11 day old keeps losing weight

[economymode]

My daughter is 11 days old and was weighed this morning. She was 3.8 kg at birth and by day 5 had dropped to 3.69kg, which is normal and to be expected. But then this had dropped further to 3.67kg this morning.

She is bottled fed, a mix of expressed breast milk and formula.

HV suggested fitting in an extra feed per day, which we have tried but she has just brought all of her latest feed back up.

I thought she was feeding well, 60-90ml every 2.5-3 hours and twice in the night.

But now I'm paranoid something isn't right and am worried. I never had such worries with my son.

I left a message with midwives around noin but won't hear from them until the morning.

Does anyone have experience of similar?

[noblegiraffe]

When will she be weighed again? There were concerns about my DD's weight and she was weighed again 2 days later (at which point she had put on some weight as we went all out with feeding) and then regularly after that until she regained birthweight. I don't think the HV should have left you with a baby that has lost weight without a follow-up planned?

Two feeds in the night doesn't sound much (although it depends on what you're calling night) I'd keep to every 2.5-3 hours at night too, see if that helps.

[tiktok]

economy, it's definitely cause for concern when a baby continues to lose weight - but sometimes scales or the person who weighs the baby are not accurate, and the drop in weight is very small, too (only 20g) so it's difficult to draw conclusions.

The HV clearly thinks the most likely reason is just that your dd needs a bit more to eat and nothing more serious, and you're hearing from the midwives tomorrow, so you have got good input there.

Would you feel ok about breastfeeding her in addition to the bottles - or is there a reason why she is not breastfeeding 'direct' and having expressed? She'd be less likely to throw back a breastfeed.

Hope things get better.

[economymode]

thanks both.

My husband and i are just baffled. Waiting to hear from midwives as to when she will be weighed again. hv just said to contact midwives, as i am still under their care. But they told me to see hv at clinic for weighing today.

she has expressed milk as we haven't got the hang of bf, and i suffer from anxiety and depression in a proper way, so it is better for my mental health to avoid the stress that ensues.

Thank you again

[tiktok]

Hope you get some decent help and info, economy.

I understand about expressed rather than direct related to your mental health, I think - is it because you want to see the amount of milk in order to measure it?

The difficulty here is that this info does not help - no one can say what your baby needs at any one feed, except in a very, very approximate way. And it doesn't sound as if you are made any less anxious by this, either - can you discuss it with someone and see if you could try a different approach?

[economymode]

That's kind of it, TikTok. I don't really want to go into the details, but expressing is the best solution for us.

Anyway, midwife is coming round this pm. I'm trying her on the next size up teats, in case it's too much like hard work sucking it out of one hole and she just gives up. Fingers crossed.

[tiktok]

My fingers crossed too :)

[economymode]

Not getting anywhere. She'd lost a little more today and is now falling asleep mid-feed and is impossible to wake - sleeps through being stripped down, nappy changes etc.

MW said she looks healthy and only concern was the weight loss. Took her to gp to rule out chest infection as she does seem chesty, but he gave the all clear.

She's had one good feed today, 100ml in 30 mins. Everything else has been a struggle. She's now fast asleep after 60ml and won't wake for love nor money.

MW seemed confident that faster teats would help, but they don't seem to make any difference.

She's on course to have just 6 feeds in 24 hours, averaging around 80ml each.

We are going to Saturday clinic at hospital tomorrow, assuming they phone us with an appt.

Don't really know what to do now.

[noblegiraffe]

I'm no expert, just been in the same position with a sleepy baby. If she wasn't interested in feeding, I'd put a bit of milk on a spoon and drip it into her mouth, sometimes a couple of teaspoons. When she tasted the milk she perked up a bit and remembered what she should be doing.

Hope this works for you too, it's really worrying when they won't eat.

[Droflove]

I don't think you need to worry yet at all. My fella did the same but worse and he is now just back to birth weight at 28 days. Apparently anything up to 28 days is normal. Just keep feeding as much as possible and I'm sure you will see a turn around and positive numbers soon.