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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

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Original poster

Anyone else's BLW baby falling down percentiles?

13 replies

choceyes · 13/04/2011 22:20

My DD is now 8 months and is baby led weaned. I am also breastfeeding her.

Got her weighed today and she's fallen from the 50th percentile to the 25th in the last couple of months. However she was born on the 25th percentile, so could be that she is stabilising at that level now.

She has had chickenpox and teething has been bothering her a lot too. So she's not been too happy to be trying out food anway in the last 4wks.

HV was abit concerned and said that there is a window of opportunity for introducing food and I shouldn't wait too long....even though I told her I was doing BLW, so I think she was hinting that I should spoon feed her

She's not that into her food really. I've also done BLW with my son who is 2.5yrs now so I know what to expect I guess, but she is not as proficient as he was at feeding herself. He was feeding himself loaded spoons of whetabix and yoghurt etc not longer after 6 months but she doesn't even do that at 8 months. There is definitely nappy evidence of stuff being swallowed (mostly roast parsnip!) so she does eat something. Most of the time she just cries when we put her in her high chair and it is difficult getting her mealtimes timed right, cos I have to run to the toddler schedule too, so which means that she might be too tired to eat when DS is having his meals, or when she is ready we might be out and about....

Anybody else who is BLW a LO of a smiliar age?

OP posts:

Original poster

choceyes · 13/04/2011 22:26

Meant to say that my DS also fell down the percentiles after 6 months , but the HV i saw then was unconcerned and was a great advocate of BLW and never told me to spoonfeed and she said as long as he was happy and alert he is fine. But he is fussy with his food now and still eats very little, and together with today the HV saying that if I don't introduce foods quicker now they can be fussy later on, got me worried and knocked my confidence of BLW really.

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Ozziegirly · 14/04/2011 06:55

Does she seem hungry and unable to satisfy her appetite with what she can put in her mouth?

Could you do a bit of a combination, so some spoon feeding of and then she can do the rest? Then at least you know that a bit more is going in, but she's still getting the independence of finger feeding.

With my DS, I don't think he would be able to satisfy his quite large appetite with BLW only - his dexterity hasn't caught up with the desire as yet! So he has some via the spoon and then I leave him to feed himself some when he has had the first edge taken off the hunger.

And there isn't any worry of "overfeeding" as he sits there like a baby bird with his mouth open, chasing the spoon round.

haudyerwheesht · 14/04/2011 07:10

I'm not sure what to say other than dd is almost 7m and we are doing blw - she gums toast etc but I'm not sure she swallows any at all to be honest and she categorically will not be spoonfed :(

Rosebud05 · 14/04/2011 07:38

Both my babies dropped a centile (or more in dd's case) around 6 months. I don't think it's unusual for them to be nearer a year before they start eating proper amounts. Chicken pox and teething will have thrown her out of whack too.

Is she sleeping, generally content (aside from illness) and bf well? If so, she's probably one of those babies who goes for longer thriving on mainly milk. I do remember how difficult it is to juggle toddler mealtimes when weaning - this will get better over the next few months.

Original poster

choceyes · 14/04/2011 07:44

Ozziegirly - I have tried spooning some fruit puree to her just to see how she responds but she doesn't like that either. she bats the spoon away and starts crying.

She does seem more unsettled generally since she had chickenpox a month ago. She doesn'y sleep that much during the day as before and so spends more of the day tired. She bf normally, not anymore or any less than she used to and she sleeps well at night too (wakes up for 1 or 2 feeds which I think is still normal at this age)

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BerryLellow · 14/04/2011 07:57

The thing with BLW I think is that you don't drop any milk feeds, and the mantra is 'food for fun until they are one'. It may be a phase for your DD, maybe she's getting some teeth that hurt and she's not fussed at the moment.

DS2 was bfed and we did BLW, he's a little scrap of a thing, but I think that's just how he is. TBH I haven't had him weighed since 6 months so couldn't tell you where he's been on centiles ever.

RitaMorgan · 14/04/2011 08:05

I think babies often fluctuate a bit - the centiles are just averages, so few babies are going to be textbook.

