Help breastfeeding + solids for a 9 month old

[planetonamor]

Hi. My partner and I have been feeding our 9 month old daughter breastmilk exclusively up to 6 weeks ago, when we started (pureed) solids. (We are raising her vegan.) Our daughter took to them slowly and eats a teaspoonful at a time (if we are lucky). We are following Dr. Sears' recommendations in The Baby Book in which he explains that solids at this stage of development are mainly for experimentation, as breast milk is sufficient nutritionally.

We just got back from our well-child checkup at the doc's, and were surprised that she'd gained just 5 ounces since our last visit 2 months ago. Prior to that, she'd been packing on a pound or more every month. So, this drop-off is a cause for concern. The doc advised offering more solids for additional calories, which I am willing to do, but I am surprised that momma's milk doesn't seem to have enough calories in itself.

I have read other sources (eg American Dietetic Assn) that preach a child of this age eating copious amounts of numerous foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner plus two snacks each day, along with the breastmilk. There is no way my kid would eat nearly as much as they advise, not to mention that the advice is conflicting.

Does anyone else have experience nursing their child through and past the first year, and having such weight fluctuations? What solids did you offer, how much, and when? Is this just a temporary plateau she is at that will self-correct, or should I be more worried? Thanks.

[ourdayourjourney]

i am doing this a little differently with my second. but, with my first i nursed through the first year and always offered less solids than my ped recommended because i always wanted to keep my supply strong.

i would recommend offering the food later in the evening when your supply is normally lower or at a time when you think your little one can use it. for example, my little one, just started not to nurse prior to his nap, so i give him 1-2 T of quinoa + sweet potatoes to get him thorough until he wakes up and nurses. if not, his nap would be cut short. after his nap he will nurse and 1 hour later he'll have 1-2 T of quinoa + sweet potatoes. We will be introducing carrots next. he is so active and his new change required me to change how i was doing things.

do not be worried, just make sure you are doing what you feel she needs. also, my guess, she's probably more active now than ever.

[planetonamor]

Thanks for your support. I was doing some more reading and was interested to learn that exclusively breastfed babies tend to "lean out" (Dr. Sears' words) toward the end of the first year, putting more growth energy into height rather than weight. This is exactly what we are seeing with our 9 m.o. She fits his description of an ectomorph body type and he says this is the least likely to lead to obesity later in life. Also, I recalled, the weight charts do not distinguish between formula fed and breastfed babies, and the breastfed ones do tend to gravitate to the bottom of the scale. Moreover, our pediatrician seems to go by the book without having much understanding of the nuances of our baby's individual profile. So, I feel more secure that our daughter is doing fine according to her own natural growth pattern. Of course, you are right that she has very much increased her activity level. We let her crawl all around the house and she is always pulling herself up and down.

We do feed her in the evening during our own dinner time -- made sweet potato last week -- and I'm adding a little more for her at lunchtime as well. Quinoa and sweet potato is a great combo, but I am going to wait a bit on combining foods until we get through more first food trials on their own. She is a religious and happy nurser almost around the clock, so we are happy to continue providing nature's perfect food!

[tankgirl73]

Breastfed babies ABSOLUTELY slow down weight gain in their second half-year, and sometimes stop gaining weight completely until around 2 years old heh... it's perfectly normal and is NO "cause for concern."

As long as they're not losing weight, and are developing normally (learning to sit, crawl, walk, hold things, etc), then it's not a concern. They pack on pounds, then they use them up learning to move and do stuff. If they didn't, if they kept gaining a pound a month or whatever, our babies would be 50-pound behemoths by age 3.

As for the solids, if you look at most feeding schedules, they are based on the assumption of a goal of weaning completely by one year of age. So there is much more emphasis on actively replacing breast milk with solid foods than would happen just naturally.

And your ped is completely mistaken about giving more solids for more calories. Breast milk has more calories, more nutrition, more fats, more protein, more everything ounce for ounce than just about any solid food. The kellymom website has good stats on that if you're curious.

Feeding too much solid food reduces the amount of nutritionally complete, far healthier breastmilk taken in. It's best to let baby lead the way. Her own instincts will guide her as to how much she needs of solids and of breastmilk, in what ratio, and on what schedule.

