Baby rice & veg vs Hungry Baby Milk

[Sallypoo]

Hi there,

I've just got back from the Doctors, having discussed weaning my DS who is now 20 weeks old (just under 5 months.

He is a hungry boy, and has been BF and topped up with formula since birth - long story but mainly due to an undiagnosed tongue-tie.... anyway, he's become VERY hungry over the last fortnight, and this week has put on 12oz.

This is a lot isn't it? He's gone from the 75 to 88th centile in a week. In my opinion this is because we've started giving him Hungry Baby Formula at 10pm instead of just a 'normal' bottle of formula... up until we then he was only putting on 8oz a week, and had stayed on the 75 centile since about 6 weeks old.

So the GP and I were both of the opinion that to give him a little bit of baby rice, to have fill him up might be better than the Hungry Baby formula... I theory being that there isn't the fat/calorie content in the rice or vegetables, but it would still help fill him up. Obviously not straight away but in a week or two once the amounts had increased.

I intend to give up BF at six months. I would also hold off giving anything other than fruit, veg, rice, quinoa and millet until then btw.

What do you think?

Thanks all,
Sallypoo

If he's hungry just give him milk.
What is the point of filling his stomach?
To shut him up?
To cause you less inconvenience?
I don't get it.

No, not at all to stop him putting on 12oz a week. The HV and GP say its too much of an increase....

He and I are more than contented, but putting on too much weight. I would never describe my son as an inconvenience.

The Hungry Baby formula doesn't have more calories than normal formula, though, does it? (genuine question -- I thought it didn't, but could be wrong). So why would giving him HBF cause the weight gain?

Personally I wouldn't make any decision based on one week's weight gain, which could be a blip. They don't always grow in steady increments and you can get natural sudden gains followed by several weeks of plateauing. If he's happy and you're happy then I'd give it a couple more weeks to see if there's a trend with his weight.

Do you think he had a big poo in storage when he was weighed? Was the scales digital or spring? Has he been weighed on the same scale the time before? All these things matter.

Hungry baby formula does not have more calories oz per oz, afaik. It has a a higher concentration of casein protein that normal formula which is whey protein based. Casien is harder to digest than whey protein so it is harder to digest so it sits longer in their tummies, making them feel full for longer.

Yep, hungry baby milk doesn't have more calories than normal milk - it actually made DS pretty constipated, but then he has been on comfort milk for ages...

Give it a couple more weeks, see how he goes. As soon as I started 5mo old on baby rice and veg he started putting on more weight, not less!

Hi, I have seen a lot of these posts and people are really asking for advice and no one has the right to say to them that their baby is an inconvience (moondog) she is concerned hence why she is placing the post. Stop being so judgemental and give her some advice.
I have the opposite problem in that my daughter in on a low centile and the HV keeps saying she is underweight. She sleeps 13 hours at night and they have said that i should wake her up for feeds in the night to increase her intake. She also advised that i put her on baby rice at just over 4 month to try and increase her weight and so i would say that rice has more of an effect of putting on weight and not regulating it. She is on hungry baby milk as she was always a hungry baby and she is still saying on the same centile and they have just come to the conclusion that she is not going to be fat......even though she was weaned early!

Your baby is hungry. Give him some food. The hungry baby milk just clogs them up. Real food will make him and you happier. I don't get how others don't get this?

Hi all,

many thanks - especially to hollyboosmum and 3littlebears for your support. I was upset (as you can probably tell) by initial reply, so didn't look at Mumsnet for a couple of days so I could cool off. This is the 3rd time I've had a post that has been... er less than supportive, so it's nice to know that people understand that I was just looking for some helpful advice.

I've checked, and the other posters are right - contrary to what my HV told me, SMA white doesn't have more fat, or calories for that matter... I should of checked this myself, but presumed HV would know. In fact looking down the list I can't see any significant difference in the nutritional information at all! Must just be the amount of time it takes to breakdown in the gut - ha ho live and learn.

However, both GP and HV said that 12oz is too much of a weight gain. DS has been consistently putting on 8oz - 10oz a week for some time and so GP did suggest weaning.

I decided to try him on some baby rice, and he gobbled it up. So much for it taking a few days for him to get the hang of it. He actually got in a strop if I took too long to give him the next spoonful!

I'll wait a week before starting him on pear, but he seems to be enjoying real food.

Once again, many thanks all

Sallypoo

HI,
SOunds like you have got it sorted. Good luck with the weaning as i know it can be fun! and messy!.
Holly also loves her food and i never had a problem with her accepting it.
Some babies just follow high centiles or low ones as we are all different. My neice was following a high centile on her length and the HV told my sister in law that she was too tall! she is now an average height 4 year old. Follow your instincts with your baby as you know them best and they wont go far wrong.

sallypoo, hugs to you for having the reply about you wanting to feed him to shut him up. How mean, I would have felt exactly the same as you. Moondog, I'm sure you could have phrased that better OP never once mentioned that he was waking and crying!

Anyway, to answer the question, DS was on hungry baby milk for a time (which I now realise was wrong in our case) but I never knew that it contained the same calories! My HV said it was higher in calories and I didn't question that (we need an emoticon for "flippin' HVs!") Personally I would've chosen to go back to normal milk and just up the milk feeds for a few weeks and get him weighed again later, as his 12oz gain may well have been just a blip. I don't mean this to sound odd, as of course you know your baby best, but you are sure he's hungry, are you? DS used to cry and cry every 1.5 hours or so and as a bottle satisfied him I used to assume he was crying because he was hungry. But I now realise that he was just wanting to comfort suck sometimes and that the main reason he was crying was because he was tired! So I assumed he was hungry when he wasn't. I now have a job to get him to drink anything at all... Like I said, that's probably a daft thing to say but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Hi all,

Thanks everyone, including Moondog - I am know you meant well....

