Low percentile weight baby and starting solids

Hi everyone. We had our six month (really six and a half months) appointment today and Lucy has shot up to the 33% for weight and Maren is went down a percentile to 4%. We are feeling really comfortable with Lucy and where she is eating-wise and weight-wise. We are also totally comfortable that Maren might grow up to be really slight for his age...we don't care one bit if he is tiny, to us he's a perfect size.

Our only concern is that at such a low weight to age, we feel pressured to make sure we stay on top of feeding him enough and we're always wondering if he could or should eat more. How do you trust that your baby is getting what they need?

Also, we are just starting solids and he loves to grab the spoon and try to feed himself, resulting in not much food getting into his mouth. Should we just back off with spoon feeding and try letting him somehow feed himself? What foods would we use for that?

 

I would keep feeding him his usual milk feeds and put solids on his tray- only for a tasty toy at this point. Avocado, hard boiled egg, lightly steamed veggies are all good. I rented a Baby Led Weanig book from the library that broke down the philosophy very well.

GL!

 

I had very small twins. At that age solids or baby food was for practice more than calories. I gave each baby 2 spoons and I fed with another. Of course they wanted the one I had so it took about 12 spoons a meal!! As long as he is thriving in development I won't worry about weight much. My twins ate going on 6 and still thin but doing great!

 

Baby Led Weaning is great! Trust your baby. And read that book....it makes sense!

 

Agree with the above and adding that I generally try to gauge whether they are getting enough based on output not input. Are they peeing and pooping enough? Are they gaining weight? Are they hitting their milestones? That will tell you more than how many ounces they are eating.

 

Ouce for ounce, breastmilk or formula will out-calorie any other food at this stage, except maybe avacado. If anything, I'd be more inclined to not rush into adding table foods to the mix so he isn't filling up on the lower calorie baby foods and then drinking less breastmilk/formula. Just trust him! If his development is good than that's all you need to know - offer a variety of healthy foods and follow his cues.

I agree about baby led weaning - skipping purées entirely and going straight to table foods is a great way to go.

 

I know when my son dropped down in the weight percentiles, I felt like something wasn't right. I knew he wasn't eating enough and he didn't ever seem like he was "full" after feeds. But he was losing weight and it was obvious he just wasn't getting enough. For a while we had to add stuff to pumped breast milk to give it more calories. Eventually he leveled out still sitting below the 5%. We tried and tried to "fatten" him up, and well...now at 8 yrs old (and 46lbs 7%) we realized that's just who he is. He is a skinny kid. We fought for a long time to keep weight on him (appetite stimulants and pediasure) but its just how he is supposed to be. As long as he stays on his own curve and you feel that he is actually getting enough trust your instinct. We were late starters to solids (mostly because they were preemies) but I think the avocado would be a great start to get some healthy fat into him!

 

I have a little one as well - he actually is on growth hormone.

However he always told us when he wanted more to eat - so we followed that lead.

I agree with Rachel, I would not worry about the solids just yet - keep him on the bm/formula. But I wouldn't push him to eat - I personally think that just leads to control issues. With Jake he always ate enough - our issue was just he sometimes waited until 8pm

 

I have to agree with everyone about baby led weaning, I did it with my littlest one and it's been so easy. I think he started later, though, around 8 or 9 months. I went by his cues on when he was ready to eat, watching us intently while we ate, grabbing for the food, etc.

As far as the growth curve, my twins' first pediatrician always told me not to worry about the percentiles, as long as they are each growing at a continuous curve of their own then they're fine. They are still both on the small side, under the 10th percentile for weight and height, but I don't worry about it. They are growing evenly, although slowly, and everything else developmentally is going great.