Baby's weight is too low!!! Help please.

[piximon]

My 31 wk old B/f baby lost some weight a few months ago when she had flu and has been static on the 2nd centile for a few weeks now. It's always been a slight cause for concern that she's small (now weighs 14lbs) and we've been trying to wean her onto solids since she was about 4mths after presure from the HV but she's still not very interested.

Today I saw a new health visitor who says the baby isn't interested in solids as she has too much breast milk. She has given us a strict feeding timetable of b/f at 7.30am, 3pm, 8pm and 11pm with a feed at 5.30am for this week only.
If she refuses to eat the solids she will have to go hungry till the next feed. After two hours of crying, baby eventually ate two tablespoons of food at lunchtime but refused to eat any dinner. Surely at this rate she'll lose more weight???

HV also said that for breakfast the baby should be having half a weetabix with full cream cows milk. I thought cows milk was to be avoided until 12mths especially as we have allergies in the family but she said I was wrong.

I ended up leaving the surgery in tears as she really implied I was a bad mother for starving my baby. When I happened to smile at my baby she said she "hoped I would take her comments seriously".

Didn't help that she also says there are problems with the baby's eyes and we should be concerned as they are too wide apart and she thinks there is a squint. Saw new Dr who says she's too small to tell at the mo if there is a problem with her sight. Also said B/f may be good for some reasons but bad for trying to fatten her up.

And I finally gave in and my 2 yr old had his MMR jab.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

piximom ... poor you ... what an old bag this HV sounds like ...
I have no advice to give as everyone has said it all but I wanted to let you know that about 2 months ago NZ anounced a change in the baby weight chart for PRECISELY the reason that tiktok said about weight charts being based on the weights of heavier bottle fed babies (seems like more babies were bottle fed in the '50s and '60s which is when these charts were devised). They have changed the charts here to become more realistic as more babies are breastfed for longer these days in NZ. There have been two occasions recently that I have heard of where mothers of bottlefed 15 month olds are being told their babies are too fat. (ie off the new charts). So it will go the other way for the bottlefed babies but at least it will make life easier for mums of the lighter breastfed babies less stressful.
Just wanted you to know that as this chart change may well happen in the UK at some point ... perhaps, sometime, before the end of the century

I have another suggestion which is to google up some charts from around the world and see if your dd is on a different (higher centile) then announce to your HV that you are moving to that place and you won't be seeing her any more!

just to add my tuppence worth & am no expert but isn't weetabix quite high in salt to be recommending for a baby that age? Agree you should ignore HV, and anyone that tries to bolster their own sense of importance by bullying & belittling.

Weetabix would be fine for a baby from six months - it's not high in salt, and is prob less processed than some of the other packaged baby cereals, and certainly cheaper. You'd only give a small amount - can't see most 6 months old managing more than about half, if that.

Even with half, the effect on nappies can be spectacular

If you didnt want to use weetabix, ready brek is also suitable from 6 months and has no added salt/sugar

I was told by a HV that my ds had a squint ( he was about 5 months old). When I took him to the hospital the specialist said that there was nothing wrong with his eyes, it's just that he had a very wide bridge and big eyes which can make it look like he had a squint. He is now 4 (and grown into his bridge) and is fine.

piximon,

Who on earth is this health visitor? She's supposed to be supporting you not making you feel dreadful. I am a health visitor too and I would never, ever treat anyone like this.
Okay - your baby is small but maybe that's the weight she's meant to be. If she's staying on the 2nd centile then that's good - she's not falling off it - perhaps that's where she's meant to be. As for weaning and eating solids - she'll do it when she's ready. Is there another HV you can see - that is if you ever feel like seeing one again and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't.

As for the squintthing I can tell you right now that if she has eyes that are wide set apart she may appear to have a squint due to trying to see over the bridge of her nose. This will improve as she gets older - okay - it may need checking to see if it's a true squint or not but if you feel it isn't then you are perfectly within your rights to wait and see. Cows milk is okay in cooking before 12 months but if there is a history of allergies then you are quite right to want to use breast or formula milk in cooking instead.

Health visitors like this make my blood boil.

piximon - just to echo aloha's advice. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEE A HEALTH VISITOR and there should be no repercussions if you choose not to.

My contribution to this discussion (!) would be that my 15mo weighs about 20lb, was born on about 7-9th centile, dropped to 2nd and below when ill, is now back up to 9th. I stopped feeding her at 10 1/2 months, but had given her full fat cows milk on breakfast (ready brek and weetabix) since she was 6 months. Never really got on the formula thing, so moved her straight to cows milk when I stopped, whilst making sure she had lots of iron (dried apricots, spinach etc with vit C). As she was fit and well, the HV supported my choosing not to use formula. Recently she has been poorly and off her food, hence I had her weighed, but she is still where she "should" be on the charts. Next baby, I agree I probably won't get weighed!!