Hi - sorry in advance for the mammoth post.
My DS will be 9 weeks on weds and has up until now been exclusively bf. He was 7lb 4oz born, and lost 9.5% by day 4. He didn't feed much at all for the first 48 hours (couldn't wake him up/latch him on). He took nearly 4 weeks to gain his birth weight and since then has gained between 4-5 oz a week. He is now hovering between .4 and 2nd centile and was 8lb 10 last Wednesday (at 8 weeks) (was born at 25th and was at 9th at 2 weeks)
I've been seeing the infant feeding specialist (who is excellent) at our local hospital since he was 2 weeks old and she helped me sort out his latch. I feed on demand upwards of 10 times a day and he doesn't ever go more than 4 hours at night.
He does make a clicking sound when feeding but the world and his wife have checked him for TT and posterior TT). I've seen 3-4 different peer supporters at different support groups plus weekly visits to the support group at the hospital. Everyone says his latch and attachment look OK. Also I'm not sore.
His nappies seem OK (plenty of wet and a couple of dirty per day). I've been talking domperidone for two weeks which doesn't seem to have made much difference. I struggle to express (I realise this is no indication) and never get more than about 20ml and sometimes much less ( I have a medela swing and continue pumping after flow stops to no avail). I never really feel full and my breasts don't leak (and never really have done).
I co-sleep, use a sling, feed in the bath, and do plenty of skin to skin, and breast compressions (as I believe they are all supposed to help increase milk production or transfer). My baby is very unsettled - will spend hours at the breast and cries a lot throughout the day. He often pulls off the breast crying too. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that the unsettled behaviour is due to hunger and that I'm going to need to top him up with formula.
I really don't want to do this. I want to ebf my baby boy and it's really upsetting me the thought of giving him formula. So I guess my questions are:
- Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can increase his weight gain without giving formula, given that everyone thinks his latch is fine and it's not TT - is there anything else it could be?
- Also if I do give him a top up, will this be the beginning of the end of my bf relationship (had planned to continue to a year at least)?
The HVs don't seem worried - but surely this slow gain together with the bouts of screaming aren't right?
Sorry for the mammoth post - and thanks in advance if anyone reads for long enough to reply.