how to gain weight

[lisa_mom]

Hello.  My daughter is 7 1/2 months old.  She was 25 inches long and 13 lbs 8 ounces one month ago at 6 1/2 months and in the 4th percentile for weight.  She weighed 14 lbs today one month later.

She was in the 40th percentile at 3 months prior to my return to work.  I've nursed her exclusively until 6 months and then I started giving her 2 formula bottles of 4 to 5 ounces each in addition to the 23 ounces of milk I send to daycare.  We also started giving her solids at 6 months.  So she's getting 23 ounces of breastmilk, 8 to 10 ounces of formula and approximately 5 ounces of baby food (veges, fruit, rice cereal) a day.  We try to give her more, but she won't take in more than 2.5 ounces of baby food at a time.  Do you have any suggestions for how to make her gain weight?  Is she eating enough?  Her hemoglobin was 11 at the last appt.  They give her solids and milk together at day care - maybe 6 ounces of milk is too much for her to eat at the same time as the baby food?  I'd be very grateful for any help or advice you can give.

[Renee Radenberg]

Her weight is just under the 5th percentile and her height is on the 5th percentile for her age. For her age she should be drinking 6-8oz of breast-milk or infant formula 5 times a day which equals about 30-40ozs a day. Suggest feeding her the baby food only 3 times a day as her meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and the breast-milk / infant formula between meals and after she has finished eating the baby food. Hopefully she will eat more baby food and drink more breast-milk / formula during the day so she is able to gain weight.

[lisa_mom]

Renee, thank you very much for your reply.  I'm following up on the question regarding my daughter who is just under the 5th percentile for weight and 5th percentile for height.  She just doesn't seem to like the formula that much (we starting supplementing with formula about a month ago).  We try to give her formula before sending her to day care, but she'll usually only eat 2 ounces of it.  At night, she'll only eat 2 or 3 ounces of formula unless she's asleep and then she'll drink it all maybe because she doesn't taste it as much.  She normally will drink almost all of the 23 ozs of breastmilk I send to day care.  We're struggling with getting her to eat more.  I would appreciate any suggestions you may have.  

[Renee Radenberg]

Most breast-feed infants do not like infant formula and need it mixed with breast milk to accept it. If the bottle of infant formula tastes like breast milk she will accept the bottle more. Try mixing ¾ breast milk and ¼ infant formula at first. If she does accept it, then after a week or so, try doing a bottle mix of ½ breast milk, and ½ formula. If you wish, you can gradually go to a bottle mix of ¼ breast milk and ¾ formulas, then totally to all formula depending on how she accepts it. When you want to wean her off the breast milk you can follow the above also. Hope this helped you.

[lisa_mom]

Thank you very much Renee.  We just came from the doctor and she's gained 1 pd 3 ozs in the last month so she went from the 4th to the 8th percentile in a month.  Still small but she's trending in the right direction.  She suggested Isomeil from Similar (a soy based formula that is supposed to taste more like breastmilk as it's sweeter).  That may help some of your other readers.  Thank you for the advice!

[Renee Radenberg]

That is great news to hear she gained weight. What is important is that they gain weight at a steady rate regardless how slow. Thank you for sharing that with me.