Told I may have to wean early due to low iron and shouldn't BLW

[TeacupTempest]

DD is 14 weeks and had initial slow weight gain. Gaining well now but still teeny. She is breastfed.

During checks it was discovered she had low iron.

Today the HV told me that "we" may have to wean early. And that "we" wouldnt be able to BLW.

I said I was very keen to wait till 6months and BLW. She looked sceptical and said "we" would have to wait and see but would likely have to wean early with purses and baby rice.

Why?

What gives her the right to tell me when/how to wean? The way she kept saying "we" seemed like she was telling me I had no choice in the matter.

Not having any medical background, surely there's not a huge amount of iron in baby rice and pureed veg?

Would it not be better to give some sort of iron/vitamin supplement in the first instance?

Um, what would be wrong with an iron supplement in her case ? The Wellkids baby syrup is from 3 months and has iron.

If you wean early you won't be able to do BLW as the baby won't have the motor skills to do BLW so she's not wrong that way...

But I would challenge whether you need to wean early. As long as you're not anaemic there will be plenty of high-availability iron in your BM. Might be worth taking a BF friendly iron suppliment just in case. And investigate iron drops for your DD.

That's what I thought! I did ask about supplements but she just sort of brushed over it...

She can't make me wean her can she?

As others have said no iron in early baby food. Surely best to eat well yourself and investigate supplement for DD.

DD2 started on solids for poor weight gain at about 5 months, but she wasn't putting any weight on at all and wouldn't take a bottle off anyone.

Consultant and I agreed to throw away the rule book and she had the puree thickened with baby rice and infant yoghurt, then cereal from 6 months. And I continued to BF. In fact she was bf for years, but that a whole different thread.

However, she'd fallen off the bottom of the graph, having been born on the 25% line.

By a year old she sat happily at 50%, aged 11 she still does

Babies who don't gain weight scare HVs, but OP you need to find what works for you and your DD.
My HVs just give her formula was never going to work as she simply wouldn't take it.

of course she can't make you wean her, or tell her what food you are giving her. In fact you don't have to see a HV at all if you don't want.

Make sure she has vitamin drops (I use Vitabiotics) and take ones with iron yourself, vit c helps with absorption so you could take it with orange juice.

Wean how and when you want to. She's your dd and food in an immature gut is more likely to disrupt absorption of nutrients from bm than help your dd.

She can't make you wean early and I'm not trained but I thought the best place for her to get iron is from your bm. If she mentions it again it might be worth asking her politely what research there is to say that solid food has more, and more easily absorbed iron than your bm.

It might also be worth posting on the breast & bottle section and phoning a Bfing Helpline number to talk through Bfing, weaning and iron as I know that there are lots of different types of iron and some are more easily digested than others.

If she was seriosly concerned though she should be asking you to give a supplement containing iron, not push you into weaning.

Thought you might like to read this too. .

You could ask her the obvious question: how will (presumably fruit / veg) purees and baby rice address my DD's low iron levels?

As I am not medically qualified, there may be an evidence-based answer to this. Or there may not.

If she says anything next time I would just insist on being referred to a paediatrician.

I would ask for a referral to a paed too. Have a look at this page on iron from the NHS.

Out of the list, only dark green leafy veg has iron. (Not spinach). But I wonder how many babies would eat pureed kale?

I mean nothing else on the list you can give to a baby younger than 6mo.

Thank you for all the replies, advice and reassurance. I shall check out the links and do some research.

She is being seen by paed already so I might mention weaning at our next visit. (Their thinking is that her blood level anomalies are due to the bump on her head which was caused by birth trauma.)

HV it was what was done with prem babies....but DD was full term...

I think maybe she is panicked due to her size but she is gaining well now so I don't see the issue.

Personally, I think if you are worried about your baby's weight I'd just feed her more, say every 2 hours in the day for a while.

I think you should just say thanks for the advice and you will speak to the paediatrician. Then never discuss it with her again unless she asks, in which case you say you are dealing with paeds about it.

If your DD is teeny and skinny, when you start weaning, I would think that it's a good idea to get a decent quantity of food into her. You can try BLW but if your DD does not end up actually consuming much using this mechanism, I would go for purees instead. My children were born a little bit early and one in particular was skinny so I did purees so that I could be sure they had eaten a good quantity. Plus they couldn't sit up etc til 10 months.

Bear in mind that the calorie density of milk is far higher than that of food. If you were dieting would you eat full cream milk or pureed veg? So to gain weight she needs more milk rather than filling up on veg. When you do wean include plenty of protein and whole grain carbs.

Thats what I think. The weaning was mentioned in relation to iron rather than weight so not really sure what she is thinking.

She shouldn't be treated as a preterm baby as she isn't. Everything, except her weight ( which is better each day), is as expected for her age.

The HV can't make you do anything. However it is not normal for breastfed babies of that age to lack iron so you do need to look at how this situation can be improved.

It isn't normal for a 14 week old baby to have low iron but a HV is totally unable to advise you what to do - it is a matter for the paediatrician. Supplements would make sense - giving bloody vegetable puree and baby rice would fill her tummy without giving any iron or calories, and therefore makes no sense. HV is out of her depth and you should tell her you will only speak to paed about it.

No no I know the low iron isn't normal and that is why we are seeing paed and having repeat bloods. As I said we think it's due to her birth trauma and it is being monitored.

Just not sure why HV would think early weaning would help.

I shall talk to her paediatrician.

Weaning will introduce other sources of iron in to her diet. That's why she's broaching it. I don't necessarily think she's right btw

Can you get your own iron levels checked? I would have thought - but again, not medically qualified so talking out of my arse that making sure that you can give her as much iron as possible in your bm is worth trying. Or at least making sure you eat pots of dark chocolate, apricots and drink guiness.

Baby rice made with formula will be full of iron. (I'm not agreeing with the rest of what she says though.)

If your baby is iron deficient I don't see why iron supplements and vitamin C wouldn't work - hopefully your paediatrician wil be able to advise you about this.