My baby eats fine thanks!!!

[GBLiz]

Grrr..little rant here....Anjali is quite a skinny baby and her weight gain has slowed down since early on, not really a surprise as I was even more so (you could see my ribs when i was her age!). She's not off the chart though and iis very very lively, which is apparant at the weighing clinic where she sits ripping up the tissue paper, grabbing everything she can and trying to crawl off the scales....

but the health visitor always questions me like she thinks im not feeding her! Im breastfeeding 60% and solids 40% approx, and her solids are really good quality (IMO)..because i dont eat meat, i havent given her meat yet, but make sure i give her other protein sources . I mentioned cottage cheese to the HV and she was like, 'OH, you should give her cheddar, more calories. Thats what she needs, more calories'

This is a baby who has a breast feed folllowed by half a banana and half an adult size portion of porridge just for breakfast!

And if she was hungry i dont think she'd be such a happy little livewire!

I know the HV is only doing her job and covering all bases but i always feel like she's judging me.

 

[Leese]

I know how you feel! In my case the HV is fine, she knows what James eats and is happy with his development, as am I. He is tiny, but so am I. Took him to the GP for something else and she was saying that he was too small etc and she got me really worried. Both his grandads are GPs and I know they would say if they felt something wasn't right. They were both really pee'd off with the doc for worrying me. As you say if your LO is bright, lively and developing, there's nothing to worry about! Body size and shape is mostly genetic isn't it, so if you're slim the odds are that your LO will be too. I know they're just doing their jobs but....

 

[Jade&Evie]

Don't worry Liz I get this too- Evie only weighs 16lb and is on the 2nd centile. My argument is if you put ME on a chart of adult women then I would be on the 2nd centile too- it's the way I am built. Evie has just started walking and has been crawling for a couple of months- they should take that into consideration. My HV told me they dn't expect a slow down in wieght gain til about 11 months to which I replied" YES, when babies on AVERAGE start walking- mine is doing it now!"

I have been told that until babies reach a year old most of their nutrients come from milk- so it's a load of crap about babies needing calories; it's more about getting them used to flavours and textures.

If you aren't worried about her then ignore her- carry on with what you are doing because you've obviously got a thriving happy baby!!


xx

ETA: is she using the chart in your red book or a breastfeeding chart?

 

[GBLiz]

they're going by the red book- Anjali is 15lb 11 at 9 months 3 weeks, which has her at about the 4th percentile. She started at 7lb 1 which is 25th percentile so all they see is a drop.

I was born at 8lb 9 which is nearer 80th percentile , dropped down to 1st percentile and didnt reach 18lb until I was 18 months!!!! Now I am a whopping 5'1.

Im not worried about her in the slightest- everyone says how alert, lively and content she is - and I think her diet is probably healthier than 90% of the population!

Just irritating that they think i dont know how to feed her!

 

[kalia]

I hate health visitors!!!!! We had a lovely competent student then she left (end of placement) and since then we have had 2 that were both a complete waste of space.
She should get 93% of her nutrition for milk (I think it was squiglet that posted this not long ago). I honestly think you should write and complain about the lack of professionalism shown by your health visitor both in being unsupportive through making you feel bad and also through not understanding how babies are nourished.
If you feel she is fine then that is almost certainly the case. they wouldn't mind if she were 96th % and the only way 50% can be there is if there are babies at 4% to balance.

 

[farls]

we had the same problem, both mine are small and hover between the 2nd and 9th percentile. mark was refered to hospital and they were totally going on about his weight and not addressing the real reason we were there. i was annoyed to say the least. my hv is lovely and knows my babes are just petite. both myself and hubby are not tall so i dont know how they expect the Lo's to be giants.

 

[CoreysMummy]

Dont worry, mine told me to FRY coreys Food from now on..!! Bahahaha, I nearly died!!

Take what info you want from HV imo, and leave the rest, you know best

 

[debecca]

they're going by the red book- Anjali is 15lb 11 at 9 months 3 weeks, which has her at about the 4th percentile. She started at 7lb 1 which is 25th percentile so all they see is a drop.

I was born at 8lb 9 which is nearer 80th percentile , dropped down to 1st percentile and didnt reach 18lb until I was 18 months!!!! Now I am a whopping 5'1.

Im not worried about her in the slightest- everyone says how alert, lively and content she is - and I think her diet is probably healthier than 90% of the population!

Just irritating that they think i dont know how to feed her!

I have the same. Connie was 8lb 9oz at birth (like you!) the 75th percentile, and now she's only 17lb 14oz at 9 months (more like 25th percentile). Because my HV has a Masters in nutrition she insists on lecturing me about how to get more calories into Flod every time I see her. She also goes on about avocado to ALL MOTHERS who see her, no matter what the query. So for instance my friend Danielle needed to ask her advice about stopping breastfeeding and I said "oh, you know the answer will be avocado" and we laughed... well, guess what the Health Visitor suggested.

Frickin' avocado.

 

[Charlie:-)]

I wouldn't take a blind bit of notice what the HV's say to you. You know your baby and if you know she's fit and healthy then that's all that matters. If you're not overly bothered about taking her to weigh in just go every other month to save you the hassle.

I used to get hassled by the Hv's too. Maia was 8lb 13oz at birth on the 85th centile and she followed the line for the first 8 weeks or so then started to drop off and each week I would get the 3rd degree "are you still breastfeeding, is your milk supply ok, how often do you feed her, oh you must feed her every 2 hours, wake her if she's asleep, oh you must bring her for weighing every week" they used to make me feel like I was doing something wrong and if I wasn't so strong minded then I may have felt guilty and given up breastfeeding. Needless to say I never woke her to feed and I tried every 2 hours but she just wouldnt take it so I went back to her normal every 3 hours. The questions went on for about 4 weeks till in the end I had a go at them I told them how they made me feel and explained im only 5ft 3, my sis is only 5 foot and my MIL is only 4ft 11 and my 2 year old niece only just fits into 12 month old clothes so there's no hope for Maia being much bigger! They stopped hassling me after that Now I only take her every month and she's stayed on the 9th centile for about 3 months now weighing 15lb 4 oz at 8 month.

I just blame all the ice-cream I ate in last tri for her big birth weight, I must have tried all the flavors that morrisons stock, some of the nicer ones twice

 

[Bee]

Finlay was never on any of the boody lines. Its only recently that he's finally at the 50th percentile.

Don't listen to them

 

[GBLiz]

lol@ the avocado story