Advised to wean 5mo ebf is this right?

[veget8ed]

DD is 5mo, we went to baby clinic yesterday and got weighed, gained 15 oz in last 4 weeks, she had been just on 25th centile but last weigh in 4 weeks ago and yesterdays weigh in have seen her drop a bit to between 9th and 25th centile. HV picked up on this and said maybe I should try weaning her, I said I wanted to do BLW and she said just mush up food a bit then rather than puree. Not sure weather to follow this advice or not or stick it out til 6 months. I read in Gill Rapley's book that BF babies often slow down in weight gain around 4 months. DD has been reaching out for what we are eating and last night sat on DH's knee during tea and tried to grab off the plate so he mashed up a carrot and she took the spoon to her mouth and tasted it then he offered mashed potato and she ate this. Advice please, should I start offering things like cooked vegetable pieces etc or wait? Is the HV right? DD wakes me every 3 hours in the night for a feed.

you're right, BF babies tend to gain fairly quickly and then plateau, which is what your dd is doing

a drop that small is really not worth worrying about anyway imo!

PLUS, food has far less calories in it than milk... so if weight was an issue (which it isn't) then you would really want her to have more milk, not fill her up on solids

All of mine have dropped a centile at around 4 months mark, only to go up again when they are on solids.

I have started weaning ds who is 16 weeks (I know very early), but he has become much more settled during the day and slept for two 4 hours stints last night, it was getting to be every 2 hours.

Here is a link to the WHO weight charts for EBF babies, my red book still has the old charts in them which were based on bottle fed (American!) babies.

www.rcpch.ac.uk/Research/UK-WHO-Growth-Charts

I found it useful to plot my DD weight for myself, as on this chart she plotted nicely on a line while on the red book chart it looked like she was dropping down all the time.

Interestingly, my DD was always below 9th centile (according to HV's chart) and dropped to below 2nd but they insisted I shouldn't wean until 6 months (which I was happy with too).

I would think it's a bit extreme to recommend early weaning based on a drop of less than a percentile line but that's my opinion. Do what you think is right.

HTH

Many thanks everyone, RJandA I have looked at the chart and it seems to be the same as the one I have, but thanks anyway, I just think they (HV) are being a bit over zealous and I can't understand it really, every time I go to clinic or breastfeeding group it's someone different running it and I am always asked if I've started weaning yet, I always reply No, we will wait til 6m and then do BLW and I don't get any further responses once I've said this, it's almost like I'm a leper or something

RJandA The red book claims that the chart is constructed from breast-fed babies in various countries?

I weaned EBF DD at just over 5 months, with my HV's blessing, and she went from being on 2nd centile for every weigh in to almost 25th centile by 6 and a half months, so it can certainly help with weight gain.

There are far more calories in your milk than bits of mushed vegetables so why not stick to the bm for now rather than filling your baby up with low fat low calorie vegetables?

Your baby is fine and the HV is misinformed and spouting rubbish - in the red book it even says that a drop of 2 centiles is normal. Your baby hasn't even dropped one. Babies grow to their own pattern - they are all individual.

Many thanks everyone for your responses and support, we will continue to BF and BLW from 6 months.