Feeling disheartened

[Sterla]

I've been doing BLS with DS since he was 7 months. He's okay with his food - pretty good at getting things into his mouth (though whether he'll keep it in is another thing ). I love the independence and confidence DS has gained from doing BLS.

However, today I had MCHN appointment. DS had gained a grand total of 4 grams (no, I'm not leaving off any 0s). He'd grown 1cm as well which is great - but he's basically gained no weight.

He still has heaps and heaps of breastfeeds (up to 8 in a 24 hour period), and I honestly couldn't feed him any more - he pushes me away and just wants to go and play.

I generally spoon-feed him breakfast, cause it's usually yogurt or something else he can't really feed himself properly, but other than that he feeds himself everything else. Our lunches are a bit hit and miss (as he tends to sleep right on that time of day), which I'm aiming to improve on... but other than that I can't do much more.

I guess I'm just feeling really disheartened. I'm happy to let DS go at his own pace with food, but I guess now I'm worried he's really not getting enough at all .

[Olive]

hun its completely normal for bubs weight to plateau at this age! please dont feel disheartened. remember 'food is fun til their one' hes having heaps of BF which is what hes ment to be doing!, your both doing a great job!!

[Sterla]

Thanks Olive . It's so hard when I have the MCHN telling me things like "Needs to be having 3 main meals a day and snacks" and "Needs to be having solids before breastfeeds"... especially when DS isn't putting on the weight to make me feel like it's okay anyway .

[Beautitude]

Its tough isn't it. DS is putting on hardly any weight at the moment too. As you know ds has decided that he wants to do bls also and will not eat anything off a spoon and what he gets into his mouth is pretty minimal. I think in the last couple months he has put on as much weight as he would have in a week when he was younger (he always gained weight really quickly in the early days) so it has bothered me a bit.

Now that he is 1 im a bit worried about where to from here. While we were away last week he basically went two days on two solids meals. Flat out refused anything else. Your not alone and from what i can tell its pretty normal.

A girl in my mg is having a few weight issues and the main advice was to add high calorie things to food. e.g cheese with all meals, yogurt with fruit, cream etc.

[Trillian]

I'm sure that what he is getting in bf's more than makes up for what he isn't eating. Typically first foods, even when doing BLS isn't going to add huge calories to their diet so that you would see a large weight gain. I wouldn't worry about it too much, but you could try giving him buttered bread, full cream yoghurt and cheese etc and see if that makes a difference. at this age too they tend to drop off with the weight gains too as they are on the go now and burning it all up.

[Sterla]

at this age too they tend to drop off with the weight gains too as they are on the go now and burning it all up.

Yeah, this is exactly the case with my DS - he's on the go all the time - crawling, pulling himself up, walking around furniture, etc. Plus, because he's doing all this, eating (and even b/f sometimes) are too boring for him I think - he just wants to get down and keep exploring, lol.

He does have a fair bit of yogurt and cheese... I don't know. It's so hard .