Following on from another thread I feel this thread is necessary as there seems to be an awful lot of poor information being passed on by some HVs out there. I am not ant-HV - am a HV myself but I do get depressed when I see some of the poor advice given by HVs (and then posted here) with regard to breastfeeding and centile charts.
It is worth all BF Mums knowing that until 2006 growth charts were based on children with mixed feeding patterns, predominantly bottle fed (and these are the charts still being used in many child health records), but evidence from various studies shows that exclusively breastfed infants gain weight differently.
The concern with this is that misinterpretation of growth charts could lead to breastfed babies being given unnecessary supplements of formula. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that this is happening - the last thread I read was from just ONE Mum being given erroneous advice - multiply that by the number of Mums her HV sees and then multiply again for all the HVs giving out such poor advice throughout the UK - no wonder our breastfeeding rates are so poor.
This is why WHO have developed new charts, which the Department of Health has recently recommended be used for all children from 2 weeks to 2 years. These should be launched by early 2009.
In the meantime - ask questions if you are breastfeeding and the HV suggests you wean early because your baby isn't growing well or because she thinks your milk is not necessarily meeting the needs. Your milk contains far more calories that a little bit of pureed mush - which might reduce the amount of calorific milk a baby takes.
Hope this is helpful to some of you.