I also highly recommend you just skip the purees. They're completely unnecessary unless you're trying to give solids to a 3mo... which you shouldn't be... but people used to (and ugh, many still do)... and they need to be "tricked" into eating by making it mushy like that. When kids are actually ready for solids though, they will WANT to eat, and will grab your food and chow down. The 'experimentation' you mention is not just about taste, but also about textures and shapes and grasping and using utensils and all kinds of fun stuff.

So I highly suggest reading up on 'baby-led weaning'. This is a term meaning starting solids, not 'weaning' in the sense of 'stopping breastfeeding' but in the sense of 'the process of gradually shifting from breastfeeding to solids, however long that may take' lol... Gill Rapley has a great book on it, a nice website (that has pics of my DD too, go to the photo gallery), and there are tons of forums and blogs about it. Lots of moms here at MDC have done BLW, including, obviously, us.

By trusting my daughter to regulate her own solid food intake, and not shovel it into her via purees and measuring everything by teaspoons and tablespoons and panicking about whether she was meeting any particular schedule or when to introduce what foods and blah blah blah... she just ate what we ate, when she wanted, and nursed when she wanted to nurse. She's almost 3 now, still nurses (just occasionally now, though I am mama-leading her a bit to less nursing at this point), and also eats all kinds of healthy foods all day long, she's hardly fussy at all.

[ourdayourjourney]

Yes, now that you said "lean out", I remember. (I have a 5 1/2 year old and a 7 month old so the age gap has me re-learning things.)

here is a growth chart for breastfeed babies, if you ever need it.
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns...wthcharts.html

The most important thing is that she is content, growing and nursing well She's active now, but 3 meals and 2 snacks definitely does not take into account nurturing your supply. My pediatrician was very quick to suggest supplementing this time around. I was shocked, but I knew to seek advise from a lactation specialist. We have had a few hurdles this time, but we have overcome them.

we also see a naturopathic doctor, which has completely different food recommendations than our pediatrician. we are following the naturopathic doctor's recommendations.

our naturopathic doctor recommends at 6 months: quinoa, cherries, banana, prunes, blackberries, applesauce, grapes, pears, blueberries, carrots, sprouts, broccoli, yams, beets

9 months: papaya, nectarines, apples, mashed potato, artichoke, cabbage, sweet potato, string beans, peas, oatmeal, basmati rice, millet, lima beans, split pea soup

we still are nursing around the clock, too. I have a little 4 hour stretch now, but after that it is every 3 hours.

[planetonamor]

Wow, this is great!

Thanks so much for your insights! I really found everything you offered very helpful. The weight / growth charts reveal that while our 9 m.o. is still below the median for even the breastfed curve, she is clearly closer to that than the overall norm. I agree, since she is healthy and growing well developmentally, I am not going to be concerned at this time. Part of my brain was telling me the doctor didn't know what he was talking about. I need to listen to that voice more!

Also, the baby-led weaning article was very interesting. It is a bummer that we have fallen into the common path of purees and airplane games and try to finish the portion we have prepared for you nonsense. Obviously, there is more than one way to raise a baby with food, although that's not what the docs would have you believe. My partner commented that BLW seems much like unschooling, in that you trust the child to obtain what she needs (whether food or knowledge) on her own, at her own pace.

Two related questions arise for me now. If we let baby sit at table with us and allow her to swipe at our plate, should we not be concerned about choking? The article said no, but say we're having tofu or tempeh cutlets or broccoli trees or something that's larger than little mouths with only 4 teeth in them can handle. Is the BLW method to let baby nibble at it without intervening, or to present a small part of our own meal to her in a cut-up portion?

Second, she came down with a fever today -- for the first time -- and I'm wondering if it's more than a coincidence that we have begun this experimentation with solid foods in the past couple of weeks. Perhaps offering the additional less nutritious teaspoonfuls of different grains and fruits and veggies has taken up space in her stomach that would have gone to breastmilk (and thus reduced the amount of mom's antibodies she's receiving). Moreover, has her body had to expend valuable energy to digest these new foods when she could have simply been loading up 100% on easily digestible breastmilk? It can't be proven, but this is my brain connecting the dots and hoping we are doing the right thing.