My 8 month old was up and down the lines from 75th to below the 25th to the 50th in his first 6 months. I haven't had him weighed since then, but he's happy and healthy so there's no need to imo.

RitaMorgan · 14/04/2011 08:07

And 50th to 25th isn't much of a "fall" anyway - it's only a few oz difference. Even in a newborn that kind of drop shouldn't raise concerns, let alone in a robust 8 month old!

Ozziegirly · 14/04/2011 10:36

I agree with Rita. Even my DS who is eating me out of house and home has "dropped" from 50th to 25th centile this month - but personally I think he just had a big poo before he was weighed!

If you've tried spoon feeding and she isn't interested it doesn't sound like she is really hungry but just can't figure out how to get it in her mouth.

I'm far from an expert but I go on whether they are trying a range of fruit, veg, proteins and carbs and look and seem generally happy, plumpish etc.

I don't know about the night feeds either as my DS has been FF for a while now and doesn't feed at night anymore, but if most bf babies still feed twice then I"m sure that's fine.

Original poster

choceyes · 14/04/2011 20:57

Had a better day today as she seemed more interested in food and she ate some chicken and some avocado, and also she liked hazelnut butter when i loaded it on to a spoon for her. I tried to feed her some fruit puree that I had but she categorically refused to be fed! Suits me really as I loath spoonfeeding and BLW makes a lot of sense to me, so hoepfully she will just get more dextrous soon.

I know it's not much of a fall from 50th to 25th, but having been through it before with DS who at one point was on the 9th percentile (born at 50th, and went up to the 75th pc at one point), I've always worried about his weight, so I felt kind of frustrated that i might have to go through the worry again....

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splatt · 15/04/2011 08:59

I've decided to boycott the HV and weigh ins!!
For the first 6 weeks DD dropped through from 50th to 9th centile as I persisted in vain with breast feeding. Introduced combination feeding and she then climbed to above the 91st last time she was weighed at 20 weeks. Have been told she's too tiny and too heavy. I have had questioning looks about how much I feed her and even was asked if I allowed her to have a floor time to kick about.
Now we're BLW. She dropped to 4 bottles a day about 3 weeks before we started offering solids. She's slimmed down around her face. At 6 months now she is putting food in her mouth and swallowing bits but it's variable and minimal compared to her friends having purees. I know that she's likely drop centiles again and I can't bear the conversation with the HV so I'm just not going to go unless she seems unwell.

lljkk · 15/04/2011 09:25

The problem with the weight charts is that they don't show the actual plateaus and growth spurts that individual babies do, Wandering around the charts is very common.

A hungry baby is an unsettled baby. Unsettled is not hard to diagnose and is the most important thing for you to watch out for, now.

FWIW, DS1:
born on the 9th percentile (weight).

Zoomed to about 40th from 1-3 months.

From 4 months onward on 9th percentile (weight) and I started solids on advice from HV; he didn't budge from 9th percentile. Was also at about 25th percentile for height, no change until 8 or 9yo.

Now 11yo & about 50-60th percentile (height, not skinny. not fat). DH & I are both fit (slender) & about 65th percentile for height.

So much for "their percentile is settled for life and shouldn't really change from about 6 months" advice I got from HV.

I didn't do BLW, by the way, more like bumbling-along-feeding. I have 3 that eat almost anything and one that is ridiculously fussy.

Original poster

choceyes · 15/04/2011 11:33

lljkk - That's true! My DS is probably about 9th percentile for height. But his dad was tiny too when he was a baby and was the shortest in his class till he was 14. Within a year he shot up to 6 foot and was along the tallest! Also my DS has big feet (size 8.5) for his age so I do think he is destined to be tall. i think kids have growth spurts at different times.

splatt - yes I think I will avoid the hV from now on too, or go to some place else. She's already annoyed me by saying food is important than milk now that she is over 6 months, which is contradictory to food is just for fun till one mantra, which I agree with. She's also told my friend to dilute her 6.5 month babies milk feeds so he will eat more food, so she does seem to be utterly clueless.

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