Baby losing weight...anyone been through this?

[cherrypez]

Hi everyone. DD was born 9 days ago, went to SCBU for a couple of hours after ELCS, then came to me fully dressed so no skin to skin. Feeding seemed to be going ok, she but my milk didn't come through properly until day 4/5. During this time she was alert, settled and no one seemed concerned...in fact, we went home the day after C section.

On day 5 she was weighed by the community midwife and had lost 14% of her birth weight. Midwife was unconcerned, but explained that hospital protocol meant she had to phone the registrar to ask advice. I was present for the call, and she explained I was an experienced bf mum, baby was alert etc. Registrar said we had to go straight back and report to SCBU, with a view to staying overnight. Hey ho.

So off we went, 24 hrs later her weight was static, another 24 hrs later she had lost 5g but we were allowed home by a supportive consultant. It's now day 9 and midwife has been today...baby has lost 65g.

The midwife has said the following:

1. Baby is in the hands of an experienced mum, she's known me since my eldest (18yo) was born, she is confident that I know what I'm doing.
   
2. She will be back on Sunday to weigh DD, and has left the scales here so that the consistency of calibration is there; she thinks this is part of the issue, DD has now been weighed on 4 sets of scales.
   
3. She sees no need to contact hospital and thinks doctors panic through fear of litigation.
   

Obviously I don't want to go back into hospital but I feel like utter shit, like I'm putting my beliefs before DD iyswim...should I just put her on formula? She was only 6lb 12 at birth so I feel like I'm letting her down. Can't stop crying and just wondered if anyone has any thoughts or experiences. Thanks in advance.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

You poor thing, what a rough start you are having .

A few things stand out from your post she is bright and alert. That's very good surely? Certainly not something to cause concern.

Shes been weighed on 4 different sets of scales. Scales, as you know, can vary greatly, she may even not have lost that much.

You are an experienced Mum. This too is great, you'll know to feed on demand, offer both breasts etc.

If you do want to top her up, have you thought of expressing and trying her with that?

[Racheyg]

Hi cherry,

you post is so similar to what happened to me with ds2.

ds2 born elcs at 9lb 14oz. lots of skin to skin, latched well and was released the next day. midwife came round day 3 and he lost 13%. day 5 he lost a further 3 oz. then stayed the same foe 2 weeks with weekly weigh ins. midwife called hospital and we chatted on loud speaker and the pead sounded unconcerened and told me to continue on demand feeding with weekly weigh ins.

he reached his birth weight at 9 weeks and at 11 weeks he weighed 11lb 2oz. still low on centile chart but he is alert and thriving. im still feeding on demand every hour or so and he hardly sleeps and have been told by family and friends to give formula as he needs to be in a routine but as long as he is putting on weight and thriving i will continue.

sorry long story short i feel as long as you lo is slowly putting weight on, alert, dirty nappies ect carry on doing what you are doing. good luck xx