Dropped centile :( any advice appreciated

[MrsCs]

My lo is 22 weeks old, 25th centile at birth. He was breast fed but lost weight and despite combination feeding and lots of support he was ff from 6 weeks. Initially he took to this okay, never enthusiastic but settled at four 6oz bottles a day. We had to change to Hipp organic as he literally spat cow and gate out.

The only thing is he will not increase the amount, he just will not take more. He briefly went up to the 50th centile but has fallen to the 9th now. At the weigh in clinic they advised to start weaning him and bring him back within two weeks.

He is the least hungry baby ever!! After four hours he is still a struggle to feed as he is just never interested. Apart from morning and night bottles he just seems content to smile and play. I weaned my first at six month (blw) so I'm finding this puree stuff bloody annoying but he is actually enthusiastic about this (always after bottle, don't want him taking any less). He will take an entire bowl of whatever is on offer.

What happens if he still doesn't gain weight? How can you make a baby hungry??

I don't understand why they have advised you to start weaning now as weaning foods contain far less calories than milk yet can reduce appetite for milk.
Also a drop of one centile wouldn't be a cause for concern unless your lo has been suffering with failure to thrive. Have you ever been refered to a paed?

No failure to thrive, no referral, he's meeting all milestones, lovely healthy, happy little boy. I've got to say he doesn't look small to me, he's in the right size clothes, smiles like it's going out of fashion and sleeps all night (which I assume he wouldn't do if he were hungry :(.

I think we are far too obsessed with weight. More often babies are perfectly healthy yet on the bottom percentile. My GP used to just look at a child/their behaviour and could see they were thriving. Is your DC alert? Meeting mental milestones? Is your DC happy? Then roll with it because he's likely just to be finding his more natural weight.

Thank you :) I was surprised because he is just such a happy soul. My older one is on the slender side too, not underweight by any means but active and eats healthily. He's only 22 week but he's been rolling both ways for 7 weeks and is NEVER still when he is awake so quite active for a little baby. He can't crawl but he can shuffle a good few inches and turn 360 degrees so it could be he is burning a lot I guess lol?

Neither of them were ever particularly hungry babies but they have always met milestone and been contented little guys.

He just sounds active, very physically busy and content. You would know if he was unhappy or in discomfort due to hunger.

Mine were all tiny (smaller then 9th) but healthy.

DS was on the 50th centile at birth but dropped to the 9th by 6 months. I got all sorts of random advice from the HV assistant. He's a very healthy and happy 7 year old now - he's one of the smaller ones in his class, but neither DH or I are tall.

In that case I wouldn't stress about it. You cannot force a child to eat more. He is well nourished and otherwise well the fact he has dropped a centile is not a cause for concern IMHO and I'm sure if you went to see a paed they would say exactly the same

It's nice to hear some differing perspectives, it's felt really weird trying to encourage him to take more when he shows no interest. His brother is tall but slim, again endlessly active though, as a two year old should be.

I'm speaking as a health visitor as well as a parent. I really don't know any of my colleagues who would a) suggest early weaning and b) get so het up over a drop of one centile

It wasn't my usual health visitor who was pretty clear on the whole six month thing (same as I did with my first). It was just someone running the clinic. She said after seventeen weeks it's not a big deal, however I couldn't have even imagined feeding him solids that young. He is only just starting to sit up a bit now and his head would have been all over.

I wish advice on this was consistent. DS was born on 50th, dropped to just below 9th by around 6-12m and has stayed there ever since (he's 2.2 now). He is fine. Toddling, chatting, eating, playing. On the plus side at this age, he's much lighter to carry than his peers (by a few kg now)

The hvs we came across were generally useless. Our main GP is a star, took it in her stride, kept an eye on him but essentially so long as his overall development was on par then she wasn't worried. A locum suggested early on to me that DS was hungry and i should feed him more. He wasn't hungry. It just stressed us both out!

As much as you can, trust your instincts. Ignore the advice that irritates you, take the bits that make sense

Both my dd dropped centiles. Dd1 dropped from 82nd at birth to the 45th by 4 months. She's always had a spiked chart rather than an arc.

Dd2 dropped from 39th to the 7th by 6 weeks and had a lot of pestering from hvs but it was due to reflux and her having bad associations with milk. She rarely takes more than a 5-6oz bottle except at bedtime where she takes 7.
She's 6 months now and I've just started trying to wean her and she's just not interested. I don't think she's going to be a big eater and have kind of accepted it. She's hovering between the 15th-20th centile now and she's just going to be petite.
I honestly would t worry about it.

Mine was like this. No early weaning "advice" thankfully. So I just fed as usual ... and she took ages to eat a full baby bowl of food when weaning at 6 months.
But she just had her 11 month check up, and you can see she's found a new line/is creeping back up. Senior HV perfectly happy - said some kids grow sporadically rather than smoothly.

So worrying at the time though.

Squitzita I'm laughing as we discussed weaning on another thread and you pointed out my dd1 was quite unusual in how much she ate by 7 months. I'm totally seeing that now with dd2 lol.

Personally if have to do a lot of research before giving solids so young.