When should a child be getting most of their nutrition from solids? Anyone have an authoritative source of info?

[wilburthewalrus]

DS2 had is 8-12 month check recently at 9.5 months. He is little, but always has been and is following his growth curve fine. He is bf and we are doing blw. He still bfeeds a bit in the night, mostly I think because he's too busy to pay attention in the day and because he's teething and wants the comfort. I can live with it. He is happy to have a good nom on most foods, but the amount he actually swallows is not that great. Some days he eats more than others. I am happy he's fine and have been working on the basis that "food is just for fun until they're 1".

However, the HV (who by the way was newly trained and not someone who'd been doing it for years and was set in her ways) told me that by 9 months he should be getting most of his nutrition from solids and that I don't really need to bf him at all unless I want to. She also told me I might need to consider giving multivitamins if he wasn't eating much solid food because otherwise he won't be getting enough iron. I thought there was plenty of iron in breast milk because it's more easily absorbed and that the idea that you needed to supplement if bfeeding was crap.

Am I wrong, or is she? I am querying because as I say she was newly trained (or even training as there was an older HV there with her supervising) so I would have expected her to have had up-to-date information. Or is this something where there is a variety of opinion?

Tosh rubbish arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

sorry but what a silly woman that heath visitor is.

check out http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/toddler-foods.html kellymom second para of "How much should my toddler be eating?"

Oh and maybe point out that WHO says breastfeeding until 2. complementary feeding

I guess i'm a bit extra cross about this because your feeding sounds like mine too.

opps sorry
kellymom

Erm what?? You don't need to breastfeed her unless you want to? (Of course technically she is right but you'd have to replace BFs with FFs still at this age.)

From NHS Birth to Five website:

Solid foods and milk
You?ll find that as your baby eats more solid foods, the amount of milk they want will start to decrease.
Once your baby is eating plenty of solids several times a day, you may find that they take less milk at each feed or even drop a milk feed altogether. You can continue to breastfeed or you can give your baby between 500ml and 600ml (about a pint) of infant formula a day until they?re at least one year old. Breastfeeding will continue to benefit you and your baby for as long as you choose to carry on.
www.nhs.uk/Planners/birthtofive/Pages/Drinksandcups.aspx

OK, I'm probably being a bit unfair. She didn't say "you don't have to carry on breastfeeding", but that was the implication. Basically she asked if he was sleeping through and I said no, but that I was minded not to worry about that at the moment as he's just about to start nursery when I go back to work, and since he won't take formula or expressed milk, I am expecting him to want to feed over night since he won't get chance in the day. This is when she said that by 9 months he should be getting all his nutrition from solids so I shouldn't worry about making up missed feeds in the night (the implication of which is surely that he could be completely weaned, if he doesn't feed during the day and shouldn't be feeding at night). I was a bit taken aback because it was a newly trained health visitor who said it. I am used to the older HVs telling me I ought to have been weaning from 4 months, using controlled crying to cut out night feeds by 6, etc. but I was under the impression that current thinking is that children don't usually get "most of their nutrition" from solids until at least 12 months. I just said "oh" and then went away and carried on as before (we listened to their advice about dropping night feeds last time and as a result no one slept for more than 2 hours a night for over a year), but it makes me wonder about how HVs are trained.

Yet another shining example of an ill-informed HV doling out advice. No wonder mums in this country end up confused.

I can't remember how much training HVs get on breastfeeding. A shockingly small amount, anyway.

1. AMOUNTOFCOMPLEMENTARYFOODNEEDED:Startatsixmonthsofage with small amounts of food and increase the quantity as the child gets older, while maintaining frequent breastfeeding. The energy needs from complementary foods for infants with ?average? breast milk intake in developing countries are approximately 200 kcal per day at 6−8 months of age, 300 kcal per day at 9−11 months of age, and 550 kcal per day at 12−23 months of age. In industrialized countries these estimates differ somewhat (130, 310 and 580 kcal/d at 6−8, 9−11 and 12−23 months, respectively) because of differences in average breast milk intake.

1. MEALFREQUENCYANDENERGYDENSITY:Increasethenumberoftimes that the child is fed complementary foods as he/she gets older. The appropriate number of feedings depends on the energy density of the local foods and the usual amounts consumed at each feeding. For the average healthy breastfed infant, meals of complementary foods should be provided 2−3 times per day at 6−8 months of age and 3−4 times per day at 9−11 and 12−24 months of age. Additional nutritious snacks (such as a piece of fruit or bread or chapatti with nut paste) may be offered 1-2 times per day, as desired. Snacks are defined as foods eaten between meals, usually self-fed, convenient and easy to prepare. If energy density or amount of food per meal is low, or the child is no longer breastfed, more frequent meals may be required.

from WHO

I literally just came on here to write the same post as you op! I've bee n really worried, my hv wasn't a student though and told me to stop feeding at night and build up solids by only feeding him 3 times a day. She too asked if he was sleeping through then gave this advice. She also told me to do cc, I explained this wasn't fir me and she said ' that's why he's like he is'. Luckily in my eyes he's perfect, we are doing blw so I re read the book to get my confidence back but I literally tried to force feed him weekabix in a total state. Much calmer now. I hope you're okay, I think often they Tell you what they did with their own children and it seems more about opinion than training.

Ms Cellophane - could you post a link to that WHO info if you still have it in hand?

Found it! Very informative.
Just in case anyone else is interested:
www.who.int/nutrition/publications/guiding_principles_compfeeding_breastfed.pdf

Crazy crazy HV - I was given similar madness advice from mine too. V frustrating.

Also, re supplements - my twins are on 2 difft types of vitamin supplements and neither brand contains iron - they only contain vitamins.