BLW and poor weight gain

[hobnob57]

DD2 is 6 months old and we started BLW a few weeks ago when she started grabbing at food. She loves it, and will happily munch away on sticks of veg and fruit at dinner time.

I was at clinic today and discovered that she hasn't gained any weight in the past 2 weeks, and the 3 weeks before that she lost weight (but had had a sickness bug in the interim). The HV wants me to accelerate to 3 meals a day and return in 2 weeks's time for a re-weigh.

DD2 is an allergicky baby. She is EBF but sensitive to dairy, soy, gluten, egg & nuts in my diet. So I've been taking BLW slowly and sticking to pears, apples, potato, sweet potato, carrot, parsnip and courgette for now, with the odd taste of other things every so often. I already have my doubts about peppers.

During this time she has been plagued on and off by very sore tummies of they type she experiences if I stray from my diet above. She is still only producing a dirty nappy once a week, despite trying lactulose and diluted prune juice this past week. Her stools are soft though (and formed, so she is swallowing food). The HV thinks she is just absorbing most of what she is eating and could probably do with more of it.

I'm just afraid that I'll be pressurised into thinking about spoonfeeding in a fortnight is her weight is still static. Is it common for BF BLW babies to 'level off' like this? Or are her sore tums perhaps signs that something else is up?

i think it is quite common in all weaning situations. the problem (i think) is that carrots/potatoes etc are not particularly calorific, so even though they are eating, breastmilk or formula is more 'fattening'. is there any way you can give her more milk, and also increase to 3 meals and snacks. you can still blw, because by eight/nine months she'll be so good at eating (skillswise) that she'll start chowing down - or at least i think that is the idea!

my DS didn't gain any weight in three weeks then 7oz in a week, which is quite alot for this age.

maybe just keep an eye and keep offering more milk, and give her practice at eating.

(this is totally amateur advice btw and not remotely pro!)

hth

p.s can you load up spoons of something calorific and give them to her to feed herself with? its messy but my DS eats yoghurt off a pre loaded spoon. (it is really really messy - goes everywhere!)

and what happens if you give her the foods you have cut out directly, will she have he same reaction? like if you gave her fish pie made with cream, would she be allergic?

ok a few things off the top of my head:

1.) breastfed babies tend to gain quickly and hten plateau. sounds liek she has done just that, and the blip of the tummy bug is what caused the loss

2.) MILK should be the main source of nutrition until she is at least a year

3.) no first weaning foods, regardless of how they get into the baby, are as high in calories as MILK! so if she needs to gain more than she is (which i suspect she doesn't) then you would want to up her milk, not her solids

4.) one dirty nappy a week is absolutely normal for a breastfed baby and she doesn't need prunes or lactulose or anything else. youll probably find as her consumption of solids increases then her poos will become more regular. if her stools are soft then she is not constipated.

If she is happy and healthy otherwise and meeting milestones I would not worry at all.
I would however see a GP about the things you feel she is sensitive to, because it means her diet will be very restricted and if you can get her allergy tested that might help?