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My LO is just shy of 5 months, and not yet 12lbs. She is in the 10-15 percentile and my doc is fine with her size. She's just a small baby, chicken legs and all.

Maddox dropped off right at the beginning and then from 4-6 months he gained less than a pound too, I think it was 12oz. He's in the ~18% for his weight and his pediatrician thinks he's in perfect health. We were on a failure watch list during the first month.

He's gone from 75% in height to 25% and 50% in weight to 18% No one has bat an eyelash.

I absolutely would not go to a fast-flow nipple, if you want to keep breastfeeding. This issue comes up a lot in the BF support group at my hospital. The lactation consultants say not to go past the newborn nipple. Because he is 6m old, you can start to introduce solids. I would focus on healthy fats like avocado for your first foods.

If I were in your shoes, I would find a new pediatrician who is pro-BF and follows the AAP recommendations. I'd also go see an independent lactation consultant to see if there's anything else you can do and to see how much he's really getting during a feed.

The 6 month slow down is "around" 6 months, not necessarily after 6 months. Every baby is different and sometimes they don't really set into their own weight curve until after 6-12 months.

Above all, trust your intuition!

Good luck, momma

interesting article http://www.babble.com/baby/baby-feeding-nutrition/breastfed-baby-growth-chart-weight/

WHO growth chart for breastfed baby
http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/data/who/grchrt_boys_24lw_9210.pdf

Mrs Stroller said it so well... I ditto all her suggestions!

I've been there before too. My EBF LO's weight stalled at around 4-5 months. I was worried as heck, though many people told me not to worry. I still did though, and I'm sure you will too. Just keep doing what you're doing and try not to get frustrated. If he's peeing and pooping fine and hitting milestones, it's all good. He could be finding his curve...

With solids, I gave her lots of avocados, mashed potatoes, things cooked with butter.... It wasn't til she got a good number of teeth and was eating table food at about 9 months that she started nursing and eating better.

Hang in there, mama!

I agree to check what charts the docs are using. It sounds like although he may not be gaining/growing much if he is hitting the developmental milestones which doesn't sound FTT; my understanding is that most FTT babies are pretty listless and don't meet milestones. Also, what are you and DH's body types? I was worried DD wasn't gaining enough until someone put it into perspective for me: she gained 1" between every check-up even though she didn't gain much weight, since DH is 6'2" and 150# she takes after him (not me who is 5'6" and was around 180# prepregnancy).

@irene: my OB said that the 2 month percentile should be taken with a grain of salt, so to speak, as even a small difference in weight can make quite a difference in percentile. So, for example, babies who have just eaten vs not eaten, just pooped vs not pooped can make a difference.

It sounds like your doc is saying that if your baby doesn't maintain weight percentile in the future you'll look into things, not that things are trouble now, right? So don't worry about that until you cross that bridge. (Easier said than done?) Plus, now you'll start to feed baby other food, so that might make a difference too.

Is baby still on a nursing strike? (You said you are EBF, but talk about buying bigger nipples for your bottles.) I would try to get back to natural nursing, if possible.

I watch babies over several visits before I call failure to thrive. In the first 6 months, babies tend to find their natural curve... So if your little on treks along at this new lower point, that's better than continuing to drop. Trust your gut. If you think LO is fine, then it's probably true!

@irene: When we started project "fat baby" we made a couple of rules.

1. He always had food available to him. We had snack cups that were constantly filled. He had a sippy with milk (breast or formula though he refused formula 2 weeks after starting it) or boob. We added olive oil or coconut oil to all of his purees (for more fat and calories since he can't have milk). We also cooked with lots of oil and pureed that.

2. He started co-sleeping so he could eat all night long. He was too busy to eat during the day so we decided to reverse cycle. We had to breastfeed (MSPI) and he had to eat and I had to work so I couldn't be awake all night. At 15 months old, he eats 5 times still.

3. Clusterfeeding is our friend. We started nursing at 5, 6, 7 again just to top him off. And also in the morning 5, 6, 7 (he slept with us). It helped just get those few more calories in. It also helped my supply.

It is possible move up at this point. We have done it. It is a lot of hard work to get there but it was totally worth it.

If you aren't seeing other symptoms (bad stool we knew he wasn't digesting his food, excessive crying like he is hungry). I would just work on it and keep up the good work.

@irene: Yes he was officially labeled as failure to thrive at 7 months old after dropping from the 50th percentile to the 0.5 percentile. So we started this at 7 months old. He has moved into the 3 percentile at 15 months old. He has gained 5 pounds between 9 months (when we gave him formula) and 15 months old. Only 1 month we didn't gain it and that was when we trialed cheese.

I think food trumps sleep personally. You can do what your doctor doesn't like (or find a doctor better aligned with your philosophies). My doctor doesn't like that we co-sleep but I can't be up that often. My doctor doesn't know that we did baby led weaning.

I don't think it is too early. We started adding it after he had been eating for 2 months so he started refusing purees about a month later.

He never refused to eat. He wouldn't eat as long necessarily. but it helped increase my supply.

As for supply, I felt mine had lowered as well. I believe that the co-sleeping, nursing constantly helped mine increase. Now, I feel like I have a great supply at 15 months old. I was even leaking the other day. Nursing as often as possible even for a week or 2, will help with the supply. And probably increase the fat content. But you don't know unless you try.

It sounds like his poops are fine. My son wouldn't poop for a week then would poop a log and then would follow that with 3 or 4 completely liquid poops with full chunks (not necessarily abnormal but with the pattern was). So he had constipation followed by diahrea.

Do you have a lactation consultant or a La Leche League you could ask some of these questions to? They know alot about breastfeeding. I take my advice from many places and then use what is useful for us. So, I don't do everything La Leche recommends but I also don't follow the doctor 100%.

@irene: Give cluster feeding a try! Your body will adjust if you give it some time. I would try to fit in 2 feedings after work/before bed and overnight if possible. The best thing is to push calories! Maybe he can't handle larger amounts so maybe limiting each feeding to 2-3 ounces but more frequently would be best?

@irene: It is probably a good time to also try extending feedings. I think we were at least 4 hours apart with feedings at 6 months old (except for cluster feeding at night).

I know the whole snack vs proper meals thing and I struggled with it. But for us it was more important to have food available. I don't feel like it has been an issue for us. We also found that we had good success with nursing first and then doing solids right before a nap. He was hungry but not starving.