nine month old and weighing just over 15lbs![sad]

[kutilputil]

dont know which topic to post this in and so chose health as it is health related.my ds weighs only 15lbs and i'm being made to feel concerned.yes i say made to because i feel he is fine yet all i get from EVERYONE except hubby is he is too small and too light!my 3month old nephew weighs about the same!my ds is exclusively breatfed and had weaned well and enjoys a variety of food, howvever i dont tend to put too much fat into his diet.he has a variety of everything else and enjoys mealtime unlike most of the kids i know.yet he only manages to put on a couple of ounces per week!spoke to gp and hv and had him reffered to hospital where they tried to discharge him without any test and i pushed for a blood test which found him to be a beta thaleseimia carrier(cant spell it!) but more concerning is that he has iron deficiency anaemia!now they fobbed me off at the gps with iron supplement and said not to worry, he'll be fine, but i'm still worried. my main concern was that because he is breasfed and i read after six months breast milk hasn't got enough iron and that i needed to top up with supplement.i quized the hv and she said no reason to worry and now 3 months down the line i get this thrown at me.am i going on?pls excuse me as i am a bit p'd off!so going back to weight, dont know how iron links in with weight but can anyone give me the link or tell me if all is well and that he will get bigger and better.his height is 66cm and he is a fantastically alert boy and developing sometimes beyond his age group,just like mummy so should i worry?HELP

I don't know much about anaemia, but I wonder why you don't put too much fat into his diet? Do you actively not give him full-fat options, or does he just not eat much that can be fatty (my DS2 doesn't eat much, but did manage a massive chunk of cucumber today, for instance - not much fat in that!).

hi hunkermunker!no i dont keep away from fat because of the issues around fats and too much weight gain, because i know i shouldn't worry at this age but i just cant seem to put it in his diet.i give alot of homemade food and the shop bought jars are all only vegetarian as i am a Muslim and so avoid meat that isn't halal.but i cant seem s to add fat, i use olive oil to cook and the only other fat he gets is a little spread on toast!mingy i knowwhat should i do?it worries me as breast milk is not so fatty and he drinks nothing else, or choose not to combine it with formula and i understand i cant give him full fat milk, or can i?he is approaching 10 months

Can you try giving him cheese? You can give full fat cows milk on porridge and cereal if he has that in the morning?

Breastmilk is rich and calorific, so don't worry about that - how often are you breastfeeding in a 24 hour period?

What did he weigh when he was born? Has he consistently gained weight? Or has he ever lost weight?

i have given him cheese and he does take to it well, its just i dont knwo when to give it to him, in food or alone?as for breast milk, he has a feed in the moring, one mid morning, one sometimes mid afternoon and the last thing at night.otherwise he doesnt demand to be on the breast.i do give him full fat milk in his cereal but thats like what...6 tbsp amount ish!

So he's having three possibly four breastfeeds a day and low-fat food the rest of the time (not in the sense of specially created to be low fat food, more in the sense of things that aren't naturally high in fat)?

I would say offer him breastfeeds more often.

If it helps, this is roughly what DS2 does on a typical day (he's 8mo):

6am - bfeed

8am - breakfast - a few mouthfuls of porridge made with full fat cows milk, maybe a gnaw on a bit of toast

10am - bfeed

12.30pm - lunch (today was toast, carrot and cucumber)

1pm - bfeed

4pm - bfeed

5.30pm - dinner of some description - pasta spirals and a large hunk of peach to gnaw on, perhaps

7pm - bfeed

Then he bfeeds through the night, perhaps once or twice.

I would say that your DS may very well take more bfeeds if you offer them. Don't wait to be asked - he sounds like he needs the calories. And your milk has iron in it - so the more you feed him, the more he'll get.

Let us know how you get on.

great advice on the bmilk but the hv said otherwise!she said by now he sould have three good meals a day with snacks in between and less on the milk!.and even so, if i gun him down and shove the boob in his mouth, he wont take it unless he wants it!fiesty lil chap that he is.from the begining, when he weighed just over 6lb at birth, he didnt go crazy on the breast.and theres my nephew, who under my advice and guidance to my sis in law about breastfeeding, as excelled in looks and weight and is attached to mummy day and night by the boob!i was told then that i'm bad at feeding him and i should make it more frequent as he did feed roughly 3 hours apart.but you cant force them can you, it is demand feeding that wokrd with bmilk isn't it?

thnaks for the chat hunkermunker but my battery has gone down and i must retire to bed now, but anyone else who does have a good suggestions pls tell me and i shall read in the morn!bye

Hi kp

Ignore the hv, your ds really does need lots of milk at this age.

My sympathies - my dd1 was a skinny thing and we had lots of flak about this. She's now 2, very smart and active and strong and eats very well. She started to cross centiles upwards not because of anything we did with food or bfeeding, but because she learned to walk (at 10 months) and put on loads of muscle. She still has hardly any fat on her. Your ds may well be the same.

Not much to add to Dr Hunker's suggestions, but just a few thoughts:

1. What size are you and DH? It might be that your ds is just meant to be small.

1. Apparently anaemia can affect children's appetites, so maybe if you can sort this out he'll just naturally feed more. Agree about the difficulty of "force-feeding" bfeeds! However my dd1 was bfeeding quite a lot more at that age, similar to Hunker's ds.

1. High calorie foods: Does your ds like avocado or sweet potato? And what about oily fish?

1. Finally - are you ok yourself from the iron point of view? I know baby gets first pick of nutrients, but maybe there's not much iron in your system at the moment?

Just some thoughts, good luck!

