Friend's 4mo not gaining weight

[cornflakegirl]

A friend of mine has a granddaughter who is four months old. She had been putting on weight well, but now isn?t gaining at all. She has been referred to the hospital, but in the meantime the mother and grandmother have started her on baby rice, and switched to formula for one feed a day.

I don?t have any experience of this situation, but starting weaning early feels counterproductive to me. Can anyone one advise? I?d especially appreciate any links to good, non-judgmental web pages that I could forward to my friend.

cornflake, a baby who is not gaining weight at four months may be just fine...it is the whole picture that's needed. It is perfectly physiological for weight gain to slow and even stop at any time, and especially common with babies at about 3-4 mths. Breastfed babies in particular may show this perfectly normal pattern.

Giving baby rice - which can fill tummies and increase gaps between feeds without a compensating increase in calories - can mean the baby's net gain in calories is less. Giving formula ditto - it has no more calories than breastmilk, and may mean the baby takes less breastmilk, so overall, less nutrition. As you say, counter productive.

If this baby' s weight is a real cause for concern, then she needs to feed more often at the breast - this not only gets more milk into the baby, it also increases the amount of milk made by the mum. Baby needs to have two, three or evevn four breasts at each session (switching back and forth between breasts; as the baby stops feeding from ne, baby is offered the other). Couple that with breast compression. More details at www.kellymom.com

Thanks tiktok. I didn't know that it was normal for weight gain to stop. I'll have a look on kellymom.

It can be normal, cornflake...as ever, weight should never be the only way a baby's health is assessed.