Weaning "on the road" / weight loss (sorry, long!)

[PrincessChick]

My DD is 6 months. We've been BLW for a few weeks now as she has been sitting very well for 6 weeks, snatching food and chomping. You may have read my potato-gate post a few weeks ago...Dad has backed right off btw :)

So, all is well, baby will eat anything we give her. I have been very happy with her progress and there has noticeably been a little more swallowing in the last few days.

We have also "embraced the spoon" both us feeding her and she can feed herself too (and her hair, and the walls ).

She's not sleeping great and feeding loads too. She will wake up to 6 times a night and she feeds every 2 hours in the day. My DM has suggested more food. I suggested growth spurt and teeth. But only because I felt defensive and that maybe she should be having more food.

Saw the hv yesterday and basically told to feed her more or rather, get more in. This is because since birth she has dropped from the 98th and heading toward the 75th line. HV suggested more food as she probably isn't getting much in by feeding herself. She hasn't discounted BLW at all and said there isn't any cause for concern but a bit more food at this stage wouldn't go amiss (5 BLW meals a day or 3 meals with a bit of spoon from us with finger food to play / suck / eat). To be honest, she's echoing what I already thought as we get a lot of vomiting with too much unchewed finger food being shoved in. It's like DD can very efficiently get the food in but then gets so much in she can't chew and swallow so there's a huge amount of gagging and actual being sick. Slightly mashed or softer smaller bits seems much more easily handled, chewed and swallowed. I like BLW for the fact that she's improving hand eye all the time and is learning to move food around her mouth but I do think she's better at eating a course mash / flaky bits of fish / small bits of bread. HV wants us to up the fatty stuff such as cheesy veg, custards, porridge, yoghurt at this stage. So last night we had cauliflower cheese lightly mashed and fed on a spoon (us and her) and she also picked it up to inspect and eat with a slice of toasted buttered wholemeal muffin, she only sucked this a bit and then steamed squash & apple pud with cream (licked and shoved a chunk in - not sure much was swallowed). She slept like a dream last night (10.30 til 4.30 and then fed again at 6.15 and then at 7.40 and now snoozing again). The night before she didn't go to sleep until midnight and then woke at 3.30 and fed on and off until 7 and then slept til 9.30.

So nice hot fatty dinners are all fine when we are at home as both DH and I love cooking but we are visiting relatives over the weekend and staying in a hotel where I'm not happy to feed her the food and then visiting elderly relatives who will provide food but a light salad sort of thing. I also go out a lot in the week and usually buy lunch and just give her something to chew on. I can cut down on lunches out and re-jig my week but I'm just wondering whether we stock up on some Ella's kitchen pouches, keep some plain yeo valley pots in the boot of the car etc for the weekend Before I would have just ordered a plain salad and picked off the tomatoes, cucumber and given her a bit of bread etc as she is still bfing a lot but now I feel I have to "feed" her properly as she hasn't gained much weight over the last month.

What does everyone else do when travelling or just out and about for the day?

That HV is wrong. If she needs more calories and far it should come from milk not food.

It's supposed to be trying new foods at six months not big meals. What you are doing sounds fine just increase milk and reduce the potion size of food. Food takes up space milk should be filling so they get less in the way of calories.

And it is normal for weight gain to slow down. They get more active and are awake longer so use more energy

Order a plain baked potato? Take bananas (can be used as finger food or mashed with a fork). A few chips wouldn't hurt either. Yogurts also a good option.

I could be wrong but I thought the concept of blw was about food being just for fun until one. I interpreted this as not being concerned about the baby eating anything rather just trying lots of things and if basby needed more 'food' offering more milk? I am only two weeks into it so not an expert but the website is helpful.

I can't imagine my dd will be on 5 meals in 4 weeks time we are on one meal of 3 different chunks a day at the moment!

It's true that if the overall intake in the day is low, babies tend to have broken sleep (still true with my 6yo). Weaning is that crossover stage where is happens a lot, so you are right to up the intake. Most early foods I did were steamed veggies/fruits with a dash of breast milk. Weetabix is also a great filler as its bland, mixes well with any milk & fills the tummy well. Try out some of these options. Ella's & Plum are also good. ESP organic ready to eat are more palatable for some babies. Try out some options beforehand & carry the ones that go down well so you don't have too much vomiting/rejection while on the road...

My twins only started having 3 meals a day at about 8 months and have ony dropped night feeds in the past week (they are 10 months). They still have 3 bfs a day and I don't see them dropping those anytime soon.

At just 6 months I would be doin two 'meals' max, one of which might be fruit and a bit of bread.

Hmm. I don't think the HV is completely wrong. It is right that you don't need to worry too much about getting a range of nutrients from food a that age. And it's true that weight loss slows down. But to slide down the percentiles isn't just weight loss slowing down - it's slowing down in comparison to normal (as defined by babies as a whole).

It sounds like you're doing fine though! You're still letting her take the lead, just helping her out a bit. And you don't necessarily have to spoon feed to introduce higher fat foods either, particularly when she gets a bit more dexterous. Cheese cubes, pasta with creamy sauces or pesto, yogurt, custard, eggy bread are all good.

As for on the go, Ella's pouches are okay, but I preferred pouches of fromage frais (I stopped worrying about added sugar after Sainsbury's swapped fruit purée for sugar and the overall sugars content dropped ...). Cheese cubes, bread rolls would also be good.

