my baby underweight due to bf ?

[huishih]

Dear mummies,

I have been breastfeed my baby for 11 months. Last week I brought him for vaccination and found out his weight is below average. He is 8.7kgs and average should be 9kgs. Doctor said maybe due to the breastmilk , he lack of nutritions, means I should take supplement if I want to continue bf my baby , eg, calcium pills. Because of this , I am thinking of stop feeding him breastmilk and give him formula. But some of my friends told me , that is not true . Anyone can give me more suggestions? Should I take supplement?

[didy]

Hmm even if your baby is not underweight you should take supplements when you bf. not only good for baby is also good for you

[Miaeko]

have you started semi-solid food?

[huishih]

Yes , he is eating porridge lunch and dinner . I add fish to his porridge everyday. even I cook fish bones soup to cook his porridge.
o eat as usual , just normal rice , veg . only I didn't take supplement. Really worry about my baby not enough nutrition.

[huishih]

Hi , what kind of supplement? Any brand ? Where can I buy ?

[Iseetol]

Apart from fish, did you add meat and veg to the porridge? You can also use pork or chicken bone for the stock. Since he is eating solid oridi, the nutrients required can come more from the food he eats directly. you should continue bf...

[April Fool mum]

I drink An mum milk those milk powder type. You may try

[huishih]

Hi , thanks for reply. I am quite upset, bf should be the best for baby . dont't know why my baby below average. Last time My eldest is taking formula doesn't have this kind of problem. What kind of supplement? And should I take supplement?

I add pork , fish , broccoli , sometimes potatoes , carrot into his porridge, both for his lunch and dinner , and add dha inside his milk. He take 120-150 ml of milk , not much . It make me feel discourage to continue feed him.

[RamblingMummy]

Hi there, dont't b discouraged. Just continue to feed your bby as per normal. The thing i realise about doctors are tht not all of them have the same opinion about the same matter.

My sister In law and i delivered one day apart. When she brought her son for checkup at 1yr at Kandang Kerbau Hospital, she was told tht the son was underweight n need to monitor. I brought my girl to a pediatrician(my girl was much lighter n i was on full breast milk), n the pediatrician said she was fine. A lil bit on the small side but nothing to worry about.

So dont tink too much about it. Remember, breast milk is still the best

[Iseetol]

Based on what you say, I dont't think the 'prob' is the breastmilk. I think it's just the quantity of milk and food that your baby eats. And every kid is different. Their appetite is different. My 2nd son was on breast milk till 18m, and his weight is like 90 percentile throughout... my 3rd one was on breast milk till only 8m, and he went from 95 percentile to 40 percentile... I was also very worried for his weight drop when he was around 8m. Then I realised that it's prob due to the qty of milk, cos he doesnt like to drink milk (both breast milk or formula). His weight is improving slightly now at 18m (10.5 kg). My trick was to let him drink milk from syringe instead of bottle. So, I believe the prob is not due to breast milk. If you have breast milk, you should continue to give him. Save money and yet giviing him immunity. To reassure yourself, just take anmum or any other lactating milk as supplement for yourself. And there is no harm letting him try formula milk for just one feed?? Dont get too stressful over this. Plus, really, when they r over 6m, the main nutrients come from the solid food that they eat...

[ast0212]

Babies come in all sizes, just like us because we were all babies once. How many of us were actually on the 50th percentile??

If your baby is happy, active, alert, gaining some weight over months and generally healthy I wouldn't worry about how much they weigh. Breastmilk is blamed for a lot of things - fat babies, skinny babies, crying babies, babies who never sleep, clingy babies, babies with allergies.... whatever it is, blame it on breastmilk. It's sad really..... I guess it is because scientists are still finding out stuff about breastmilk every day (and it is all good stuff) whereas formula is man-made and so we know exactly what's in it (a load of stuff that babies can't digest very easily!)

From experience my son breastfed till 18 months. He was always on the skinny side and super active. He was on the 3rd percentile for weight for a couple of months too! But I knew it wasn't breastmilk, it was genetics because I was a skinny baby too. With my 4 month old daughter she is on the chubby side like her father, she's on the 50th percentile. Both are breastfed on demand and yet they are so different!

I dont't trust doctors or nurses who base everything on charts because every baby is different just as we all are too. Charts are helpful but it doesn't mean our kids must sit perfectly on it.

Chubby or skinny babies, breastmilk is still the best food for babies and wins hands down over formula! Breastmilk is the most important food for the first year of their life. dont't worry too much about solids till after your baby turns 1

[Alisa]

yes, i believed breast milk is the best! Do you mummies seen the news report about giving breast milk for 6mths will have higher chances of allergy to peanut?? Upon see this, my mother in law quickly run to my room! Diaoz...

[ast0212]

The report is flawed and it is sad that people actually believe it, especially those who oppose breastfeeding. How about the possibility of breastmilk curing cancer patients? And recently they found embryonic-like stem cells in breastmilk. Unfortunately those real news dont't make big headlines.

[Jode]

My baby was also 'underweight' during her vaccination at 9mths. She was a preemie, born small and light. From 1mth onwards, she was classified in the 50th-75th percentile. At 9mth, she dropped to 20th percentile. pediatrician said she is a small baby and if she is eating/drinking well and playing well, it should be ok.
I was worried at first. But concluded that charts are just guidelines to how heavy majority of the babies should weigh. I still believe firmly that I am giving my baby girl the best I can offer, which is breastmilk.
Perhaps you can adjust the amount of milk and solids that you give your baby? I realised that mine can actually take more, so i slowly increased the quantity.
Hope you do not get discouraged from continuing to breastfeed.

[lyra]

Alisa, yah right?! Our parents' generation think everything reported on the News is the Truth and the Only Truth! My dad will buy any medications or supplements that were advertised on the Radio! Sigh!

Agree with ast0212. As long as your baby is active and healthy, he's fine. I used to be very thin as a child and I need to see the doctor every year for bordering on underweight and normal weight but I'm perfectly healthy. I guess the charts they used aren't totally conclusive of how healthy we are. I read in Kelly Mom (I forgot exactly where) that breastfed baby's weight may increase quickly or slow down at different periods so maybe when you weigh your baby next month, he's higher on the chart again, so it isn't a cause for worries unless you notice your baby becoming lethargic, fussy or having unusual behaviors. If he's healthy, and active, he should be fine!

[huishih]

Hi , thanks for all of you . My husband keep saying my baby is small size . And I am not sure whether he is hungry or his habit wake-up to drink milk at midnight. Eg , he sleep at 10 pm . I give him drink 120ml before sleep. Then he will wake-up at 1am to drink 150ml and 4.00 am to drink 150am. Early morning 0800 am he will drink 150ml then follow by porridge at 11am , 4 pm milk and porridge for dinner 6.30 pm. He eat quite a lot of solid foods. Only milk , he drink 150ml, I give him more, he doesn't want. I didn't give him latch on since two weeks ago because he start to bite me.
Doctor gave me enfagrow , ask me to let him try . Err... probably let him try one meal at night . I see my baby small size , I am very upset.

[lyra]

Some ppl also say my baby is small size but he's above average for height n weight when we measure at polyclinic. Appearance can be deceiving! dont worry about it. My baby also bite but I taught him nursing etiquette like saying "no" loudly when he bite n stopping nursing when he bite telling him "if you bite, no milk milk". As long as he still wants to nurse, he'll soon learn not to bite mummy. So far, he hasn't bitten me for many months.