Advice please HV is telling me to reduce breast and give rusks!!

[MrsVidic]

Hi my DD is 7 months old and BF and BLW. She still wants to be BF every other hour (about 7-8 times a day). She does however sleep 7pm - 7am.

Anywayi took her to get weighed and she's dropped 50th - 25th centile. The HVisitor asked what routine she was in and I explained 3 strong meals and bfed when requested. She then said my DD should only be Bfed 3 times a day and I should give water instead. I then questioned weather that would have a detrimental effect on her weight and she told me to give my DD rusks or other treats.

I'm really not sure on this as my DD loves fruit etc and I want her to have a good diet, however I do want to reduce feeds.

Any advice

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I bet that breastmilk has got loads more calories than rusks!

She is talking crap. No reason to give rusks to any child.

In fact I would complain about her.

Your HV is barking and should be ignored.

Water has no calories.

Breastmilk has lots.

Rusks have lots of sugar in them. Why start giving her 'treats' at such a young age? No need, IMO.

Breastmilk is a drink as well as food so feeding every couple of hours is normal (but it doesn't hurt to offer water in a cup as well with meals).

Regarding her weight dropping centiles could need investigating, depending on her health and the time scale over which she has dropped but if you are concerned see your GP or a HV that actually knows what she is taling about.

I'm sure she will drop feeds of her own accord soon - it did take my DS a while to drop feeds though.

And although introducing snacks is prob a good idea, something healthier than a rusk (which has more sugar than a digestive biscuit) would be better - so something like toast and philly/nut butter/houmous or some dried fruit (ok, it's full of sugar too, but has some nutritional value to go with it) would be better snacks. So, I'd work on upping her food intake, and let the bfs sort themselves out. I expect that if you tried to drop feeds she'd be waking in the night for them

HV talking bollocks.

Sounds like your DD is doing brilliantly. DS got bigger as his pincer grip developed and he was able to eat more, but it's normal for there to be some up and down on the chart.

Thanks so much for the replies- I knew I should have just asked on here instead of the sure start!

I like the ideas of dreid fruit- I think they'll go down well.

She does eat quite a lot at meal times and to be honest the thought of un doing all of the hard work coming up with tasty healthy meals with giving her 'treats' was making me feel very uneasy.

no no no... god, don't give her rusks, even the low sugar ones are bad.

If you want to give biscuits, just let her have half of yours, no need to buy special baby stuff.

Sounds like she's doing well though, eating fruit etc.
if you want to give more calorific snacks without resorting to sugar, things like eggy bread, hummous on toast, pasta and lumps of cheese are good.

As a HV can I just

There that feels better.

Your HV is of course utterly barking - does she know how much sugar there is in a rusk.

TBH it sounds as though you are doing just great as you are. A drop from the 50th centile to the 25th is no big deal quite honestly, I only tend to look more closely if a baby drops two centile lines in six weeks or less.

You have had good replies here - MN is always good for support.

I am utterly shocked that your HV actually suggested rusks - they are the last thing I think of - spend half my life persuading youngsters not to put them into bottles of formula.

if you are breastfeeding on demand... then you do it on demand, right? only reason i can see to cut down is if you are finding it impossible to keep up. breastmilk is the best drink they can have, no reason to give water instead. DD lived on bananas pretty much - still does - if that's any help. oh and baby rice for ages too, made up with breast milk.

Can you introduce snacks? I know this might sound stupid but I work as a chilminder now but used to be a nanny and I found parents were giving their children "fat free" foods as that was what they believed to be "healthier".

If you want to drop feeds then I would introduce healthy full fat snacks - not bloody rusks. Strawberries and cream, cheese savoury biscuits (take minuted to make), cubs of cheese, hummous and other nut and seed based child friendly food, eggy bread, fruity milksakes, rice cakes with something on top etc.

I personally wouldn't give too much dried fruit (especially apricots) as there is just so much sugar in them.

I would also offer water with meals purely to get them used to drinking from a beaker.

How are your babies nappies and how fast was the drop through the chart and what sort of build do you and the babies dad have?

also, how active is she?

if she is crawling around everywhere then she is using the energy from her meals and bf to move and not just grow.

Just to check she's only gone down 1 centile and otherwise has been following weight gain?

It can be normal for them to go down a bit at weaning time, she is probably getting more active.

Your HV is talking bollocks - rusks??????????? WTF!!!!

Great advice on here. Just keep going with offering the solids calmly preferably when you're eating and she'll get it eventually.

Breastmilk has way more calories than water or bloody rusks

What a load of bollocks the HV is talking. OTOH though you say she is having 3 meals + BF and while this is fine and you can view some of those BFs as snacks, most children do have a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack and if you WANTED to slightly reduce the BFs then this would be a normal and healthy way to do it, remembering that children need good fats not sugar.

BREAST MILK.

Pah to rusks.

Daft hv.

her nappies have solidified recently and 1 dirty one a day and lots of wees. She's always followed the 50th and isnt crawling but is very active- swimming, rolling etc. she eats loads though and is happy.

I'm going to try the suggested snacks- she drinks about 300mls of water a day (and pours the rest on the cat )

Your HV sounds like mine. What is their obsession with getting babies down to 3 breastfeeds a day? On the advice of mumsnetters, I ignored her and all has been well