Thanks ladies. Plain baked potato and bananas are great ideas. I think I'll have some back up pouches just in case. Yoghurt and fromage frais too. I'm going to give her a big lunch today so she can have a finger food snack at the hotel tonight and then on sat we'll take a couple of pouches, fruit and yoghurt.

Yes, I had thought "food for fun until they're one" from all of my reading. But I'm bfing all the time (I simply couldn't bf anymore than I am), she screams for food and grabs it really quickly before the plate is even put down, sleeps like shit and is now sliding down the percentiles. She's clearly been ready for food since 22 weeks and is still only eating tiny amounts, even from a spoon and less if feeding herself especially with the puking. I wouldn't be concerned if she was gaining weight but one measly pound over 5 weeks doesn't seem enough to me. And she's slowed down at the time I've felt she's needed more food but have had the "food is for fun thing" going 'round my head. I had been also been holding back on the food because she wasn't 26 weeks and giving her stuff to taste and play with. But as a bigger baby who has been sitting, grabbing and getting stuff to her mouth I think weaning should have been a bit earlier and she is more like a 7/8 mo baby now tbh. I'd hate to think is caused her not to grow at her optimum levels because she doesn't "fit" the guidelines :(

This stage feels really hard to me compared to the new born bit when she fed really well, slept better than she does now and put on weight. I felt like gold star mummy and now I feel a bit rubbish.

I would keep an eye and see the overall trend over the next month or two, but I don't think your HV is necessarily entirely wrong. My own experience is that my DS's weight did dip well below his line when he wasn't getting enough solid food (and he also breastfed all day and night so was getting as much milk as he could hold), and his weight picked right up again when he started eating solids reliably (which coincided with me deliberately cutting down on night feeds). So I am no longer sure how much I subscribe to the "food is for fun until 1" theory, at least not for all babies (incidentally, there is no mention of this in the BLW book - does anyone know where this phrase came from?) My DS seemed to actually need solid food to maintain his weight, but of course all babies are different and I agree not all fit the guidelines.

But this was further down the line (8 months) - you are still in very early days and there's no need to panic. I would just keep offering but there is no harm in trying the fattier foods, especially if your daughter seems to get on better with them.

Re eating when out and about - I just make extra portions when I cook (minus salt), mash them and freeze in small pots. When we go visiting, I just take a pot out of the freezer and warm up on site. Just as convenient as a pouch but home made

Oh don't feel rubbish , they don't come with instructions and it can be so hard to know what to do for the best. Every baby is different. Dd1 well she lived food from really early on. I had to restrict it so she would take enough milk. Dd2 was much more like yours. Lived off a mouthful here and a squished banana there and honestly did not eat a proper meal til she was 8/9 months old. She would just try it and play with it. I never got her weighed though so maybe that's why I was more relaxed about how much food she did or didn't take. But they do get there in the end , she will settle down. Are you sure about the vomiting just being because of cramming to much in? If she can only eat tiny quantities before vomiting then even the higher fat food won't make huge differences especially if she doesn't keep it down. I would perhaps see a dr if you think there's a chance it isn't just down to over excitement with food.

She's only vomiting when she clearly has too much in her mouth or she's gagged on a leaf (and much like me) once her gagging gets going she pukes. This morning she had loads of yoghurt with mashed steamed apple and some cooled fingers of steamed pear (skin on) dipped in yoghurt which went down a treat. All very easy to handle. No puking.

She's napping now whilst I pack. I'm going to batch cool for outings in the future but I don't have time today and nowhere to store food (well , the boot of the car, but I'm worried it's not reliably cold enough esp with a long drive there tonight) so I'm going to take fruit and pouches and hopefully find plain fresh food out and about.

Thanks for the reassurance xx

Rather than just rely on the HV, I'd also seek the assistance of a BFC. Is there a bfing group near to you?

Agree with the others that there is little you can give her that will be as calorie dense as the BM. Plus, the extra wakings could just be the 6 month growth spurt and a developmental leap. I do think its worth getting a BFC to check that dd doesn't have [[//milk matters tongue tie tongue tie and just to get her thoughts on weaning and weight gain

The fact that she slept more could just be a coincidence. If it had been 3 night plus that you were feeding her cream etc and she had slept better, I think you may have had a point, but you can't tell after one night.

If the night wakings are a problem, have a look at 31 ways to get your baby asleep and stay asleep. Isis online is a great place to start if you wish to make changes and Kellymom has good information on bfing and weaning

You might also find how might I increase my baby's weight gain useful.

And if you are worried about her weight, I'd give the ready prepared baby food a miss. Know you might need it this weekend but there is a lot of other things you could give her while you are out, have a look at this thread.

Someone linked this article recently and it makes interesting reading

sounds like your doing fine. weight is only one measureof how well a baby is doing. Is she growing? Meeting all her developmental milestones? and producing plently of wet nappies each day? Add all these as well as weight then you will see if your baby is ok.

It's common for babies to do what they call catching up or down on the charts and its never helpful to look at Wright only in most cases.

Other things too consider has she started moving more recently? been ill at all as both these effect weight gain. it is more unusual for a baby to stay on one line as they are average lines most move up and down a bit over time. overall health is more important.

I think it sounds like you are giving a lot of solid already. do you offer a milk feed before solids? As this is normally recommended when doing baby led weaning. I wouldn't expect most babies to be on three meals a dayuntill around 9 months. So your offering a lot at the moment which Is fine if you offer milk first.

A breastfeeding group would be good for more support they should be trained in introducing solids.