.

9 weeks was probably the peak of my problems, as we edged towards 12 weeks I learnt more about her and she was more used to life outside of me. She was pretty much ok with night and day and was starting to look about much more. I t was about that time that I started taking her upstairs in the evening rather than feeding in front of the tv as I noticed she got overstimulated and fed and settled better after some quiet time.

rambling again! Hope it helps you a bit though!

kitten - your dd sounds normal. Easy post-feed contentment in the mornings, followed by increased wakefulness and need for more attention as the day turns into evening....the hitting is not deliberately hitting you but her arms flailing about and you are in the way

Nothing you have said to me makes me think there is anything wrong with the feeding.

Has anyone actually had a helpful HV? Or has everyone had horrible old ratbags like mine? I eventually got sick of the snooty Hyacinth Bucket behaviour and stopped going (and threw the red book in the bin).

DD is now 11 and 5 foot 4, so the breast feeding couldn't have been that bad!!

me

My hv tried to tell me that ds wasn't happy because she wanted to feed on and off from 6-9. telling me i should top up. I have just read what you wrote TT and you have really reassured me. I have got to the point where i am avoiding hv, dd is putting on tonns of weight, looks really healthy but she insists this eve thing is not normal, she is 15 wks and been weighed 3 times since 2 wks, the last time she was weighed she had jumped up 3 of those centile lines??

sorry keep typing ds mean dd V V tired !