Concerned about weight...HELP! X-post

[xtara2003x]

X-posted because i'm desperate....

Alright mamas...we just went to my DD's 9 month checkup today...and it was awful to say the least.

They are concerned about her weight..and I guess I am too..even though I KNOW she eats all the time and she is NOT acting like she is hungry.

Birth: 7 lbs 13 ozs 21 inches long
2 weeks: 7lbs 12 ozs
2 months: 11lbs 6 ozs 22.5 inches long
4 months: 13 lbs 11 ozs 24.25 inches long
6 months: 14lbs 13 ozs 26 inches long
9 months: 15 lbs 7 ozs 27 inches long

She is not on any solids yet...as we feel it is best to weight until 11-12 months for solids (and bm has more calories per ounce than solids anyway).

She has met all of her developmental milestones just fine. She sits on her own, crawls, pulls up to standing position, does the sign for milk, waves hi and bye bye....

Would YOU be alarmed? What would you do!?

They also said that they think she is anemic...and wanted to test her blood but I refused. They said she's pale, and that her eyes look pale and that under her tongue is pale too. Her nail beds are BRIGHT pink...when I look at her eyes I have no idea what they are talking about, and she just has a VERY fair complexion. SHe always has had a very fair complexion. So do all her cousins. It runs in our family....

Help!! Advice? Anything? I am just worried sick...even though my chiro and his wife say not to worry...I still am. I am DEFINITELY upping my iron intake.....but still. I'm worried about it all...

*cries*

[frickchen]

Seems like they always pick on BF moms about iron and not gaining weight and what can we say? Since we're not giving our babies formula, we can't answer with, well, a formula of what we've given our baby to refute their opinion. Remember that you are the expert on your baby.

We can usually tell by the output if BF baby is getting enough : ) I'm not sure how much DD should be peeing and pooping at her age to give you any advice there though.

If you're nursing on her cues (day and night) and she's going for longer stretches (few hours at her age) then that doesn't sound hungry to me. BUT if she is wanting to nurse all the time then you may have a supply issue.

What did the Dr. want you to do? Was he concerned that she just isn't following a normal growth pattern or did he offer specific advice?

Again, only you know your baby and you have to follow your gut

[litlepick]

momma,
I went through the same thing my dd was born at 7lbs 14 oz she is going to be a year old next week and she weighs less than 15#

I actually had her ped tell me maybe I was producing low calorie breast milk (thats physically impossible) so I stopped taking her to well baby visits,

all I can say is, you know your baby, look at her, is she sick? no? then don't worry about it if she isn't eating well (producing lots of wet diapers) or if she isn't active or hitting developmental milestones then worry...

your her mom you know the difference, trust your gut

BTW, I am a nutritionist, I would recommend against upping your iron intake first because it has no effect on the amount of iron in your breastmilk and second because taking iron if you are not anemic is harmful to your health

[PatioGardener]

The first thing I would do if this were my baby would be to plot her weights ont he WHO growth chart http://www.who.int/childgrowth/stand...irls_p_0_2.pdf . If I saw that she was growing on a curve (I don't care which curve, just that she hasn't dropped off in her growth) then I would not be worried at all.

If she wasn't maintaining a curve, I would look into ways to increase my supply. There is great info about low milk and increasing supply in the sticky at the top of Breastfeeding challenges. I would work on getting more breastmilk into her. If my doctor was not supportive of breastfeeding (http://www.drjacknewman.com/index.ph...d=50&Itemid=76) I would change doctors!

As for the iron levels, I would test, only because anemia in babies has implications for development. Plus, when the test came back normal, the doctor would have to leave it alone! If it came back low, I would consider (based on how low) adding iron rich foods to baby's diet.

good luck!

[KirstenMary]

:

If she is dropping off her curve, I would get her blood tested. She could have a thyroid issue.

[xtara2003x]

bump...

[Peony]

If you didn't know what her weight was, would you have concerns about her development, health, etc...?


My DD's have both been on the thinner side. I have a 5y old that weighs a whopping 33lbs, she didn't hit 20 lbs until she was 1.5y old. The 15m old weighs about 20-21 lbs, so she is heavier then her sister was at her age. But from about 7 months until after she was one, DD2 gained 6 ozs. Yep, that's it for almost 6 months, she got taller, is healthy, but my doc was not concerned in the least, never even mentioned it. I did have her iron tested because she has had other health issues in the past, she is considered borderline, so we are working on that.

[xtara2003x]

I wouldn't be concerned at ALL if I never saw her weight number.

She crawls. She sits. She pulls to standing around furniture.

She signs for milk...she babbles...she is always HAPPY. She sleeps well....she naps twice a day...she is always GOING. She moves CONSTANTLY. She has been rolling around from room to room since 4 MONTHS! She started scooting around at 6 months....and crawling at 8.5 months. Neurologically and developmentally she's GREAT.

The numbers are just "alarming" to that pedi. I am taking her to a new pedi in 2 weeks. One that doesn't mind if parents vax or not, start solids around age 1...or co sleep.

If she says everything is okay....which I really believe she will..I'll be grateful. We will do the iron test with her though. I have no problems doing the iron test....it was the way the other woman came AT me. Like I had no choice. She scared me and I didn't trust her.

*sigh*

The nurse practitioner actually called CPS on us. Seriously. It was horrible. CPS even said that the case will be dropped as soon as we get the second pediatricians opinion on our DD.

I KNOW there is nothing wrong. If anything..if she looks a bit pale it was because we had just had the flu and she was getting over the flu. She had a milk temp, one smelly diaper, and she was more clingy than normal. I had the flu for 24 hours really really bad...DH had it for 3 days really bad. I think that's why she looked even paler than normal.

*sigh*

I just want her to be healthy...and I know she is.....so I cant wait to go to the new pedi and get this all behind us.

Thanks for the replys!