Vitamin drops for BF baby?

[LuluLulabelleWantsANewName]

My HV visited today to discuss weaning and told me that I need to get multivitamin drops for DD at 6 months because BM won't contain all the necessary vitamins for her age by then.

I haven't heard of this before...another bloody thing to remember to do each day.

Wish she'd mentioned it sooner and I'd have asked at the La Leche group this morning.

No, she wrote it down - multivitamin drops. Didn't even know such a thing existed tbh.

She also said I should aim to get dd on three meals a day with a bf in morning, one at bedtime and cooled boiled water in between by 8 months.

Does that sound about right?

It sounds, erm, quite optimistic, going by my personal experience!

Sounds like bollox to me. My dd1 (nearly 3)was still mainly bf by 1 year old, she just wasn't very interested in solids before then. She now eats anything and like a horse. I will go and find some research and be back with links!
Don't think you'll need the vitamin drops either as vitamins in breast milk are far more readily absorbed by the baby than vitamins in drops which mostly go in one end and out the other.

as usual kellymom has some excellent info and this also kellymom but very interesting reading.

this is also worth reading

I had to go away and turn some frying potatoes over so posted quickly. I also wanted to say:

From what I understand, you should view milk as the main source of your child's nutrition until they are a year old. I never gave vitamin drops. If you make sure your child is eating a reasonably varied diet (it doesn't have to be a lot, just plenty of different things) and she is breastfeeding as much as she wants to I don't believe you should need vitamin drops.

My DD was still having a breastfeed about 8 times a day, maybe more, at a year old. Also, DD is now two and eight months and couldn't cope on only three meals a day. She needs snacks in between and plenty of them. I can't imagine an eight month old with a much much smaller tummy can cope without milk of some kind between morning and night very easily at all. And milk is much more nutritious and full of calories than any other kind of snack she might be having.

Thanks Horton and idontbelieveit. I'll try and stay realistic (If DD is going to wake in the night I think it'll be easier to bf than give her water anyway?). I have to admit, I had a little glimmer of hope (a full nights sleep in 4 months... I suppose I can last that long).

Thanks for the links idontbelieveit. I'll have a look now.

Didn't mean to be flippant with the "bollox" comment. I would ask your health visitor to back up her weaning advice with evidence based research and see what she comes up with. Breast milk/formula milk should still be the primary source of nutrition at 1 year old and rushing solids can be detrimental to your baby's long term health, not to mention very stressful for you. Search for weaning and baby led weaning on the forum and i'm sure you'll find lots of information.

my dd woke in the night for a bf until she was 18 months, she sleeps through like an angel now though. It will end eventually!

back later, must feed dd2

Much easier to BF in the night than give water! Having said that, once she is taking enough food and BM in the day for you to feel happy about her not feeding at night, there's no reason why you shouldn't night-wean and offer water at night if that's what you want to do. But I don't think restricting milk in the day will help that - more likely she will just want to feed more often at night.

No - don't worry. I have read something on this but can't remember where or exactly what it said (so helpful!) but the general consensus was it's a preventative measure, they are recommending it to everyone in certain areas so that the few children who need it get covered.

I will not be giving DS vitamin drops, I'd rather he get his vitamins from my milk (As I'll still be feeding on demand as long as possible) and real food. I don't feed him processed food for the most part so I know what he eats has got vitamins in it. And I try to get out a few times a week, he's pale skinned and I don't live with the curtains closed so vitamin D isn't an issue.

HTH

I asked her about blw but she said she's familiar with it but not trained on it but to google it so I'll check MN. She did say to give bm for the first year but said if I didn't get dd onto mostly solids by 9 months it would be hard (I mentioned that someone at LLL group this morning had said their ds hadn't started solids until 1yr).

She has left a leaflet which I haven't read properly yet. Its all left me more confused than when I started to be honest. At least I have 2 months before I need to do anything.

Oh god - still waking in the night at 18 months? DD's bedroom is on a different floor to ours which means she's either in with us for a long time, I'll be climbing stairs everynight for a while or we're going to have to move house.

Lulu if you click on the advanced search button in the top corner and type in "vitamin drops breastfed" there are a few threads which explain why they are offered and will give you info to help decide whether you want to give them or not.

If you don't get her mostly onto solids at 9 months what will be hard? I think there can be problems if you start with purees and are still using purees exclusively at 9 months - NHS guidelines say to introduce at least some finger foods from 6/7 months onwards.

I felt very confused about weaning at first but MN helped lots - the weaning section was one of my favourites for a few months. DS is 7 months now and it's going really well. (We are doing BLW.)

Hey CC! Always good to hear from you!

Maybe she thinks I am going to feed dd fast food & vimto! Then again, I do see a lot of mums near me giving their dcs sausage rolls for breakfast - never really noticed until I got pg. Wonder if the Annabel Karmel book she recommended includes a recipe for pureed sausage rolls....

Ok, I am skipping the drops and I'm going to get real on the night feeds too.

Thanks kazbeth, I would have definately stressed about how much she was eating at 9 months after the HV's visit today. I suppose once I start weaning I'll probably stop posting about BF and move onto the weaning board.

I posted on both.. now I'm back here and post much less on the weaning board.

How's the co-sleeping going?

My daughter also didn't really get the hang of meals until over a year old. She doesn't eat a huge amount even now (she's a tiddler) but she eats a great variety of stuff.

Oh CC it's saving my life.DD wakes about every 1.5hrs after midnight (on a good night). At 5am today she rolled over and latched herself on and I realised what a blessing co-sleeping is!

I think the memoryfoam mattress isn't a good thing though so we're getting a firmer one until she's sleeping in her cot. I'll miss my lovely mattress