I've been weaning for a week, and I'm now thinking I should stop! My gut instinct is that this just is TOO early.

It occurs to me that the whole basis for me starting to wean at 20 weeks was because the HV thought he was putting on to much weight and the HV thought this was because of him having the Hungry Baby Formula in the evenings. HV said it contained more fat/calories....

Thanks to MN I now know this isn't the case....
so surely if he wants to drink more I should just give it to him? This must be a better option than early weaning?

Is there really any reason to not allow him to drink when he's hungry? I guess I'm asking - Can a baby really weigh too much / be fat?

Tinkjon - He's definetly hungry, he has a different cry when he's tired...

I don't want to wean too early. I want to do what's best for him. Can I really give him too much formula? He has breastmilk offered before formula at every feed - I just don't have enough

Thanks for listerning...
Sallypoo

Sallypoo - you have been given crap advice by your gp and hv. No surprise there. How on earth can babies on milk put on too much milk? Ridiculous, really it is.
Babies dont need to be weaned before 6 months, really they dont.
It is also rubbish about you not having enough milk either. There is no reason why you couldnt solely breastfeed either - it would have meant over time cutting back on the forumla and breastfeeding more. Bf works on supply and demand- the more you feed the more you produce. Once formula is introduced it messes up with this.

Babies will always drink formala after having a breastfeed. THis has no bearing on how much breastmilk you have nor does how much you can express. Moondog may have been abrupt but she does know what she is talking about.

Why not try stopping the solids and giving him the normal formula (not hungry baby) and just let him drink as much as he wants (as hard work as this is for you!) and have him weighed again in a fortnight and see how he's doing then?

sal, well done for being a good mum.

SMA white is constipation in a can, IME. It could account for a little bit of the 12 oz, possibly. We found aptamil better.

DS had a tongue tie too, it played havoc with my milk supply. Has your DS had it divided? After DS had his done, he fed a whole lot better, and my milk supply increased. We topped up with formula, but we managed to get it so that it was just one bottle a day. We could have dropped that one too, in time, but we were happy to keep it in. Mainly because it stopped me from worrying, and it gave me a break. This is a bit of a tangent from your OP, but if you want to build up your supply, I was adviced to BF all day and then give one FF at night instead of topping up with formula at every feed. It worked well for us like that. I also took motilium and expressed A LOT .

Anyway, just some rambling thoughts from someone who's been there m'dear.

Hi Sanguine,

Yes he had the "snip" at about 10 weeks, and things have improved so much. I was convinced I was a failure, I came close to breaking point. A couple of good friends, one of which I met thought MN kept me sane.

I guess as a result of those first 10 traumatic weeks, I've not had the 'guts' to drop the formula. It's a saftey blanket for me, and DS is a hungry boy. He hits me in the chest in frustration sometimes when there isn't enough milk - but this is ususally just during growth spurts.

Unfortunately, one of the remaining side effects of having had formula from birth is that he does get frustrated quickly and won't wait for a second let-down which by the way I've not had since I got mastitus when he was two weeks old.... but as you say, yes that's a little off my original posting...

I've not given him any food tonight and he's taken a 7oz bottle after his bath - an hour after a boob feed, so the food was definetly interfering with his milk feeds.... This is about what he would of taken.

I'm going to stop the weaning until he is 6 - 7 months old, which is what I had originally intended to do. I can't beleive I started.... We've both got allergies - I've just got sucked in to the whole he's putting on too much weight comment.

Why oh why did I take notice of the HV and GP - oh that's right because they are meant to know more than me!!!!!

I am a bit of a geek. I research everything I do... I even prepare itineries for friends holidays I enjoy researching so much. But every now and then I think - hay, you can't know everything, take notice of the experts and that's when I come unstuck. What would I do without the internet and Mumsnet? Thank goodness there are people out there like you guys prepared to share their knowledge and give support.

Rant over.

Thank you soooo much.
Sallypoo

Sally - For the record ignore your HV!! My DD is a very sicky baby but all they could tell me for ages was its ok she's putting on weight. A couple of weeks ago I got told not to feed her so much so being the dumbass I was I cut down her feeds (She was drinking 9oz in a sitting) I cut it down to 7oz. She then lost weight and I got told I wasn't feeding her enough now.

All the time ignoring the fact that everytime she has a bottle what seems like half of it comes out.

Anyway...... stick to giving him milk when he wants it and sod the HV

Hey sal, don't beat yourself up. You did what you were advised by the professionals, we're supposed to be able to trust 'em.

I get GBH from my DS as well. He's a strong feeder, he drains my breasts really quickly, and my let-down is very slow. He punches me and pulls backwards until he breaks the latch with a loud pop, then dives in again like a great white shark. He has teeth as well now - ouch! We've been weaning for a couple of weeks now, and it has got a lot better. I'm almost enjoying BF now (I never thought I'd say that!). When you do decide to wean (when you're both good and ready!), you might find he's less vicious at the breast.

Good luck!

Thanks guys, you've made me smile. I needed that....