come hear what the hv said today

[mothersmilk]

background... i work along side a hv at a drop in center as a breastfeeding helper often theres lot of diferences in information im bf my ds at the moment 6months and blw another mum came in today same situation perfectly happy mum and baby neither of our children sleep though waking up 3 times a night take full feeds hv told her today that really should only be bf morning and night and baby should be getting most of its nutrients from food?????
we have had words befor so obviously she has said nothing of the sort to me but im still astounded she would tell anyone that a baby of six months should be getting most of its nutrition from food
i know lots of very up to date and compitant hv's but this one is definatly not!!
and she's just done the uniceff bf course

get the centre to order a stack of the uptated nhs weaning handbook for parents. make a big deal of them to other mums and hv especially

can you report her to anyone?

i have catch up once a month to keep up to date with all the latest research info ect. (and im only a registered volunteer for the BFN) so i shall take it up with my superior unfortunatly this has happened befor and we live in an all to politically correct world and as i am but a bf feeding helper and she is all mighty hv not much can be done apart from making sure mums get the most up to date info from me

Something similar happened with my HV when ds was 6 months. I hope your supervisor will be able to suggest something constructive. Sometimes finding a non-threatening way to ask for the evidence to back up a suggestion can be helpful. It's the sort of thing I always need to rehearse in advance to make sure it doesn't sound critical, you know "I was interested to hear you suggesting that a baby of 6 months only needs 2 feeds a day, and wonder if there's any research on this you could point me to, as my understanding was that milk should be their main source of nutrition up to at least 12 months?". Obviously said with a sweet smile and in as gentle a way as you can. Actually, I'm sure someone else can suggest a better wording. I find these things really hard.

But if the latest guidelines say no to start weaning until 6 months how can this be possible? You can't expect a baby who's never experienced solids before to just suddenly eat 3 huge meals a day and cut back on their milk, surely?? My HV told me that after 12 months most of his nutrients will come from food, but from 6 to 12 months the solids they have are just introducing them to new tastes and textures.

and thats perfectly correct so how come your hv knows this and mine doesnt/

hmm it's a mystery. in fairness, my HV is fantastic, but the one I had before her was really awful. Her speech on immunisations was pretty hilarious (a bit off the subject I know, but it was so funyn I have to say) she sat in our lounge with the book in her lap, reading off the pages as if we were a nursery class. All this after we'd already said we were giving all imms to DS! Lol.
It's odd how HVs can be so different though, surely they should all be reading same guidance??

There is a graph published somewhere which shows the lines indicating when nutrition from food takes over from nutrition from milk. Not sure if I can find it online, but take it from me, it's nowhere near until about 9 mths, and even then, not completely taken over until over 1 yrs old!

Babies get most of their nutrition from milk until they are nearly one yrs old!!!!!!!

This kellymom page is pretty good

www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html