Near 5 month old weighing 12lb

[catlady7]

Hi, my daughter weighs 12lb 9oz
Gaining weight slowly. Was on the 50th percentile dropped couple centiles. So was having her weighed weekly but now 2 weekly. Because she is gaining. Not lost any weight. Plenty of wet/dirty nappies. Alert and developing really well. Happy smiley baby. She has dairy allergy and a soya allergy. Got dietician appointment coming up and a paeds appointment in a few months time. She is a dinky baby and been told she's fine. I don't know my reason for this post but to talk to other mams who's been in this situation. Its so very stressful and trying not to stress/worry. I've had to remove out my diet as breastfeeding and she is on dairy free formula. But refuses it when poorly or upset. It is hard. But she's so worth it.

Tia

Bump

Is she on an extensively hydrolysed or amino acid formula? Are you keeping a food diary. My daughter was 20 food allergies which she reacted to me eating!

My daughter was on the 9th percentile until I got on top of her allergies and then she moved to the 35th. She has stabilised on the 25th for weight but she is only on the 1st for height. She outgrows clothes based on height so is still in aged 18-24 months at nearly 4!

She is really thriving on her allergy free diet even though we haven't been able to reintroduce foods.

I was always on the 2nd percentile, my older sister was below the 0.4th until 1. She was born 6lb13 and at 10 weeks was just 7lb10! My younger sister was born mid 7lbs and was always fairly average size. She 4 years younger than me and we did some times share clothes as we were close to the same size. We are all slim build adults now. I'm the shortest at 5ft2 and my eldest sister is the tallest at 5ft4 so our sizes as children didn't change our adult heights. My niece was 8lb10 at birth and is now 5ft5 at 14 and the tallest female in the family!

She's on aptamil pepti. She's a totally different baby on it. Originally I thought she just had reflux. Then tried her on gaviscon and omeprezole. Didn't help at all. Did some research as allergies can cause reflux symptoms. She became such a happy baby on it. Occasionally would be in pain but nothing like when she was just breastfeeding. I thought she had just a dairy allergy. Decided to not eat much and ate some soya beans. She was horrendous. Musucy poos and arching is so much pain. Back to breastfeeding. What's the best way to wean? She's been having banana porridge. Haven't tried anything else. I'm 5ft 5 so think she's taking my build. Her dad's 6ft 2.

Most babies that react through breastmilk need amino acid formulas. The proteins in your milk have been partially broken down by your body so breastmilk is already sort of analogous to the extensively hydrolysed.
If reflux has been an issue you might need the gaviscon to thicken them as they are very thin. It is also possible to have reflux and allergies. My daughter still needs high dose reflux meds aged 3y9m even though she's been symptom free for allergies since 14m

I'm probably not the best person to ask re weaning as my daughter was 13 months before she really ate anything. She only gained 200g between 7 and 13 months which was quite stressful! Give the big allergens as early as you can early in the day and when you have support and the GP surgery is open.

My daughter is more sensitive to soya than dairy and directly she can't eat poultry that's been fed soya!

My partner is 6ft but was the smallest in the class until he reached puberty so hopefully she's the same as him and starts growing at some point! In the meantime I'm enjoying getting plenty of use out of her clothes.

I will look in to that. Thank you. Gaviscon didn't help. Have been using a thickener which does help to an extent. I think she has both. Aw I bet it was. I had no issues with my son. So it's definitely a shock to the system going through this. I think she's more sensitive to soya. I will. Her dad's allergic to nuts. So will try with that when she's 6 months. Yeah that's probably only good thing clothes lasting ages

I had a very dinky baby who was also dairy intolerant and was made to feel I was doing everything wrong. I can’t remember her exact weight but it would have been similar. I just wanted to reassure you that my dinky baby is 23 years old now and is healthy and happy. Trust your instincts and try not to worry. Enjoy it as much as you can she won’t be a baby forever.

What thickener are you using now? As well as gaviscon we tried carobel but my daughter was allergic to that too. I read that the carob bean is similar to the soya bean. We are settled on a combination of omperazole gaviscon and domperidone for her reflux

Even if it didn't work with the other milks it might be needed to make the milk a normal thickness rather to make it thick enough to not reflux if that makes sense.

I never have to worry about getting hand-me-downs clothes in wrong season as since 1 she has been in clothes for at least a year! When she was born she got some lovely summer dresses and she no where near fitting in them when it was summer but she looked lovely in them the next year!

