Please make me feel better!

[Swaliswan]

Have just got back from having DD weighed and she's only put 4oz on in the last two weeks. She normally puts 5oz on a week. DD is exclusively BF and is just about to turn 5mo. The HV (not my normal one) didn't seem to care and just asked if DD was still sleeping well. DD is sleeping better than she has ever done but does have a big feed at about 5am - much bigger feed than she used to have. DD is very distracted if BFIP so I tend to avoid going out if it's getting close to a feed time. She has been teething and is not always feeding very well because of it. She's also had quite a few green nappies that are less thick than they were. Is this all down to teething or has my milk suddenly become worse in quality? What can I do to make sure I don't have a disaster when she is next weighed?

Sorry to ramble but I feel awful and no-one seems to be bothered by it. The HV obviously didn't want to talk and just wanted to go home. DH just said 'oooo, that's a bit less than normal' and then went in to work on his day off leaving me feeling like a failure at home by myself

You're not a failure! Your DD is putting on weight and is getting the best stuff for her. . Well done for getting to 5 months excl - fab job.

Didn't mean to sound flip by the way, know what it's like when you need encouragement about bf and you sounded so

Honestly, don't fret. Perfectly normal for weight gain to tail off around this time. As long as your DD's alert, learning new stuff, weeing, pooing sometimes, all is well. Please don't feel awful!

No need for her to be weighed at all if she's feeding and weeing OK. The Dept of Health (National Service Framework for Children 2005)recommend healthy babies only need to be weighed at birth, 10 days, 2,3 and 4 months,(unsurprisingly not all HV's seem to be aware of this, I enjoyed informing mine when she told me to bring dd to the clinic every week .
After 4 months there's no need to weigh unless something obviously wrong with growth. The reason for this is that babies sometimes don't put on weight for a month or so, then they catch up in a growth spurt. Weighing healthy babies every few weeks can cause anxiety and result in women giving up breastfeeding because they begin to lose confidence, or in bottle fed babies being overfed.

Oh Nooooooo, don't feel bad, your doing great. Weight does'nt always go on regularly and my dd often stops for a while then has a growth spurt. I've stopped weighing my dd as she looks healthy and I can get an estimate with the size of nappies she wears.

I think the fact she's gained a steady amount since birth is amazing, most of us have a wobble early on about this.

my son dipped in his weight a bit at about that age and i panicked a bit but then a couple of months later he really made up for it. Sounds like you are doing great, don't panic!