10 Month Old Loosing Weight, Need Some Support.

[Sushipaws]

I'm not a neurotic mum who weighs her baby every week but I have been regularly for the last while as dd (10 months) has not gained weight and has lost a bit.

Her weight record is as follows -

17/10/07 - 7.76kg
07/11/07 - 7.94kg
21/11/07 - 7.92kg
09/01/08 - 8.14kg
23/01/08 - 8.08kg
30/01/08 - 7.98kg

Last week my HV (who I really like) told me to miss out a bf to encourage dd to eat more. I tried to drop the middle of the night feed but she screamed the house down and then was a mess the next day and wouldn't eat anything. So I have dropped the afternoon feed and am just giving her snacks instead, she seems quite happy with this.

She's also been teething for the last week and had a temperature yesterday but that still doesn't make up for the fact that she weights the same now as she did in November.

DD has had a cold for weeks and I wonder if she is ill because she's so skinny. It's not like she's wasting away but she doesn't have rolls of fat like most of her baby friends.

She eats 3 meals a day plus snacks and 4 bf's. She did start crawling in October so she is using more energy.

Has anyone else been through this?
Should I be worried?

My friends say not to worry as she looks fine, but it's so easy to say when thier babies are like cabbage patch dolls. Also when I was pregnant, another friend of mine told me I was evil for bringing dd up vegatarian and that my baby would be skinny and malnourished. We fell out about it at the time but made up and agreed to disagree. She now looks at me all smuggly.

Help!

Sushi, it is normal for babies' weight gain to plateau as they get older, and the overall development and health of any baby has to be taken into account when assessing him or her....to look at weight only is a big mistake.

However, if you or your HV feels these weights are i) accurate and ii) concerning, I don't understand the logic of reducing her breastfeeding. On the contrary, she might do better to increase her calories by increasing her bf. 4 bfs are not all that many in a baby of this age, and every bf is likely to contain more calories than most foods you could give her. Have you noticed that dropping her afternoon feed has meant she has started eating a lot more - I mean a lot more?

Just a comment on the vegetarian bit - I've had almost exactly the same comments from a "friend" who told me in no uncertain terms that I was being cruel, indoctrinating my child, depriving her and imposing my neuroses on her etc etc. She still doesn't get it and is baffled by the fact that neither of my children have suffered malnutrition, rickets, scurvy etc etc and are well nourished and healthy.

No, she eats pretty much the same meals but more snacks.

I have however started to give her a double feed before bed (giving one feed and then another 15 minutes later).

My HV wasn't very bothered and told me not to worry, just miss out one feed. But I'm a bit of a lunatic and I've been obsessing too much. I just worry that she looks skinny but then I guess thats comparred to ff babies.

Broguemum.

If it were me, I'd be inclined to give an extra feed rather than missing one out. Your milk is almost certainly more calorific and nutritious than anything else she might be eating.

If it's any help, my daughter was breastfed, ate and still eats v little and is perfectly healthy but small. She was just designed to be that way, I think.

Snacks work well for us (daughter 16 months old) - cheese and bread and fruit and raisins is what I mainly give her. I let her graze on that between meals and she eats more this way than when I was being strict and limiting her to meals and feeds only.

I think you live not far from me (unless I've got you confused with someone else). If you want to see another skinny weeny baby who is perfectly okay, you'd be more than welcome to meet us for a coffee or something. My email is my username at gmail.com.

Also, I think my daughter hasn't actually put on any weight for about the last four months, but she's happy, healthy, getting on with stuff and clearly not hungry. I think you would be able to tell if your baby was hungry.

And I think I was BFing my daughter about eight times a day at that age (she's now self-weaned).

She is still in 9-12 month clothing and not showing any signs of growing out of it, to give you some idea. Also, I think she weighs about the same as your daughter, although she's older.

Thanks Lucicle.

As you and TicToc have said, I think I will try and re-introduce the afternoon feed.

Yes, it does make me feel better to hear someone else has a small baby. My dd is above average for her height, so I think she's just tall and skinny

I'm in Scotland so I think you must be thinking of someone else, but thank you so much for the offer of meeting up, that was very sweet of you.

I'm just being paranoid and silly, I worry about my dd all the time, she is so precious to me.

Cheers

Oh, I was clearly thinking of someone else. Sorry! I worry about mine, too, so I know just what you mean. And tall and skinny is great. Just think how everyone else will be totally envious by the time she's a teenager!