Solids at 4 months for poor weight gain?

[BunnyN]

Just wonderingredients if anyone has tried this and did it work? It's been suggested to us and it kind of goes against the grain as I am a believer in EBFing for the first six months but I'm trying to keep an open mind in deciding what to do.

A bit of background: LO was born in the 95 percentile and now, at 4 months is in about the 5 percentile. She had weeks of funny poo, green, mucus, specks of blood etc which seems to have been mostly resolved with a change in my diet so we believe it was caused by allergies (we are now seeing a pediatric allergist and doing tests etc) but her weight gain is still slow. Other than the tummy troubles and poor weight gain she has been healthy and is very active and advanced for her age in most respects. But the dramatic drop on the weight chart is obviously a worry.

I refused to suppliment with formula as she has plenty of wet and dirty nappies, I have enough milk and she feeds well. I even weighed her before and after feeds to confirm she was getting enough milk. I did think her weight gain would just take off one day but it hasn't so before I dismiss the idea of starting solids earlier than I planned I wanted to see if anyone has wisdom to share.

 

[bunnyg82]

The thing I learnt with my pregnancy is to not get so worked up about the scales. You need to judge by baby and from what you describe, baby is thriving regardless of the slow weight gain. Just keep up with the milk, that's the quickest way of getting calories into your baby.

Try and make sure you're not getting baby weighed too regularly and keep judging by the wet and dirty nappies and how your baby seems x

 

[justkitty]

Early weaning can lead to more allergies. I don't understand why you'd refuse formula which is nutritionally sound and high calories compared to weaning fruit & veg which is nutritional but less calories & fat? I'm not saying ditch bf. My son was ff and dropped from 50th to 0.4th centile. We had tests etc under paediatric team and no medical reasons for it but at 18m he is tiny and has to eat high cal food and high cal formula just to grow a little. 6-9m clothes and 19lbs. Perfect as he is. Weaning early won't make a difference unless the food is high cal. Soul destroying having to allow some foods you'd rather they didn't have etc. Perhaps swap one feed a day for high cal formula or add a feed. Solids will reduce bf milk intake anyway.

If I'd have found a way for my son to gain weight to grow properly I would have tried anything. You don't need to give up bf but you need your child to grow.

 

[justkitty]

Ps they kept threatening to admit my son and tube feed him between 6m to now really and I've had to fight from that happening as its a temporary solution and he would have had to learn to eat again . Some days he only eats the equivalent of 1/4 slice of toast, handful of grapes anf 6oz milk. It's emotionally very hard. Especially when its a noticeable difference with his friends or he gets ill and won't eat at all. But he is healthy, hitting all milestones etc so I just keep going

 

[summer rain]

Just kitty there is no high calorie formula available that is suitable for babies with allergies. There simply isn't such a product on the market. Also allergies in themselves can cause very low weight gain regardless of milk supply, but it is still better to continue EBF as long as possible (and yes I have been told this by specialists it's not just an opinion I plucked from the air). OP my second eldest dropped from the 98th centile to the 0.4th, under extreme pressure I tried giving him solids at 4 months but he really didn't take to it so I waited until he was six months. I also asked about giving a specialist formula for weight gain and they said not only would it not help in their experience but my son's allergies were that severe they could not guarantee he wouldn't react to even amino acid based formulas. Eventually despite still having allergies he started piling weight on, even though at the time he was still mainly BF and was average weight, height and hc aged two xx

 

[justkitty]

Summer raiby I didn't know that. My ds was started off on dairy free formula when his weighf gain stopped. It made no diff so not dairy. Anyway... when I first weaned ds he ate ok but ney great. Its only been really since he reached 14/15m that his eating has improved. I am hoping that he will do what yoira has done and just start gaining more when he is older.

As I said in one of my posts OP shouldn't stop bf but it may be worth trying a little ff to see if it makes a difference to weight gain. But I alzo don't know enough about allergies etc so mere opinion and experience.

Just to clarify I didn't stop bf because of weight issues. I lost so much blood at birth that my milk didn't come in until real late and I tried to exclusive pump but didn't happen so summer rains experience may be more relevant

Just kitty there is no high calorie formula available that is suitable for babies with allergies. There simply isn't such a product on the market. Also allergies in themselves can cause very low weight gain regardless of milk supply, but it is still better to continue EBF as long as possible (and yes I have been told this by specialists it's not just an opinion I plucked from the air). OP my second eldest dropped from the 98th centile to the 0.4th, under extreme pressure I tried giving him solids at 4 months but he really didn't take to it so I waited until he was six months. I also asked about giving a specialist formula for weight gain and they said not only would it not help in their experience but my son's allergies were that severe they could not guarantee he wouldn't react to even amino acid based formulas. Eventually despite still having allergies he started piling weight on, even though at the time he was still mainly BF and was average weight, height and hc aged two xx

