Should I follow the health visitor's advice?

[mummy2rachel]

My 7.5 months old dd was exclusively breastfed until 6 months. She is now weaned to 3 meals a day and still breastfeeds on demand (several times through the day and about 2-4 times at night). I had her weighed yesterday and dd has not gained any weight in the past 8+ weeks. She dropped from above 25th centile in weight to just 2nd centile. She started nursery 8 weeks ago and since then, has been having various periods of coughs & colds. Initially, she was also refusing to feed in nursery and only started to feed properly after 3-4 weeks there.

The health visitor has advised me to reduce her breastfeeds and increase on her food intake. She suggested adding double cream and/or butter to all her food. DD doesn't eat a lot for each meal, about half a jar of baby food. I initially thought that that was ok for her age, but the health visitor said that she should be having at least 1 full jar each meal.

Just wanting a bit of advice from experienced mumsnetters.

1. Should I reduce her breastfeed? I thought breastmilk is good for babies under 1?
2. Wouldn't adding double cream and butter to all her meals be setting her up for heart disease later in life? Or should I do it for now to bulk her up a bit?

We saw the gp after that and he thought she was fine. However, he also advised me to reduce her breastfeeds as he said babies her age need more than breastmilk.

As she is my pfb, any advice would be appreciated.

Treedelivery, thanks. You are so kind. Yes, being a mummy is not easy and I need to keep on reminding myself that I am doing a good job of it.

Gagarin, I like your meal ideas. Never thought of avocado and greek yoghurt. And I like them myself, so it will be one spoon for dd and one spoon for mummy...Think it is a lot more exciting than butter & cream in all meals (yuck, feel sick myself thinking about it).

CatchaStar, it must have been a shock for you at that time. But it seems really funny now to think that she recommended baby rice because of a broken scale!

Hi mummy2rachel, I don't know if you remember but we crossed paths on another thread. Your daughter and mine started nursery on the exact same day.

Anyway, I wanted to say that I just went through the same thing. My dd was sick on and off after starting nursery and dropped from 25th to 4th or something similar. (I'm also breastfeeding her, and she is on 3 meals a day + snacks). HV suggested adding loads of fat, (and asked when I plan to stop bfing since dd was almost one ), but an "expert mum" friend suggested that dd was just sick and that it's normal she'd drop some weight. So, I didn't change a thing, and sure enough she shot back up in weight on her own. My "expert mum" friend claimed the important thing is to pay attention to whether they are happy and active in the day, and whether they look fine. If so, not to worry - and ignore what the charts say.

Good luck!!

Hi EvaA, yes, I do remember you and your dd! How are you? It is surprising how similar our experiences are. Thank you for the reassurance that your dd went through the same thing and is doing well now. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take her to re-gain the weight? Just as I would expect, perhaps my dd senses that I want her to eat more, she has been refusing to eat much today. Oh well, let's just hope she eats more tomorrow!

My DS wasn't that interested in food until he was about 9 month s- no way he would have eaten a full jar of anything! The WHO recommends that BM should be the main source of nutrition for the baby's first year so as others have said - let them just enjoy tasting and playing with food and know that they are getting what they need from you! There's a good book by Dr Carlos Gonzales that really helped my friend when she was panicking about her 10mo daughter not being interested in food - you might want to check it out: www.amazon.co.uk/My-Child-Wont-Eat-International/dp/0912500999

I had something similar when ds was 8 months old. I had him weighed and he'd only gained an ounce in about 7 weeks. I did ask her to weigh him again in case it was wrong and she said "But you've put his nappy on now..."

The HV advised me to up his solids and cut out his milk. I said he only had 4 6oz bottles as it was - because I'd exclusively expressed for 6 months he was used to smaller volumes (you don't need as much breastmilk as formula). She said that because he weighed 16lbs he should be having 8oz bottles 3 times a day (this was the 'rules' apparently - you halve the number of lbs and it's some kind of magic formula ). I did point out that 4 x 6oz would work out the same amount in a day. She wrote 'slow weight gain' in his red book.

I was so rattled by it that I brought him back the next week. Either he'd put on 13 more oz in a week or the scales had been wrong! .

I know my friend's HV at the same age spouted the same crap about adding calories and she was feeding him chocolate etc to 'fatten him up'. I do believe that at 7.5 months you are right that the breastmilk is the best thing. DS didn't eat huge amounts either - he was mostly BLW but the odd jar he did have (when we were in the middle of nowhere in Spain for example) he could only manage half the jar, so you're not the only one there.

It sounds like you're doing a great job - so I would listen to your instinct and keep bf as much as she wants!

Have a look here - it shows the comparative calories/fat etc in foods and breastmilk!

Great link Caz! One of DS's fav first foods was avocado and then avocado and pear mixed - really creamy - and yummy for me too!

Hi mummy2rachel I haven't been on for the past few day so I didn't see your question.

I'm not sure exactly when she lost the weight but I know it was because she was sick on and off, and also 4 teeth coming through at once. She had no appetite and I struggled to get her to eat anything.

I brought her to the baby clinic and she weighed .25 kilos less than she had six week prior - so not just no gain, but actually losing weight. I was supposed to come back in 2 weeks, but they cancelled the clinic that day, so came back 3 weeks later. In that time she had GAINED over half a kilo and was back on the 25th percentile line.

But I can tell you the first week after I found out she had lost weight she was sick again, and she still wasn't eating much. At that point I was very worried, (because those weight gain graph lines are very stressful!! What happens if they go below the bottom one??). But as I said my friend told me not to focus on it, and that dd would start eating again when she felt better and would catch up on the weight. Sure enough the next week she was better, and all teeth were through, and suddenly she was eating everything with great relish!

OK, lots of detail - but I hope this helps reassure you!

Best of luck with everything. (Oh, and I hope nursery is going well too!!!)

Hi EvaA, thanks for your reply. It is really reassuring to know that your dd is doing well now. I will try not to worry too much about my dd's weight. I will instead focus on getting her to enjoy a variety of food. And oh, continue breastfeeding as normal!

Hope your dd is getting on well in nursery.