AARRGGHH!! Why do I do it????

Ok, so I took missy to our MCHN to be weighed today. And she "only" gained 90g in 2 weeks. I don't usually take her fortnightly, usually monthly but she's 6 months old tomorrow and I wanted the numbers for her baby book and memory box.

Anyway...... she says "that's not a good amount of weight" and then asked me if she was on 3 solid meals a day. I got a bit snippy with her and said "you mean 3 pureed meals a day" and she said yes (just as snippily as me might I add).

I told her that we were doing baby led weaning and she gave me a "ppfftt" and raised her eyebrows. It was around about now that my hackles were rising.

She told me that she should be on 3 meals a day and gaining more weight.

Um, my baby is exclusively breastfed at the moment and I am happy to take her lead. She's not hungry or starved, she's really chubby actually and long!!! AARRRGGHHH!
This whole pureed foods thing doesn't make sense to me any more - there are a whole lot more calories in my breast milk than in a couple of mashed up carrots!!!!!!!!!

Please give me permission never to go back there. She's a nice nurse but I just disagree with this "one size fits all" attitude that baby professionals seem to have.

Thanks for the rant.
Sue xxxx

:hug: they really can be a pain can't they! I know some pharmacies have a set of baby scales, maybe you could go there next time if yours has one?

My new MCHN is pretty easy going, but with my old one I just told her what she wanted to hear and gave pretty vague answers...then came to BB and asked all the questions I had!

:angry: Nothing could possibly be better then your milk so MCHN :p

"pfft" to you, for not supporting a mother who is TRUELY do what is BEST for her bubba;)

Tell her that the WHO says she should only just be starting solids not on 3 meals a day and is seriously think about complaining to your councils mch coordinator about the training given to their staff

The nurses can be lovely and helpful but they can also cause stress and make your blood boil lol.

Bubs weight gain slowes down now anyways doesnt i dont know whats to little. But if you can see your bubs is growing in all ways and is happy and content i wouldnt worry.

In reguards to food, my bub is about a week or so younger then yours i only started food at the end of last week (yes evil purees lol) I dont expect her to be on 3 full meals by 2 weeks time when shes 6 months. Besides I thought the milk is the most important thing anyways, gosh they can be annoying. Lol but its not just limited to nurses i saw a Dr just before bubs was 4mo as i needed a script for motillium as ive needed a bit of help with my supply he told me then to start bub on solids and she should start drinking less milk, so crazy. Ok sorry went on a bit of a tangent,

Dont go back or yes go to a nurse at a chemist thats what ive done occasionally when i didnt want to have 'the look' given to me about bubs weight. Or just go to get her weighed and tune out to what they say (unless of course something more serious is going on) :p lol

i hate the whole one size fits all thing the MCHN have going on.. your DD sounds like she is growing and happy!
I was always under the impression that " food is fun until you're one"..

Sue, you have my permission not to go back. I had no issues with my MHCN but didn't go back after the first six weeks until DD was two (and that was just for the baby book stats too :hide:). Nobody ever came looking for me! LOL

I just took DD to my fabulous GP for her vax and weighed her there. Don't think my GP ever even charted her weight, just used it for dosage. I had to go home and put her weight into my WHO charts to see where she sat on them at all. So my DD got weighed at 2 mths, 4 mths, 6 mths, 12 mths, 18 mths and 2 years.

My dd didn't even start until 9 months she just wasn't ready, we skipped the yucky rice cereal all together. It's done her no harm, she loves her food now. Luckily I had a great mchn, but I now have a horrible one who will probably be like yours trying to get ds onto solids at 4 months.

Wouldn't you just love to tell 'em to stick it where the sun don't shine sometimes?!

I was given the third degree by my MCHN because at 7 months my DD was only just starting on solids. I had tried earlier but she just wasn't interested. It was an interesting conversation to say the least! She was still growing well and is only a tiny little dot now but she is happy and healthy. They all do things in their own time and trying to force 3 meals a day at 6 months?! I don't get it. I have always been told that milk should be the main source of their nutrition for the first 12 months.

Ahh.. rambling now but yes I am hearin' ya on that one!

Thanks so much guys, I love coming home and ranting on BB, makes me feel like I'm a good mummy when I hear your responses.

To be honest, I couldn't give DD puree if I tried, she grabs the spoon out of my hand and either puts it in her mouth or launches it off the side of the high chair. I have to "dip" the spoon into whatever it is and give it to her. She's had some yoghurt and porridge and this is the way that we do it. It's messy and that doesn't do well for my OCD but hey..... she needs to learn to do it herself and I'm totally happy with that. The MCHN told me to give her a spoon while I spoon feed her with another spoon. But that feels deceitful to me and goes against everything that the BLS book says - I need to be able to show missy that I trust her to do this herself thereby giving her the confidence to be able to do it herself.


I think that is a good idea either getting my GP to do weighs every once in a while or just take her to our local pharmacy - they have scales there I think!

Thanks again everyone!!

pfft, what a PITA! Permission granted, don't go back! So she's only just 6 months which is when she should be recommending you start solids and she thinks she should be eating 3 meals a day already?? :rolleyes:

Ha, she told me to start DD on solids at 4 months. I felt very pressured then and not at all confident about myself so tried some baby cereal and it made DD's reflux worse! So I stopped and bought the BLS book and of course came on here, so now I am 100% sure we are doing the right thing by doing BLS.

Good on you for sticking to your instincts! Especially under pressure. Proud of you!

That weight gain is fine. Best answer is to stop weighing her :D

My DS is almost 9 months and I struggle.. and I mean seriously struggle.. to get him to eat 1 meal a day. And that's not even at one sitting. For breakfast he'll have 4 or 5 mouth fulls before he's over it, same as lunch and dinner. Lately the only luck i've had is while I'm eating my dinner, i'll give him little nibbles of what i'm having when he comes up to me looking curious and trying to pinch bits off my plate ^^;

I think I can remember at this stage my CHN saying that they start slowing down weight gain at around the 6 month mark, but i can't remember what it was. Either way, a gain is a gain and at some periods they gain more and some less. Over a month she might even out... but good on you for following what you feel is best! And I have to ask... what BLS book are you going from? :)

Obviously no-one's informed her of the WHO guidelines....silly woman.
:hug: I wonder if collectively the MCHNs of the world know the disservice they are giving to mum's everywhere?
You are doing a great job, a gain is a gain, and independent eating is the bomb!

(she might have had a fit at my two then :rolleyes:....both under the 10th percentile and DD didn't have a single gram of weight gain from her first birthday in may 07 until January this year lol)

You don't need permission not to go again. No one will hunt you down & force you if you don't go. I haven't been to a MCHN in god knows how long. I know my children are developing well. Better then some one who seems them now & then thats for sure. Pretty sure I stopped regularly going after one told me to reduce the amount of breastfeeds my then 7month old was getting so he would eat more solids. That was with my first bub.

I can't say I am surprised....in my experience, all MCHNs are old and grumpy with philosophies from the ice ages!

Mine was such a beetch that I went once then gave up on her.