 

[BunnyN]

Early weaning can lead to more allergies. I don't understand why you'd refuse formula which is nutritionally sound and high calories compared to weaning fruit & veg which is nutritional but less calories & fat? I'm not saying ditch bf. My son was ff and dropped from 50th to 0.4th centile. We had tests etc under paediatric team and no medical reasons for it but at 18m he is tiny and has to eat high cal food and high cal formula just to grow a little. 6-9m clothes and 19lbs. Perfect as he is. Weaning early won't make a difference unless the food is high cal. Soul destroying having to allow some foods you'd rather they didn't have etc. Perhaps swap one feed a day for high cal formula or add a feed. Solids will reduce bf milk intake anyway.

If I'd have found a way for my son to gain weight to grow properly I would have tried anything. You don't need to give up bf but you need your child to grow.

Sorry you have had trouble with your LOs weight too. I know how worrying it can be.

I refused to give formula early on because I don't have a lack of milk and there is a history of bad allergies in the family. My understanding is that formula is one of the worst offenders for causing allergies and now that it seems likely her poor weight gain is at least partly down to allergies I'm being advised NOT to use formula. If she was reacting to dairy in my diet through BM giving her a dairy based formula directly could have serious consequences. If I had a lack of milk I would have to try one of the hypoallergenic fourmulas but they are not ideal and seeing as lack of milk is not the issue it doesn't seem like that would help. I don't think I'll be offering solids early either but seeing as it had been suggested I wanted to look itnto it. It's a good point you make about solids being lower in calories.

 

[summer rain]

My middle boy also had allergies and eliminating foods didn't help and he was in such a bad way I switched to formula. He was not allergic to milk so gave him conventional formula, albeit a comfort one. He was allergic to soya but at the time cow and gate comfort was soya free. When he got to three or four years old he developed a moderate dairy allergy and we have been told it's unlikely he will grow out of it. Although he is not underweight for his age according to the charts he doesn't absorb fats from foods very well, a problem he has had since he was a baby-so he looks really skinny . Also if he has any dairy including hidden dairy he will within hours develop severe eczema all over his torso, arms, legs and sometimes his face and this is a symptom that has got even worse recently . Being six he doesn't want to feel left out so keeps eating dairy containing sweets etc at my OH's family's house and they are unfortunately more than happy to give it to him as they are very wilfully ignorant about allergies. He is even more severely allergic to goat milk. Meanwhile my second eldest, he has very mild asthma and if he eats a lot of eggs he gets a painless bumpy rash on his forehead and cheeks which goes away very quickly, I think being BF until 12 months really helped xx

 

[BunnyN]

Thanks for all the input summer rain. You have been through it with the allergies. I have problems with allergies and asthma but I have not dealt with food alergies myself (except for problems with food addatives) so it's a bit of a learning curve for me. Can I ask how many months your second was when he started catching up on weight? LO has been putting on about the same every week since birth. (Except for a couple of really bad weeks when she lost) and she is getting to the age that growth slows for most babies so I'm hoping she will at least carry on the same which means she will be catching up a little. She is closer to average in her height and head size she is just very slim. The doctor did say she seems to have a naturally small frame as her hips and shoulders are narrow so even though she is underweight it may be that it's not by as much as it looks like on a chart.

 

[summer rain]

Thanks for all the input summer rain. You have been through it with the allergies. I have problems with allergies and asthma but I have not dealt with food alergies myself (except for problems with food addatives) so it's a bit of a learning curve for me. Can I ask how many months your second was when he started catching up on weight? LO has been putting on about the same every week since birth. (Except for a couple of really bad weeks when she lost) and she is getting to the age that growth slows for most babies so I'm hoping she will at least carry on the same which means she will be catching up a little. She is closer to average in her height and head size she is just very slim. The doctor did say she seems to have a naturally small frame as her hips and shoulders are narrow so even though she is underweight it may be that it's not by as much as it looks like on a chart.

He was seven months, he piled on 2lb that month and 1.5 to 2lb a month for a few months after that. With him he had universal FTT (head circumference and length stalled too). It took a lot longer for him to start growing well in those areas but when he did he rapidly caught up xx

 

[BunnyN]

He was seven months, he piled on 2lb that month and 1.5 to 2lb a month for a few months after that. With him he had universal FTT (head circumference and length stalled too). It took a lot longer for him to start growing well in those areas but when he did he rapidly caught up xx

I hope that is what happens for us then .