HV suggesting baby rice for my 16 wk ds2. I am confused.

[princessmel]

I thought guidelines were 6 months these days. I mentioned this and possible damage to his gut and she said 'we'll talk about that in 2 weeks' (she was busy and that's when I'm seeing her next)

She said he could start at 17 weeks...with baby rice. Which I thought had less calories in than breast milk anyway. I said I wasn't keen.
She said if he drops down on the chart any more then we'll review it again. He was born between the 91st and 75th centile and is around the 25th now. I thought this was normal with bf babies too. He is 14 lb 21/2oz. He put on 7 oz in the last 2 weeks. Btw he had a chest infection a few weeks ago with Ab's.

I told her he feeds 2 hourly normally.

She said 'has he ever slept through the night?' . I told her he has (in the past) gone from 8/9pm ish to 4/5am ish a few times but is waking at 2/3 ish more recently. But I also said I expect to be woken for feeds, he is a baby after all!!

She also asked 'is he looking at you when you eat?' and I said he is, but tbh he looks at me whatever I do.

So what do you think? I wasn't planning on doing food till 6 months and then giving blw a go..with a bit of mush thown in.

tia

Maybe it was the colour clothes you were wearing, maybe it was the direction of the wind, maybe it was the tv shows you watched....

Did you search for tiktoks post?

I completely agree with expressing or the lack of doesn't have a lot to do with how much milk you have - i have never been able to express properly but have fed ok

Then how do you explain all the mothers who say that they know they have no milk because they cant express anything?

Thanks Tarty. I know its not - believe me if I could have eaten less I would have. I never had milk flowing freely and it was always an effort - but as I said before - I eventually managed to just about make enough! It just shows as I believe most people have to stop gradually or express or accept pain as milk flow stops. I just ate a normal diet and my boobs never filled after all three dds stopped feeding. No fullness or pain for me!

I fed one child for 3 years and the other for 4 and no fullness or pain for me on stopping either. I'm not sure what it's meant to prove..

i thnk you are both kind of right

this is from kellymom:

Eat at least 1500-1800 calories per day
While nursing, you should not consume less than 1500-1800 calories per day, and most women should stay at the high end of this range. Some mothers will require much more than this, but studies show that going below this number may put supply at risk.

but also:

Do I need to maintain a perfect diet while breastfeeding?

The short answer to this question is NO ? you do not need to maintain a perfect diet in order to provide quality milk for your baby. In fact, research tells us that the quality of a mother?s diet has little influence on her milk. Nature is very forgiving ? mother?s milk is designed to provide for and protect baby even in times of hardship and famine. A poor diet is more likely to affect the mother than her breastfed baby.

so it can affect supply but not quality!

It doesnt affect supply. If you dont eat enough - and this doesnt have to mean upping calories but simply eating if you're hungry (like everyone should) - then your own body will suffer but not your baby.

Thanks all of you

I am going to bed now (ds2 in bed...hope he stays there....)

I will check back in the morning.

fwiw I just ate a bowl of pasta and some dough balls

oh and pm (oops forgot to respond to you!) ds2 20 weeks has dropped from 75th to 50th and hv suggested weaning as he is waking more at night.

i'm not going to, don't worry about it. if you're happy with how things are going then why change?

link for rainbow

unless kellymom is wrong? where's tiktok when you need her?!

link for rainbow

unless kellymom is wrong? where's tiktok when you need her?!

I'm childblocked from kellysmom! Dh is at work and has set the password .
I've suggested already people link to her posts here about diet and quality.

SHe was aroudn on another thread for a moment but havent seen her since.

She is the oracle of all.

I dont know where my reply went then - its disappeared! What I said was that I give up rainbow. I know what I know. Not sure what makes you the worlds expert on bfeeding but perhaps in rl you are. However, what you need to remember there are always exceptions. Maybe I was an exception. However, facts are facts and I definately wasnt more chilled when dd wouldnt sleep, couldnt feed, never satisfied etc. So it wasnt being more chilled that made more milk come after a day or two! It was the massive intake of calories whether you accept it or not. We tried too many times to go back to a normal diet for it to be coincidence. Sorry but you cant know everything and not everybdoy fits the norm.

rainbow, i c and p this from kellymom:

'Eat at least 1500-1800 calories per day
While nursing, you should not consume less than 1500-1800 calories per day, and most women should stay at the high end of this range. Some mothers will require much more than this, but studies show that going below this number may put supply at risk.'

bizarre childlock!

I dont know everything but I do know that if tiktok says it to be the case then it is. If it is physically not possible then it's physcially not possible. I am no expert but she is. Hopefully she'll be along to explain it far better to you.

I could quote stacks of anecdotal evidence about breastfeeding that goes against science - doesnt make it true though.

Tiktok explains in detail about fats in diet and breastmilk.

But it isnt anecdotal though is it. I am talking about me! It would appear that calories are directly linked to supply (see devils quote) and for most going below 1500 puts supply at risk. Now I know that my dsis went below 1500 calories (fact as was on monitored diet for illness) but had milk pouring out of her and could have fed two babies. My dmum was the same. So why couldnt I have needed double the 1800 calories?

pinkdolly, diet only normally affects milk supply if it is consistently and long-term and majorly inadequate....if you carried on with this sort of eating for a long time, then it would really not be good for you (you would suffer before your milk did - but eventually, it would become harder for your body to make milk

Quote here from tiktok. I searched here under her name for supply and diet.

You think you needed double 1800 calories to breastfeed? Please, please search for tiktok's posts.

Rainbow - no need. I know what I know. I ate that much and fed. I ate less and didnt! I have no idea how many calories I ate but it was loads. Day to day I probably eat 2800 or so now, so it was way more than that. Although I have had weight gain in the past (not at the moment though - (actually getting weight loss now - yippee), I didnt when feeding or pregnant. So was obviously using it up somewhere.

Milk does not differ in quality (whatever this means - but lets say it means 'fat content' as you suggest) according to whether the mother is rested at that particular moment or not. There is no physiological mechanism for this to happen. Fat in the milk is affected by the amount of milk in the breast - see the link to the kellymom page which outlines this quite well.

You could rush around, do Xmas shopping, swim a few lengths of the swimming pool, run round the block, collect toddler from nursery - and your milk would still remain perfectly ok, with fat in it related to the amount of milk in your breast.

Ditto stress. Stress does not affect the ingredients of the milk or the amount of milk. It might affect let down, temporarily.
Nature is not stupid. Nature protects the infant, and his food supply, and does not let the milk or its supply become affected by stress, dodgy diet, long gaps between meals, lack of sleep, extra physical activity.

We know this, not just from common sense, but also from the scientific literature that looks at lactation.

Another fab quote from tiktok.

But 1500-1800 calories per day is low - that's like being on a diet. 2000 calories per day is a normal adult female diet.

And no, what you eat isn't likely to affect your supply. Plenty of mothers in poor countries look like walking skeletons, but have lovely fat babies from breastfeeding.

Princessmel, are you still around? Sorry I wandered off, re: ways to get extra calories in. Have you tried breast compression? Jack Newman is the expert (he invented it!). It's a good trick for babies who doze on the job.

I assume you're always offering both sides, etc etc?

Feeding regularly makes for a better supply, not a worse one. FWIW.