My 7 m/o is underweight but not ready to BLW

[amberskyfire]

I did BLW with my daughter and was planning to with my son as well. My daughter was 10 months old when she started trying solids. My son is now 7 months, 8 days. He can barely sit up on his own and still falls over quite a bit. He has no pincer grasp. I do not feel that he is ready for solids at all.

We went to our (very natural-minded) pediatrician today and found that my son has dropped off of the charts for weight. He was always in the 25th percentile, but has dropped down and completely off the last couple of months. The ped. says I need to start giving him rice cereal to give him more calories, but I don't think he's ready.

I really am not sure how he can be not gaining. I feed him whenever he's hungry and whenever he wants to nurse. I have lots of milk. I even pump for another mom's baby. I asked if this could be the problem and the ped. said it might be but that women usually breastfeed twins just fine, so he wasn't sure.

The thing is, my son won't nurse more than he does now. He nurses until he's done and then he seems to have better things to do. He is very strong and doing everything he should be doing physically. He's very alert and active. He pees a lot and his urine is clear like water. He is rather skinny and people often comment on how thin he is, but that he seems to be doing fine. Even the ped. said he looks like he's doing great, just really thin. Also, he seems much more active than other babies I have seen. He is always moving and trying to climb me. He has been standing supported since he was about a month old. He always has to be up and going. Could this be keeping his weight down?

So what would you do? He's not even on the chart at all, so not in any percentile. He is 27.5" long and 14 lb 15 oz.

Should I try eating more? Maybe try to get him to nurse more? I don't think he will, but I can try. I tried tonight to give him a bottle of the milk I had pumped and he was very interested in the bottle itself (he has never seen one) but didn't like the fact that milk was coming out of it. LOL! So I guess he's not that hungry if he isn't going after it. Thoughts?

[HappyHappyMommy]

I'm bumping up your post. Anyone have experiences to share?

My DD didn't start solids until she was older (9-10 months) and was on the low end of weight percentiles for a while. One thing to ask if your ped is using a percentile chart for all children or for exclusively breastfed babies. My DD was on the very low end of weight percentiles for all babies, but not for exclusively breastfed babies. Also, from what you posted, it sounds like everything else is going well. If that's the case, I'd ask your ped what concerns he/she has; for me personally (and I think this is a very personal decision) if the only concern is that my child was showing was being off the charts in weight (and my child was, for example, meeting all development milestones, not showing signs of illness, etc.), I might be inclined to take a bit of a close-observation-but-no-change-now route. On the other hand, if my child was off the charts in weight and behind in development milestones and/or showing signs of potential illness, then I might do something else.

I'm sending good thoughts your way.

PS There's helpful information here about growth charts and the differences in weight gain between babies who are/were exclusively breastfed and other babies.
 

[amberskyfire]

Odd! This post has already gotten two replies, but now they are gone! Also, the edit I made to my original post is gone as well as my replies to posters. Strange! Could something have happened when the site was updated?

Thank you for the advice! :) Yes, our ped. uses the WHO chart for exclusively breastfed babies. I even checked it online to make sure.

I tried two days ago to give him some avocado mixed with breastmilk, but he spit out every drop, so he's definitely not ready. I was able to get him to take an ounce of my milk in a bottle yesterday. It took forever for him to finally get it all down, but he did. He just wanted to chew the nipple and he swallowed as the milk dribbled out. It took about an hour.

I really don't feel okay with plain rice cereal, so I got him some organic Earth's Best multigrain baby cereal which was one of my daughter's first foods when she BLWed. I'll wait a few weeks to try it out. I also got two jars of organic baby applesauce for him to try next month just to see if he wants it. Apple sauce was the very first food I let my daughter try and it went well so we'll see.

His head has grown from 16.3" to 17" in the last 3 months. Is that good or bad?
 

[amberskyfire]

Oh, never mind. I just checked the CDC website and his head circumference is spot-on in terms of growth. He's long and though he's off the chart for WHO breastfeeding standards, he's just on the CDC's chart, though still very low. He's very healthy and active! Here are two photos. He does look thinner than other babies we hang out with, but maybe because he's tall?

http://cdn.mothering.com/f/f7/f71ed75d_shade1.jpeg

http://cdn.mothering.com/7/77/77291fb3_shade2.jpeg

[LaughingHyena]

I have a tall skinny kid, she was just about keeping on the bottom of the chart while being around the 75th centile for height! She was always pretty awake and active though so I tried not to worry too much. Easier said than done when everyone seemed to comment on how skinny she was.

For us I felt it was OK to keep a close eye on things and see how it went as I had no other worries about her development. I did try and pay close attention to making sure I didn't miss feeding cues, especially when we were out she was easily distracted by everything going on around her
 

[amberskyfire]

Ugh. Distracted is the word. My little guy has to sit up every five seconds (that is not an exaggeration) and scan the room to make sure there's nothing going on that he might be missing.
 

[amberskyfire]

Update: I just weighed my little guy today and it looks like he has gained about a pound. I kept trying the solid foods and he has taken to them very well. I've been giving him Earth's Best organic multigrain cereal mixed with breastmilk or goat milk which he absolutely loves. Every now and then I'll give him some goat milk after he is done nursing. Even when he is distracted from nursing, the goat milk is novel enough that he will have about an ounce before he gets bored with it. He also loves avocado and bananas. I've been doing about a tablespoon of solids twice a day and an ounce of goat milk a day in addition to his usual feedings. Hopefully the extra bit will be what he needs to gain a little. His thighs do look chunkier to me even though he's still not made it onto the chart.

He is still going strong. He's super rambunctious and doesn't sit still a second. He is sitting up so well and loves to play with his toys for a few minutes by himself while I wash dishes or fold laundry a few feet away. He babbles like crazy and also will call me by saying "Mama!" He is very alert, bouncy and giggly and "rigid" for lack of a better word. When I pick him up, he stiffens his body and "Superman" flies when I hold him over my head. He is very, very strong. The more I watch him, the more ridiculous this whole "underweight" thing really seems to me. He seems so healthy and perfect and happy and I'm upset that the pediatrician, and soon, WIC are going to hassle me about his weight when I know he's just fine. :(