Need some good old MN reassurance?

[DontlookatmeImshy]

I've been having trouble getting ds2(8.5months) to take solids and getting subsequent grief off hv's due to poor weight gain. He's only just 13lb. Suddenly he has started to eat anything and everything which is great but when I told some friends his current feeding routine I was met with expressions like

6am BF
8am breakfast
11am BF
1pm lunch
3pm BF
5pm tea
7pm BF and bed

So be honest, it's not that bad is it?

Also got hv's nagging me about getting him taking milk(formula) from a trainer cup because apparently
a)my milk probably isn't nutricious(sp?) enough.
b)he needs to learn to drink from one. Argh. Why?? He won't take a trainer cup or bottle but he will slurp water from a normal cup.

Oh and let's not forget that unforgivable sin of feeding him twice in the night as well.

he is similar to ds3 (8 months 15lb...erm..13oz)

i told her where to go

i said i know he is growing as i fill charity bags with too small clothes, he feeds well
(milk wise) most of the time and he will "get" solids when he really wants to.

Hi there

I'm unsure why your friends are shocked at the feeding routine - do they think that is too much? DD was BF 5 times a day and having 3 square meals at that age, which I calculated meant she was eating on average every 1.5 waking hours! But she slept 12 hours so I was happy to give her as many daytime calories as possible.

(Alas the 12 hour sleep at night ended when she turned one - teething.)

My personal opinion is that the HV is talking rubbish about your milk not being "nutritious" enough. Breastmilk is just about the most perfect substance on the planet for your baby - well done for still bf!

No expert on cups but if he's drinking from a normal cup at less than 9 months I think that's great. DD is 14 months and only ever drinks from a "normal" cup that I hold for her. I don't see the problem with that.

Could it be your DS is just petite? What is your build? We are all different shapes and sizes, I hate this idea that our babies must all be the same size.

Are you doing BLW or purees or a combination?

sorry but your HV is very ignorant.
why would you milk not be nutricious??

i#m trying to find a table taht i had seen that shows all the nutrients in BM. but i acn't find it! basically it proves that what your HV is saying is a load of BS!!

Hi MoM - think i remember you from the march08 ante-natal thread?

Ds2's long and skinny - like me. I have to hold the cup for him atm, he's not that advanced yet . We're doing a mix of BLW and lumpy purees. I think people think he should be on 2 square meals and milk just at bedtime and in the morning or something.

Apparently my milk isn't good enough because i wasn't eating properly myself (i am now)

The sensible part of me knows she's talking rubbish, but there's always that little seed of doubt they keep planting.

3 square meals

Oh bloody hell. My dd still breastfeeds this much and wait for it.... She's 18 months old. Do I give a monkey's left testicle what any hv may or may not have to say on this matter? Nope. She was exclusively bf till 7 months and at 8 months was just messing with blw. She was off the charts for weight. It's just different babies.

Be led by your baby and not a group of people who have nothing to do with your choices. If your baby is happy, alert, weeing, pooing and gaining weight in his own time then be confident in your decision.

right, found some info on anotehr thread. it's for babies over a year old but it's still relevent:

In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides:
o 29% of energy requirements
o 43% of protein requirements
o 36% of calcium requirements
o 75% of vitamin A requirements
o 76% of folate requirements
o 94% of vitamin B12 requirements
o 60% of vitamin C requirements
(Source: Dewey KG. Nutrition, Growth, and Complementary Feeding of the Breastfed Infant. Pediatric Clinics of North American. February 2001;48(1).)

Thats interesting purple.
Some of those figures are really quite high. (which is good)

Sorry NL, I didn't make it clear in my post. Yes they think thats too much. Said he must be having a growth spurt.

yes that's right Don't look

I was holding ds3 earlier but can type properly now

You sound very like me. Were you not eating properly on purpose?
Either way, well done for doing so now

Was your DS1 long and thin too? could be genetic to be smaller fwiw, ds3 is by far the smallest of my 3 but they were all fed (and weaned) differently. DS3 seems the happiest lol! He too is quite long, he does have the baby fat on his thighs and the dimples on his hands and the general chub that babies get.

Not on purpose. I'm suffering with PND and was making sure the ds's were well fed but couldn't motivate/find time/be bothered to feed myself especially when i had no appetite anyway.

Ds1 was/is long and thin too, always hovering around the 2nd/9th centile. I think he weaned pretty much the same rate/time as ds2 except ds1 stayed on the centile line but ds2 is slowly dropping further and further off the line, hence all the concern from hv's

I used to think I'd remember what i did with ds1 and therefore with ds2 it would be easier cos i'd done it all before all feel confident enough not to worry about hv's. But i can't remember, it's like starting all over again

Hello Don'tlook, sounds similar to my dd - except she has a bf at 10.30pm and one in the night too! Of course it isn't too much for her, although it is rather time consuming. She has only this week started eating larger amounts of food and her bfs are getting shorter but still as frequent. I haven't done weaning before but it seems reasonable that there will be a gradual change rather than a sudden one, DD loves booby time, she's not just going to stop!

Also cupwise surely the aim is to use a proper cup so that is great! I guess the advantage of a sippy cup is that they can do it themselves sooner and they have a lid for portability, but really who cares! Do you know any grown ups who can't use a cup?!