Ugh, my family is soooooooooo annoying. Xander is 5 months and EBF. He was born at 8 lbs 14 oz, so somewhere in the ~70th percentile for weight. At 4 months, he was down to the 17th percentile. My pediatrician is totally not concerned. She says this is normal for breastfed babies, especially once they start STTN, which Xander is doing. She wasn't concerned and I'm not concerned.

But my husband and my mom both think that small babies = underfed babies! My husband keeps insisting we send more milk to daycare (we send 5oz bottles) and insists that Xander is hungry, even though he's obviously not. To try to put my husband at ease, I went to an LC this past Friday to do a weighted feed to find out how much Xander usually drinks from me. He only drank 4oz! To me, this was proof that 5oz bottles are PLENTY for Xander. But to my husband, this was just proof that I am not providing enough for our son!

Last night, Xander woke up an hour earlier than normal. My husband was CONVINCED it was because he was hungry and insisted that I go feed him and that Xander obviously doesn't get enough milk from me and that after I'm done breastfeeding him at night, we should offer him a couple more ounces in a bottle. I tried to explain that Xander was PROBABLY just going through a sleep regression and not actually hungry, and I went to tend to him and was able to get him to fall back asleep without nursing!

So I've told my mom all about this stuff, in the hopes of gaining her support, but I have failed! She thinks the 17th percentile ALSO means that Xander doesn't get enough to eat. She thought I should send more milk to daycare as well. When I told her about the LC visit and that Xander didn't need more milk, she suggested starting solids instead! And THEN she implied that I was being stubborn and starving Xander and that daycare was going to call social services on me because I "don't let them feed him when he's hungry" which isn't even true! Daycare has told me he gets hungry early - I told them to feed him when he's hungry - they continue to feed him every 3 hours - how is any of that me being abusive??

I'm just so sick of people giving me grief about this! Xander's a perfectly happy baby! He's meeting his developmental milestones and sleeps through the night and always wakes up in a good mood! Just because he's slim doesn't mean he needs more food!!!!