Am I wrong or is this terrible advice?

[KiwiPanda]

Was at the local BF cafe yesterday, was just me and two other women. One had a 6 1/2 month DD, sweet little girl, probably on the small side I'd guess (naturally petite, seemed very active, alert etc). Woman was telling health visitor that she's been crying a lot the last couple of days, and been very clingy and upset and not eating much.

Now, to me, at that age, sounds like maybe teething or maybe she's just not feeling that well. But no, health visitor announces she's hungry and that the woman is BFing her "too much" and that "at that age she should be getting more food than breast milk"

At 6 1/2 months?? Having been on solids for maybe 2 weeks???

Yes it is bad advice but it seems the same advice is given out fairly regularly. I suspect it is a hangover from the days when they thought you should wean at 3 or 4 months and would expect you to be giving quite a lot of food by 6 months IYSWIM.

I agree I would think teething more than hunger. Solid food to start off with is just an addition to get used to eating foods, breastmilk/formula should still the main source of nutrition until a baby is 12 months old. The HV sounds like she's talking crap.

Not the first time I've heard her giving poor advice either. She told me I was bfing "wrong" at one point (DD seems quite happy with it, but what would she know, eh? )

If baby really is hungry then she should be breastfeeding more not less! BM is much more calorific then little tastes of early weaning foods.

that poor woman. i hope she just ignored the HV.

You are not wrong....it is terrible advice...

Very bad advice imo. Breast milk has more calories than solid foods in the level a six month old baby will take. I think your opinion of teething etc is correct. HVs should not be giving out such crap advice with regard to weaning and how much food a 6 month old should be taking - they should all be aware that the advice has changed and should be advising accordingly - no excuse as it's been well publicized.

I agree - very bad advice.
I was at a baby group and one of the mum's was given some shitty weaning advice. I took her aside afterwards as we were leaning and told her the DoH guidelines and pointed her towards Aitch's website.
The woman wasn't a HV though... If she was I would have pulled her up there and then.