4 month old not gaining weight - told to introduce baby rice

[soapy2]

My BF DS is 17 weeks old and has just been weighed and hasn't put on any weight in 3 weeks. He is very long and has gone up the 75th centile line perfectly up until now and is otherwise bright, healthy (wet nappies, etc) and quite wriggly! I have always had to express in the mornings to give him extra in the evenings as he is so hungry at this time. He will take 7-9oz EBM plus extra from me at around 7pm but will then usually sleep all night. This week, though, he has started to wake at least once a night. The HV told me to introduce baby rice as he hasn't gained any weight. I'm not keen and would rather continue to breast feed alone for as long as possible. He usually feeds every 2.5 to 3 hours in the day. Should I go with the baby rice or is there something I can do to up my supply, also so that I can keep up with his demands in the evenings. It is getting difficult this week to be able to express enough because of the night feeds and therefore there isn't enough for him in the evening and so I have to feed him every half hour or so before he'll go to sleep. Formula??? I'm new to this message thing so sorry if this is too long and waffly and has all been said before!

Children who are not vaccinated have fewer allergies and atopic issues than children who are.

If you have had measles you are less likely to have asthma. (WHO study). There are 1400 asthma deaths a year in the UK.

maybe so, but i would rather deal with eczema than the after effects of what my Dcs are vaccinated against

measles can damage your eye sight and brain and can damage unborn babies too !

i think this is getting off the point though

Starlight, I think that is a large part of the argument and I can imagine it does in some babies. But why blame that without considering also the formaldehyde, aluminium, blah blah, chemical cocktail blah blah.

Starlight, I think that is a large part of the argument and I can imagine it does in some babies. But why blame that without considering also the formaldehyde, aluminium, blah blah, chemical cocktail blah blah.

lulumama it doesn't feel off the point to me but I accept it may do to others. but nothing wrong with the bigger picture.

I harbour a few anxieties myself about multiple vaccines for very young babies and how they might affect the developing immune system.

Doubletrouble, could you point us in the direction of the source of the "fewer allergies and atopic issues" for unvaccinated babies statement (maybe on a new thread as it's a bit off-topic).

no-one was pinning all the blame on allergies on early weaning

but it is known to be a factor , isn't it?

no-one was saying that nothing else, such as vaccinations could be an issue

ok I will do it when I get back tonight and will leave this thread now..
it involves thousands of children in the US who are home educated as their parents are against vaccines
good luck with the feeding soapy2 and sorry if I have hijacked you

i am interested to see more about it doubletrouble

hi lulu
edam was saying that, that's what I was reacting to -- sorry.
it'll be late tonight as have to go out now but will hog computer until I've put it together and (oo-er) found out how to add a link

Forget about allergies and early weaning. The evidence is thin and contradictory, unless you are talking specifics like coeliac disease (not an allergy in that sense) and very early weaning with wheat.

It's especially odd to suggest that all women who have their babies vaccinated need not bother about weaning before 6 mths (or 5? or 4? or 3?) because somehow the damage is already done.

We have good evidence from a variety of developed world settings that anything but breastmilk before 6 mths is the cause of an increase in infections of the chest, ears and gastro-entero system. There are plausible explanations for this, and as most babies clearly don't need to have solids before then, this makes it a good basis for a public health policy that supports this as a general rule....while allowing that some babies may have special, unique needs that override it.

Iorek and lulumama.. see postings in health..

Starlight, ds1 and ds2 both had grommets but with hindsight I don't think I would be very quick to go down that route again. Ds1 seemed to be very shocked at the sudden increase in volume and he does have auditory sensory issues which I think could have stemmed from this.
Ds2 on the other hand, didn't seem to improve/disimprove at all!
Also, I found both boys less "gluey" on goats milk rather than cows.

I was weaned at 2 months in 1968 onto weetabix, evaporated cow milk, fish and egg, and now suffer from a multitude of bowel and immune problems. Could these by any chance be related?

The later the better as far as I'm concerned. I would love to be able to eat pretty much anything without worrying about the side-effects. And a fair few of my problems developed at 15, 25 and 35 years of age. There are more of them every year. Not something I'd wish on anyone, especially someone for whose care I was responsible.

My children were exclusively breast fed until they started snatching things off our plates (5 months, 6.5 months and 8.5 months respectively). They have NO health problems (touch wood) and long may it stay that way.

Sympathy duchesse. Were you the child of some one in the armed forces by any chance? I have heard similar stories of early weaning from women who had army doctors bullying them about it. My dd's godmother is allergic to a number of things and she was given solids at 4 days old.

Starlight, both of mine were around 20 months when they got the grommets. Ds1 had about 60 words before that but after the op started to string them together into sentences. Ds2 had hardly any words before or after so I think he was just a slow talker. He made up for it later!

Not in the army, Elastic, just a first born with a father with sergeant major delusions and and a mother only too willing to give into his mad child-rearing ideas.

Interesting, duchesse: the male input. It was male ideas which first started the 4 hourly routine myths, blaming women's inability to nurture rather than just endemic poverty when not enough men were fit enough for cannon fodder in the first 20 years of the 20th century.

Thanks for the links - I will start reading!

I am trying to decide whether to take Dareh to this thing for babies at the library. It's only on once a month which makes me want to go but it's vile outside plus he is asleep right now. He had is nap time disturbed yesterday and I am not keen to do it again. Maybe I will just wait and see if he wakes up or not.

I got a place on the course btw - I am excited about learning something new.

Duh that last post was not meant to be here sorry!