help me help my friend - 9mo old not gaining well

[EmTheWife]

My friend's baby is 9 months tomorrow; at his check-up today he was 17lbs 3oz, up from 16lbs at 6 months (born at 8lbs 1oz)...so 1 1/4 lb weight gain - not horrible, but certainly not good.  She's asked me if I know any ways to increase his weight gain.

Back story - she has mix fed him since birth, but primarily breastfed, without supply problems.  She started him on solids at 5 months, juice(!) at 5.5 months.  Over the last 1.5 months, she states that he seems like he wants to constantly nurse again, and that he's always hungry; she does her best to nurse on demand (so she says).

His pees and poops are more than adequate, no know food allergies for baby, though multiple for her.

My recommendations will be as follows - what am I missing?

 - eliminate juice entirely - that's 8oz(juice+water) of non-caloric intake

 - eliminate carbohydrates (cheerios, pasta, rice, etc.)

 - coat veggies in olive or coconut oil

 - push avocados over other fruits

 - breastfeed on demand, at least 10-12x /day, and at least 1x /night

 - co-sleep (she usually does anyhow)

anything else?

Thanks a ton!

[Mosaic]

Um, I'd advise she not worry about it! Some kids grow in fits and spurts, and his weight gain has probably slowed due to motility if he has been crawling and cruising, etc. I do see that this is on the lower side of his curve, but most peds I know of don't worry if one check-up is a bit on the lower side, provided that there aren't any other signs of feeding or health issues.

I absolutely agree to eliminate all juice and nurse on demand, but I certainly wouldn't insist on 11-13 times in 24 hours if he's not into it (if he only "snacks," I'd worry he wouldn't get the fatty hindmilk). It wouldn't hurt to encourage avocados over, say, applesauce, but otherwise I see no reason to make drastic changes to his solids diet either. Maybe encourage her to time the solids meals to be in between nursing sessions so that he doesn't fill up on solids instead of calorie-rich BM. I'd also make sure that her supply was still good... if he's hungry all the time, perhaps she's getting her fertility back or something else is causing a temporary decrease in her milk supply.

[Marissamom]

I wouldn't eliminate carbs unless that's the majority of what he's eating. my DD actually started gaining a ton after we started doing more carbs, but I also need a fairly high carb intake, I just try to make sure they're more whole grains and stuff. is he eating meats? if not, now is a pretty good time to introduce them, and they're packed with the protein that babies need. also, try to stick to tablefood and not purees, purees are not very calorie dense. 

[Fly Girl]

I also wouldn't worry about it that much. He actually sounds very similar to my DD. She was 8lbs3oz at birth, 16 lbs at 6 months and 17lbs8oz at 9 months. My ped wasn't concerned at all. While she is only at 20% for weight on the CDC's growth chart, she is 50% on WHO's growth chart. BF babies tend to grow faster in the first 6 months and then their growth slows down from 6-12 months. Is her DS crawling? Cruising? I would definitely recommend cutting out the juice and maybe add in some good fats. Maybe he is hitting a growth spurt right now and thats why he's nursing a lot.

[HappyMonkey]

My daughters weight gain also slowed alot at 9 months.. but it was just fine!!