No weight gain 5mo - hv said to wean and fast

[clara10]

DD born a healthy 7lb 11. At 19 weeks was 13lb 8, so not a fast weight gain, but she has not put on any weight at all in the past 5 weeks, still 13lb 8 at 24 weeks. However, is happy, perky, and BFing round the clock!

HV was quite clear - wean now, 3 meals a day and up the portion sizes asap.

Really? I read on here time and time again how milk is more important than food and I don't want her to drink less. I worried that too much food for such a small baby will mean her milk intake would drop - how do I know if that happens? What are the signs?

I've started her on baby porridge, puree veg for lunch and fruit puree for tea.

I'm not doing BLW but what if I wanted to, how would that work?

your hv is wrong unfortunately. Maybe you could ask her for the evidence that she's going on that goes against all advice from WHO or dept of Health etc....

Maybe you need to talk to a breastfeeding counsellor to find out if the latch is right, and if y our daughter is getting the milk. Try the NCT or LLL phone lines.
Breastmilk is all she needs for now, and for a good while yet.

Don't know whether she is wrong or right, but dcs3 and 4 were both very slow to gain weight after about 3 months (both bf). With dc3 I held out till nearly 6 moths before weaning, and he fell right off the bottom of his growth curve. When I weaned him he put on weight quite quickly (and wolved down mashed banana and yogurt and anything else he could get his hands on) and is now a normal size/weight for his age (2 and a half). DC4 was weaned at 4 months and also proceeded to put on weight quickly after weaning.

FWIW DC1 was weaned at 4 months (as per guidelines at the time) and we never had a weight issue, though I don't think we weighed her much to find out!

All 3 were hungry babies, who wanted to be spoon fed and wanted plenty of solids as soon as they started; I am in theory a fan of BLW, but in practice my children were too uncoordinated to get the food they wanted in their mouths by themselves, and found mealtimes very frustrating if I didn't shovel some food into their mouths.

So basically I did what your HV is recommending. In order to encourage them not to drop the milk intake I always bf them before the solids, so the solid was topping up rather than replacing.

Well 24 weeks is fine age-wise for weaning. I would try upping her milk intake too though - feed more often and offer 2 or more sides each feed.

Pureed veg and fruit doesn't have much in the way of calories, so if you're wanting weight gain I'd go for something with more calories. Avocado, nut butters, cheese, cream etc.

As for BLW - if your baby can sit well in a chair, pick up food and get it to her mouth, then you can just put some suitable food in front of her and let her get on with it!

Thank you for your replies. The past couple of days have gone really well.
You hear 'babies won't stave themselves' and 'my baby doesn't really like milk' and I think I have one of those. She has been just drinking enough to keep going. Conversely, DD has been inhailing the purees from the spoon so i will try fingers food too. I am keeping up the BFing and offering solids 30mins after a feed.

Good news - the past 3 nights we've dropped down to 2 night feeds - so pleased.

I think it's going well and this was the right move for my baby. Thanks for the advice - am confident again :)