Confusing advice

[FleeBee]

Hi,my DD2 is 23 weeks, BF and was weighed today only putting on 1 ounce in 2 weeks and has dropped to 2nd Percentile. HV advised starting weaning her.

However in the last few weeks I have been reading up about BLW in preparation for six months and it strongly advises waiting for the six month date saying that baby should get all its nutrients from milk before then.

So what to do?

Incidently I went through the exact same situation with DD1 and weaned her on purees, at 22 weeks following HV recommendation, and all went well. She is a healthy, happy girl with a good appetite.

Do I wait another 3 weeks, what should I do about the low wait gain. Incidently DD2 very enthusiastically gummed a stick of cucumber today and has grabbed at her sister's apple on a couple of occasions.

Am so nervous about not getting enough nutrients into DD2 although I doubt she will fade into nothing as she is just over 12 pounds.

Any advice?

without wanting to enter into a heated discussion about early weaning and if you really don't want to start weaning.....

have you thought about giving formula as well as BFing and therefore increasing the amount of feeds

milk has more calories than veg or fruit that you would give before 6 months.

Is your daughter fit, healthy, lively - then no need for formula. BF babies often go down the centiles after 3 or 4 months - have you plotted her weight on the new BF growth charts - she is probably on a centile above the formula fed charts. Also was she weighed on the same scales as last time - they can be out by quite a bit.

For BLW you can let a baby have food before 26 weeks - its baby led, so if a baby can eat the food they are ready.

She is getting all the nutrients she needs in BFing up to a year old. However, listen to your baby if she is ready for food then give it IMO.

fleebee - that's a good suggestion to look at the up to date charts, because they reflect the slowing down of weight gain in bf babies better than the standard charts.

Weaning is not the only option for a baby of this age who is thought to need calories - 'cos you have the extra calories, in your breasts, and you can increase the no. of feeds and increase the no. of breasts you offer each time.

Hi thanks for the info,

We went to a BFN session this morning and got some BF charts so will plot DD on those to see how she is going.

Must say she is very lively, healthy and jolly so guess no need to worry just yet...

Will try increasing feeds and hold off for another week. She does look small but then both me and DH are on the small side so guess she won't be enormous!

Still very keen on attempting BLW any tips for being successful?

Join us on the BLW thread here lots of advice here and on the old thread which is linked on the new thread.

BLW is messy, enjoy your clean house for a few more weeks and feel free to lurk or post on the BLW thread until your dd is ready to start.