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Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Infant feeding

Defective scales?

43 replies

WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 19:18

I had my week old DS weighed today as by the weekend he'd lost 12.5%. In the weighin on Sundsy after some latch help and EBM top up, he'd made a gain of 40gm. However today, he'd lost that again. BUT, and this is a big but, the mat asst said when weighing him that she had to take 50gm from his scale weight to get the true weight - why on earth would she do this? We're now back on expressing/top up cycle - all this for a baby who is feeding often, with the right number of wet/dirty nappies, who has content alert phases and who comes off the breast seemingly sated (with a dribble of milk at the corner of his mouth.)
He's being weighed again tomorrow. What am I missing here?

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tiktok · 03/03/2015 19:29

Gosh,how confusing.

No idea why the mat asst would make that calculation.

Hopefully you'll see the midwife tomorrow not the mat asst, and take the opportunity to discuss everything, and to reassess. Dont forget to dscribe what happened with the calculations.

Babies need to be weighed naked, on digital scales, and the weight assessed in the whole context of behaviour and feeding effectiveness, and wees/poos.

HeyMicky · 03/03/2015 19:32

Stop going. If the nappies are fine and he's happy there's absolutely no reason to have him weighed

WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 19:34

Thanks tiktok. I wish I'd thought to ask at the time. When I spoke to the mw on the phone (only the mat asst came to the house) she said to concentrate on how he seems rather than the numbers. Which is all well and good, but I'd like the scales to reflect all our hard work!

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stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 19:34

Can you arrange to see the Infant Feeding Co-ordinator? She could observe a feed to try and work out why his weight is dropping. Is feeding painful? Is he a sleepy baby?

WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 19:35

We've not been discharged from the hospital care yet so I don't think not going is an option.

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WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 19:38

No, he's alert for some feeds and sleepy for otters and has good settled alert phases too. Feeding isn't painful at all. Am going to the BFing cafe on Thursday.

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tiktok · 03/03/2015 19:38

Read the post, Mickey :(

This is a baby aged one week. With a recorded weight loss of 12.5 per cent at 5 days.

She can't just 'not go'.

Sheesh.

stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 19:40

Do you know who runs the cafe? Is there a La Leche League running locally? The leader might be able to observe a full feed.

Have you watched videos on Dr Jack Newman's site?

stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 19:41

He posted two good videos on FaceBook recently.

<a class="break-all" href="https://m.facebook.com/DrJackNewman?refsrc=www.facebook.com/DrJackNewman" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">m.facebook.com/DrJackNewman?refsrc=www.facebook.com/DrJackNewman

stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 19:44

If you pop your location into this link, you may find RL support locally.

www.laleche.org.uk/find-lll-group

WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 19:57

Thanks Stargirl. The cafe is run by the BFing team at the hospital, but I'll look into LLL too. And thanks for the vids too.

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stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 20:00

My eldest had a 19% drop in the first 10 days. It's so worrying. It was a lack of hind milk because the latch wasn't correct due to a tongue tie. I found breastfeeding her excruciatingly painful though.

WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 20:25

It's incredibly worrying. Added to the memories of failing to bf my first DS and then developing PND, and this is something of a trigger for me. We did have latch issues initially but since that was fixed and I was shown how to check he was swallowing etc he seemed to have turned a corner - nappies are good, he's contented and alert (occasionally) and I honestly thought we'd cracked it. It's so disheartening to hear that we've not done so.

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stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 20:30

Can I suggest phoning the LLL helpline tonight? I have phoned numerous times with both girls. I ended up mix feeding DD1, then formula feeding her followed by mix feeding again after i relactated. I phoned the helpline umpteen times!

stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 20:31

www.laleche.org.uk/content/telephone-helpline

stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 20:31

Have you heard of the exaggerated latch? Or Breast compressions?

WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 20:34

Yep am doing breast compressions at each feed as well. This might sound like a dumb question but how will LLL via phone be able to help? Isn't it something they need to be able to see?

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WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 20:35

Thank you for your help by the way, this is all so difficult and confusing.

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stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 20:37

I asked myself that when I was struggling with DD1. What the hell is the point?! We were admitted to hospital 10 days post birth as her weight drop was excessive and I had contracted sepsis from infective mastitis due to the nipple damage. I wish I had called!

I have phoned a few times with DD2 as I have battled oversupply and forceful letdown.

I always come off the phone with something new to try.

It can't hurt. It may help.

WorrisomeHeart · 03/03/2015 20:39

Good point. I'll give them a call after the next feed. I'll probably just bawl down the phone at them, but my DH will be happy someone else is getting the soggy shoulders.

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stargirl1701 · 03/03/2015 20:39

With DD1, as soon as talked about everything that had happened and what I failure I was, I cried at every call.

Breastfeeding is stupidly difficult. I cannot fucking believe we evolved to do it like this. Bloody crazy process.

tiktok · 03/03/2015 20:58

Bf helplines like LLL's and the others as well can be v helpful and supportive. In your case op I think you need to see and speak to the midwife in detail tomorrow and it may be you have turned the corner. It's not possible to tell and I think you have been badly supported so far with this stupid scales thing!

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NickyEds · 03/03/2015 21:12

I have no idea what's going on with the 50g deduction thing, never heard that one before. You need to get your baby weighed by a mw, you could well have "turned the corner". If not it does need to be addressed with a mw with bf feeding knowledge (it would be totally fool hardy to just "not go" with such a young baby).
I called nct and LLL when i had bf problems and they were great. I think rl support is invaluable (my sister helped me a great deal) but I found the helplines good for giving me a plan of action to help get rl support IYSWIM- good questions to ask mw etc.

Cobo · 03/03/2015 23:27

Could the mat asst have been deducting the weight of a nappy? I seem to remember that 50g was what they deducted when they were esrimsing how much my DS was weeing when we were in hospital by weighing nappies. And my community nurse offered to weigh DS in his nappy the other day and deduct the weight.

WorrisomeHeart · 04/03/2015 02:20

Potentially but he was naked!
His latch has been squiffy at the start of feeds tonight which is making me worry re nipple confusion with the bottle top ups. Add to that sleeping through my 3hr feed alarm so that it was 4 hrs before he was woken for a feed (it was him stirring that woke me) and the feelings of failure are running high here.

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