Since she has been a toddler it's been slightly tougher as she's still in baby clothes but needs toddler clothes. I struggled to find knickers in age 12-18 months sizes and she's going to need a 2-3 yo school uniform and size 6 school shoes which limits our options.

We have had lots of input from hvs and the paediatrician which has helped keep my nerves at bay most of the time at least!

No allergies but a little DD. She was approx 13 and a half pounds at 6 months and about 16 and a half pounds at 12 months.

Have worried myself endlessly over it as she is very slight. She's on the 9th centile for weight but has always stayed on that line.

She's happy and healthy, developing well. She's probably not as physical as some kids her age but she's very clever. All my family are slight I think for us its genetics. Although DD2 is huge in comparison to her sister x

Thank you so much for your comments. Sorry haven't got back. Been having a rough time with my daughter. Realised that porridge has may contain milk and not realised. Feel like a right idiot. And feel bad also. But thank you your comments. But will get back to yous when she's more settled x

@Tryingtoconceivenumber2 @Backtothe90ties @Superscientist

Unless you have been told to you don't need to avoid may contains or any similar warnings. 1 they are voluntary so a product that doesn't have a may contain label might actually be a higher risk. It is can be used very variedly too so dry ingredients in a sealed bag next to a sealed bag of milk powder or used on the same machinery with or without adequate proper cleaning

There are some foods that are higher risks than others. Bournville chocolate used to be high risk so much so they had to add milk to the ingredients! Things like plain porridge oats will be lower risks than a premade porridge in a pouch. As a general rule we don't avoid may contains for my daughter but we try to avoid processed foods and make things from scratch with whole ingredients where possible

My health visitor told me to avoid. I'm definitely going to get some plain porridge oats. Every time she's had it she's reacted either later on or the next day. Feel awful.

Really. God that's bad. Going to puree some fruit and veg to give her that separate. See how she goes. Will do one at a time .

I'm also definitely going to do a food dairy. I've got dietician appointment not next week but week after.

No experience of allergies, but our DC was prem and wearing age 2 clothing at 5. He was very small for years and we just thought he wouldn’t be tall. Last 2 years in secondary school he just grew and grew - now 6ft 1.

Don't despair, she will be ok and I hope any allergies settle down

Thank you so much for this. It's hard not to despair. X

@catlady7 What was your DD’s birth weight? It used to be said that on average babies should be double their birth weight by 6 months.

She was 8lb 5oz

She dropped to 7lb 4oz

5oz*

I would ask your dietician about the may contains / produced in a factory/not suitable for people with dairy allergies. Some people with allergies do have to avoid them but they are the minority and it would be a dietician or paediatrician that would advice you remove them as a whole. There might be particular products that you might want to avoid as it might be a higher risk.

Also, if you pick up something that isn't a may contain and then take it home and put it in your fridge next to milk, cheese and yoghurt it technically becomes a may contain then. If you have milk in your fridge everything in your fridge is class as a may contain. For most people most of the time it's not going to be a problem as the lid is firmly on you know where the milk is. If I used the same knife to cut cheese and then cut something up for my daughter that food would also be a may contain but now a much higher risk as the knife had been touching the cheese and now touching her food. We use so many knives and chopping boards as everything we prepare for my daughter is on a clean chopping board and with a clean knife unless we are absolutely certain only her food has been prepared on it.

The concept of may contain is very nuanced and often misunderstood!

My first DD was 6lb 4oz at birth and was a terrible feeder. She was reluctant to breastfeed and it was difficult to get her to take a bottle. I was lucky if she took 2oz at a time. At one point she was on the bottom percentile and I thought she'd drop right off the chart. GP said she was just petite (neither me or DH are petite). She too had plenty of wet and dirty nappies.

DD is now 25, still very petite (UK size 6), and still a picky eater (though she can eat loads of stuff she likes). Some babies just don't eat much, so try not to get too worked up about their size if they're otherwise healthy and having regular wet and dirty nappies.

I'm definitely going to ask them. Another thing she also screams in pain when doing a poo, definitely not constipated as her poos are watery after eaten anything dairy/soya

Thank you for your comment 😊 it is helping. I know I need to worry less but it isn't easy

Believe me, I was you 25 years ago OP, so I get it. DD was my rainbow baby and I was so worried all the time. I wish I'd had Mumsnet then to be able to ask advice, it would have helped loads.

She is my Rainbow baby too. So is my son.

When I first got her weighed I mentioned allergy and just the way the health visitor responded made me second guess it and that there's nothing wrong with her when there is.