somebody please PLEASE calm my nerves

[threadbey]

7 month checkup today and she has gained not an OUNCE since two months ago. I have only just just just started giving her solids of any kind and have never supplemented with formula or water or anything. Only breastmilk straight from the tap. I wasn't worrying because she is my second child and I didn't give my son any "food" until he was 7 and a half months and he was FINE. Better than fine.

I got some cereal right away and fed her a good amount (about a Tbsp, that's what they said she should have at a sitting) before bedtime.

I was a little upset but mostly mystified but now that the kids are in bed my mind is churning out all kinds of TERRIFYING reasons she might be gaining no weight and I'm afraid to google on them because I'm sure I will only turn up more terrifying stuff. (It's been a difficult week and I've been having some anxiety troubles anyway, so...)

Has anyone else had this experience??? (She was 95% for the first 5 months and now she's suddenly 15%.) Did pushing solids fix it????? She hasn't even seemed particularly hungry, although recently she started waking up once at night to eat where before she slept through, but that's NORMAL.

I haven't been on MDC in ages, but I knew I would find support here. Thank you.

[Sharon, RN]

Ok, take a deep breath... and calm down.

You are going to get some better answers from much more learned women on here, but I would say pushing solids is not going to fix this. Breastmilk has fat and calories, generally the perfect amount for your baby- baby cereal is not as nutrionally sound as your breastmilk. Replacing nutritionally perfect food with empty calories may only make the problem worse.

Are you sure she hasn't gained any weight? I mean, could there have been a problem with weighing her (either now or 2 months ago)? Data is only good if it's accurate. Someone at my doc's office screwed up measuring my baby's head, so it looks like he goes from the 75th percentile, then off the charts (!), then back to 50th percentile. We know it's not accurate. Is it possible that she was weighed inaccurately at some point? Does she feel heavier to you? How much does she weigh?

How is her development otherwise? Has she started sitting up/rolling over/crawling? All of these things burn up calories and weight gain may slow.

[Just1More]

FWIW, my babies grow really fast in the first 6 months, and then stop gaining until well after a year. Ds actually hit 20 pounds by 4 months, and then didn't gain until he was after a year old. Eta-they are all totally healthy, btw. Around 2.5 they start growing a lot again. Dd (by 3.5/4yo) was off the upper end of the charts.

[smpayne]

Did she grow taller? Is she starting to move more(sit up, crawl, etc)? Did she gain a huge amount the last time? Has your diet changed?

[blessedwithboys]

both my kids were about 17-18 lbs at 6 mos and still at a yr. they both walked at 9 mos so i assume they were burning calories very quickly but not so quickly as to be dangerous

remember like a PP said, bm is the perfect food and every bite of solid food in the first yr doesnt add to the diet and calorie intake, but rather takes away perfect bm.

if development is normal, forget about numbers.

[PatioGardener]

Here is the WHO growth chart - a MUCH better screening tool for infant growth than the old CDC charts your MD probably uses. http://www.who.int/childgrowth/stand...irls_p_0_2.pdf

If your baby really has fallen off her curve (check by rechecking the weight on an accurate scale) then the best thing to do is to work to increase breastmilk intake, not to push low calorie solids. Are you able to see a good LC if needed?

[seren]

My now 7 year old gained 4 oz from 9 to 15 months. Our ped freaked me out. It got to the point where he didn't care what we fed him, we ended up almost no fruits or veggies, almost exclusively pasta, he said put strawberry syrup in his milk because it has more calories than chocolate. We went to weight checks every two weeks. Then at 15 months he gained half a lb in two weeks. I would calm down. Encourage her to nurse more often. Did she grow taller? I was told later that it's very hard for babies to gain weight and grow taller at the same time. When they are under six months they do both so quickly that it seems like they do it together, but they don't really.

[Debobu]

My son didn't gain any weight for 2 months at around that time too- 7 months.
He was on the 55-60th percentile and dropped to the 15th!
He was very active and not interested in solids until about 12-13 months.
Sometimes kids slow their weight gain as thy settle into their "genetics".
Since then my son is back to gaining weight regularly and he is now in the 25% I believe. He is a very tall and slim 18 month old and doing great developmentally.
I would nurse your baby a lot and just watch him- if he is active, happy and developmentally on track then DONT WORRY!
All the best!

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener

Here is the WHO growth chart - a MUCH better screening tool for infant growth than the old CDC charts your MD probably uses. http://www.who.int/childgrowth/stand...irls_p_0_2.pdf

If your baby really has fallen off her curve (check by rechecking the weight on an accurate scale) then the best thing to do is to work to increase breastmilk intake, not to push low calorie solids. Are you able to see a good LC if needed?

Looking at that growth chart, to go from the 75th percentile to the 15th, your child would have to gain NO weight from 4 months to 11 months, as an example. I like how that curve shows the weight gain slowing down dramatically by six months. If your baby is developing normally in other ways, I wouldn't worry about it; keep breastfeeding! I don't think pushing solids if your dd doesn't want them is the way to go. It seems to me that (provided nothing's wrong) she will want solids when she's ready for them.

And as you can read a million times in these forums, babies don't need anything but breastmilk for at least the first year, so "waiting" until 7 months to introduce solids is not an issue.

[akind1]

this is good to know! DS is such a lightweight compared to some friends babes (most of whom are BF also) that sometimes I get concerned - he is 15 lbs 3 oz at 6 months, but is also gaining in length quite a bit.

We do some solids, but more because he is interested than in any hope that it will have him gain. if he ate the whole small jar of pears we started this morning (he did maybe half), that is 35 whopping calories. Not enough to make any difference I think. We don't do cereal at all.

GL and I think you LO is probably just fine!

[aylaanne]

nak

DS was 25lbs by 6mo--and then 25lbs at 12mo. I was nursing a lot but also giving him purees. He's gotten much taller and started gaining weight slowly,

[Jeannabna]

This exact thing just happened to my sister and her son. From 6 to 9 months, no gain. They referred him to a GI doctor and had him tested for CF (which was silly because she was not a carrier and he had a PKU that came back fine) and they found no reason, he just had his 12 month appt and has gained like 4 pounds. He is still low on the charts, but he hit all of his milestones right on time and she just accepted it for what it is. Breast milk is better than food, but if you do want to do solids, I would just give her fatty things like avocado and when she is old enough, egg, cheese, yo baby.

You might also want to do things to make sure your supply is good. Simple things like oatmeal, resting more and drinking more water. And make sure she nurses long enough on one side to get plenty of the fatty hind milk before you switch sides. Hope this helps.