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It may be that your baby is just meant to be a bit smaller than average - my DS is long and skinny, just like his parents! BF babies are can be lighter as well. But you should make sure he gets as much food as he wants, including milk. A good way to give cheese is to grate some into vegetable purees.

He may be just meant to be small. Are you and your DH on the large or small side?

What about full-fat yogurt? He can have dairy products like cheese and yogurt now (assuming no family history of allergies), just not having milk to drink yet because your breastmilk (if you give him enough of it) is higher in fat and calories. Or you could mix a dollop of full-fat double cream into other, lower-fat things you are feeding him.

Not all babies "demand" to be fed in an up-front way. Some of them are more laid back. I'd suggest making your "sometimes" mid-afternoon feed an "always" feed -- that will get more into him, for a start. And you might be able to cluster feed more in the evening, so feed him say an hour and a half before bedtime and then again at bedtime. Obviously you can't force him to feed, but if you can offer more often he may well feed a bit more often.

Cooking in cast-iron pans in general, but particularly acidic foods like apple will help to get more iron into his diet.

You can sneak cheese into the diet in lots of ways... as chunks for a snack, on toast, on pasta (or stirred into it), grated on veg etc. My DD loved guacamole and hummous at that age (still does) which are 2 good ways of getting calories in.

I wonder too if you would feel happier not having him weighed every week. When DD was born, she was huge (9lb 13) and on the 98th centile. She then veered way down across the centile lines for about 4 months, and I endured lots of rubbish about not having good quality milk, giving formula etc. I didn't have MN then and I felt so stressed by my weekly trial by HV as DD got on the scales ("only 3 oz on this week - oh dear, come back next week and we'll see if you've done any better" ). I rebelled at 4 months and haven't taken her since!

I am not suggesting that you shoudl never go again, simply that perhaps you would feel less under pressure if you had, say, fornightly weigh ins, or an interval with which you are comfortable. You are doing a good job so please don't feel disheartened.

Take care.

I would seriously try not to worry, if you and your hubby are happy with your ds, then try and ignore others. My ds2 was 17lb 13oz at 1 year and was 7lb 13oz born, only putting on 10lb in a year. I read somewhere that a baby should roughly treble their birthweight by their 1st birthday, so your ds should be roughly 17 to 18lb, so he sounds like he is ticking along quite nicely. I do agree that all babies need fats in their diets though

Admittedly, my ds was poorly and had health issues and some of the tips we were given to help him gain weight were cheese, grate it and add it things, melt it into dishes or give on it's own. We added butter into almost everything, double cream instead of full fat milk, full fat yoghurts, avacado & sweet potatoe. They are all high in fats, and are beneficial for weight gain.

hi my DD2 is 8months olds and on a very similar shcedule to hunkers DS2 (they both even didn't want to come out at the start) anyway theres some great advice on here about adding cheese to his diet etc

DD2 loves cheesy mash with vegetables, really easy to make and if you use full fat milk and butter in the mash and add cheese at the end it bumps up the calories. Also you can make it into little balls they seem to like eating these themselves.

Another fav of DD2s is a sweet potato and lentil mix, basically fry some carrot and onion, add some veg stock, lentils and sweet potato and let it simmer for 20 mins, it's an Annabel Carmel recipe not mine but it makes about 4-5 portions which you can freeze and keep for later.

What else? Oh I use the occasional jar and Hipp do some good veggie ones like Spaghetti with tomato sauce and mozzarella and a cheesy past bake.

Fortunately I have no worries with DD2 she's a strapping big baby but DD1 was and is a really fussy eater, she refused to be spoonfed from about 7 months anything other than yoghurt so all her meals were buffet style, I put a selection of veg, cheese, chickpeas etc on her tray and she helped herself, she's tiny but I have no concerns it's the way she's meant to be.

As far as the iron goes, are you giving him meat yet? Red meat is the most easily-digested source of iron. Halal, obviously in your case. Try lamb or beef mince for his lunch (mince + tomatoes + veg) with pasta or rice. Red meat is also quite fatty so will help him grow.

Vitamin C helps you to absorb non-meat sources of iron so try giving him a little watered-down fresh orange juice with his breakfast cereal/with wholemeal toast. Or just give him some fresh fruit or veg with cereal/toast.

And agree with all the suggestions about adding full-fat milk/cheese/yoghurt into every thing you can - he can have cow's milk in food, just not as a drink (because it doesn't contain enough iron, unlike breastmilk or formula). And make sure you are getting plenty of iron yourself while you are breastfeeding.

If he only weighed 6lb's ish at birth then he probably would only be aroudn 15lbs now - roughly follows the 2nd centile on the growth charts. As long as he is in proportion (which on the info you have given he is) is thriving , healthy and active then your hv should n't eb unduly concerned, someone's baby ahs ot be on the smaller side for the statistical graphs to work. howevr iron and fat are important for a balanced diet in youngsters, for growth and health, so do try to include foods which are high in them, such as lentils, chickpeas, fortified cereals, yoghurt etc if you are vegetarian. Would you give him food containing halal meat of you made a few batches yourself and froze it?

My 13 month old dd weighs 17 and a half pounds. She has a huge appetite, eats three meals a day, is still breastfed and although she is little no-one seems concerned. She is happy, healthy and very active. My dd is largely vegetarian as I am, but has meat at nursery and when dh cooks. Babies and small children need high fat diets because not only are they running around all day but they are growing too and burn lots of energy. It's also a great excuse for me to use full fat milk on my breakfast cereal and full fat cream cheese on my toast!