6 month old feeds all night all day bf hv says more food needed

[Jennylee]

Hi tiktok! I notice you know a lot about bf, my dd also feeds all night like about 15 times ina 24 hour period and does not really like solids in large amounts just a little makes her satisfied and the hv said it should really be about 5 bf a day at this age and 3 baby meals of solids because of iron supplies but my ds did this for 11 months also, feeding all night and a lot in the day and I thought it is normal, and don't see how I can refuse to bf her when she wants it. she likes solids but only small amounts.she is above average weight about 18 pounds so she is gaining fine.
but only eat the equivalent of about a jar a day or less mostly just about half of one. (to measure how much she eats, is usually my own fruit puree) Some days I feel really weak with it though if she has been nearly connected to me all night and wants milk so often. Is this too much feeding or normal variation? hv coming in a month to see if I have upped the solids but not sure how to.

Jenny, I will take a look at this tomorrow, promise

I'm just a mum, no qualifications, but mine was a lot like this. Although we did baby-led weaning (if you haven't heard of this, it's just when you let the baby feed themselves from about 6 months old and lazily skip the puree step ) DS took very little by way of solids until he was around 8 or 9 months of age, which, from speaking to other mums on here, seems fairly common. He was breastfed when I was at home (I went back to work 4 days a week) and had water to drink during the day as well as whatever solids he felt like, but it didn't amount to much at all.

IIRC the iron in breastmilk is very easy for babies to absorb so although there isn't much, it's all put to good use. If you offer her iron-rich foods, for example red meat, dried apricots, lentils and green vegetables like broccoli she will have the opportunity to get iron from what food she eats too.

I don't think, personally, you can or should make a baby eat any more than they want to eat or are ready to eat, regardless of what your HV thinks. And I don't think a HV can say that a baby "should" have 5 BFs a day at 6 months - a baby should have as much BM as it wants! As for 3 meals, I think it's a lot to ask when really the food is about learning, not about nutrition. Milk is still more important than solid food at this stage

Oh I see tiktok is coming back to you - she speaks wise words and will definitely keep you right

Just like you know your appetite best, so does your baby! As long as she's healthy and happy then she is getting the right stuff so go with it. If she's not doing well then you need to worry.

I second MakkaPakka, especially about BLW, it's great and I found I felt better about it as I could see she was getting what she wanted and it took the responsibility for making sure she had enough away from me.

My baby is 6 month old and 23 pounds. We are also doing Baby Led Weaning, i.e. Offering finger food to the baby, so they can self feed.

Very little food is being digested looking at his nappies, but he is still gaining weight and nursing a lot more than 5 times in 24 hours, especially at night. My baby is eating far less than a jar a day.

Milk should be the main food group until our babies reach a year old.

Be reassured that your babies iron stores only start to reduce at the 6 month mark and may last as long as 12 months depending on your child. Kellymom has some good information on iron levels and babieshere

Jenny, some good stuff already here for you

It's a real shame your HV has made you question yourself. Perhaps you can talk more at length about this with her and ask her for more information about why she thinks what you are doing needs changing. You have a clearly healthy, thriving little boy whose nutrition is appropriate for his age and needs as far as I can tell. I think the HV may be confusing her knowledge of formula feeding with breastfeeding - breastfeeding is food and drink to your baby,as well as an important part of her relationship with you, and as breastmilk contains iron, in an easily available form, it's of no concern that a baby of your dd's age continues feeding a lot, alongside getting solids...and it is normal for the intake of solids to be small at first, and increase over the next few months. Your HV is, I think, concerned that the bf is taking the place of the solids she would otherwise have, but this is a pointless worry at 6 mths - solids are alongside breastmilk for about the first year, and extra to it, not instead of it.

The risk with shovelling solids into a baby who is not all that interested is that meal times become a battle ground!

If your baby was a year, and still having only half a jar of solid foods then it would be justified to explore how to tempt her a little more with different things.

Baby Led Weaning is a good option to explore - with BLW, you really don't need to measure how much your baby has (you say you are measuring the fruit puree) and as the baby is the one doing the feeding, you can be confident she will take what she needs. Perhaps you can talk about this option with your HV.

little boy = little girl

thanks tiktok! and everyone who replied, is very reassuring that baby is behaving normally. Was only just starting to worry and measure how much she was having as I thought she was fine until the hv came. Baby eats little bits of bread and tastes our food and the puree was just whenever I thought she might want it, but after the hv came I thought is this normal? coupled with pressure from everyone I know in rl thinking the baby is 'always on me' 'feeding too much' and 'must no longer be getting enough' and telling me the bottle will make her sleep better and fill her (hv too), not taking into account that she won't actually drink formula
I even let my mum try to shut her up and sure enough baby was not sure what the bottle was for and did not drink it on blw I asked about that and the hv said only one of her patients/clients had tried it round here and it did not work. But I am open to it, will read up on it.

Jennylee, your HV sounds like a fruitcake. So you've breastfed for 6 months and your little girl is thriving but she thinks you need to introduce formula? She's talking out of her bottom! I second tiktok's suggestion that you ask her to provide evidence for her assertions.

As for the suggestion that BLW "did not work" - how can it not work?! There's nothing to work - if the baby wants the food they will eat some, if they don't, they won't. BLW is about babies playing with food, exploring it with their hands and mouth. It's not about the baby eating several "solid meals" a day. I think perhaps your HV doesn't really understand the principles behind it.

As well as the link to Kellymom posted by Babieseverywhere, which is an excellent site, you could try looking at Babyledweaning.com which is an excellent website made by a mMumsnetter, aith loads of interesting stuff and recipes - and check out the forum for other mums at the same stage as you

There is a quote about breastfeeding that also applies to BLW, it goes something like it might not be the best option for every parent but it's the best option for every child. And yes, I know there are exceptions.

Like Makka says if the child isn't ready they won't eat. The thing is the child being ready doesn't have anything to do with the parents being ready, we have a lot of preconceived ideas as to what is normal and when the child falls outside of that parents often think it isn't working and change plan.