OT - Confused about solids and BF

[Fimail]

Ying - try here at askdrsears.com http://www.askdrsears.com/html/0/T000100.asp

You can also submit a question which gets answered in the "FAQ of the week" section

Fiona

[~*Bron*~]

offering solids first (before a breastfeed) assumes you'll wean at 12m

justin started solids @ 9 months, xanthia was 11.5m, josie will likely be similar.

and it's very normal for a bf baby to slow right down with weight gains when they;re this age

[Ying]

Thanks Fiona

[ScarletRubies]

Yup. Nothing much to add here, but as Joh said, the solids you are giving now are not for the nutritional value but because your bub is learning a new skill. The nurse at my clinic told me this morning that a baby is actually using most of the calorific energy in the food to break it down and digest it, so the net gain is only a few calories (because the quantity is so small).

My bub is 5 months old and his weight has plateaued for nearly three months now, so I am thinking I might start solids later this month - I would rather wait until 6 months or more. I don't know where health departments find these old-fashioned nurses, and more to the point, I don't understand why they aren't expected to keep up with current research. It pretty pathetic when their clients have more current information than they do.

[susumama]

Far out weighing a baby every 3 weeks? That nurse has way too much time on her hands LOL. It's also quite common for babies to lose a bit of weight after starting solids, nothing you can feed them now will have the calorie content of bm. It doesn't matter if you bf before /during/after a solid 'feed' (feeds at this age are just tastes) they do however need breastmlk in their tummy 'around' the time of a solid feed if you want her to actually digest the solid food. Babies don't produce their own ptyalin (an enzyme in saliva that digests carbohydrate) until around 12 months and they don't have much hydrochloric acid (to digest meat) until 18 months. Breastmilk contains enzymes to digest food. Aren't we clever?
www.kellymom.com has a lot of information about breastmilk and feeding etc, it links to the research so you can read the actual articles, ABA is also an excellent resouce (of course!) Sophie refused food until around 14-15 months, DH did a lot of research and found no evidence that we should worry about it. LOL he likes the hard facts whereas i can just look at her and see that she can thrive on fresh air and mothers milk
I could go on and on about the effects of feeding and the release of insulin and growth hormone....but really I just get more and more boring.

[AliP]

Originally Posted by rebeccamum

Sorry to hijack your thread Ali...

No worries Ying - it's confusing isn't it?

Originally Posted by susumama

Far out weighing a baby every 3 weeks?

Yeah I know - it only happened because we were going to Fiji and I didn't want to start solids before we went and so she weighed her before and afterwards. I kind of wish she hadn't though because the nil weight gain had me worried for a couple of days. Then I realised that there is nothing wrong with her and to stop worrying!!!

Thanks to all of you for your advice. Your posts have confirmed that my instincts were right