3 wo and not regained birth weight

[puddleduck16]

My wee girl will be 3 weeks old tom. Has lost 200g since birth and not regained it. I'm EBF and seems to be going well. She's happy, bright and alert. And seems quite satisfied after every meal. If she hasn't regained weight by Tuesday then the HV says she wants me to start formula top ups. I really don't want to go down that road.
Is there anything I can do over the weekend to help?

[Showy]

What % is 200g? I'm afraid I can only work in old money and you also need to include birth weight for comparison. Is she now gaining weight or still losing/not gaining? How are other things like weeing, pooing? How often is she taking a feed? How many sides per feed? Night feeds? Evidence of milk transfer? How are your breasts? How does she behave during a feed?

Are you still seeing the midwife? Do you have a local breastfeeding support group, counsellor, peer support, hospital services etc?

It is of note that a 3wo is still not up to birth weight. If bfing is going well, you would expect it to have happened by now. It is important that the situation is monitored/ameliorated. But have you had no advice whatsoever about increasing your milk supply and/or milk transferece? Has somebody who knows what they're doing observed an entire feed?

For now, I will recommend a few things to increase supply and milk transfer (which should have been recommended by your hcps already but sadly, it doesn't happen). Then hopefully somebody like tiktok will be along (maybe while I'm typing) and they'll have better advice I'm sure.

Lots of skin to skin. Feed as much as possible. Offer both sides and then a third, fourth etc side as many as she will take. Keep her close to the breast, respond to each cue and if she doesn't ask, offer anyway. Look at the kellymom site, find out about breast compressions, look at jack newman's site and videos.

[tiktok]

Showy, I agree :)

puddleduck has the HV really, really not suggested anything except come back on Tuesday and we'll weigh her again? That's such CRAP care :( :(

You do need to ensure you're offering more opportunities for your baby to feed - day and night. All the stuff Showy says about switch nursing and the info on the net about increasing your dd's intake - it's all important.

It may be that your dd is fine but 200 g below birthweight at 3 weeks - no matter how much she weighed - is a real concern.

[CelticPromise]

Great advice above. I would get to a bf group if you possibly can, or falling that call one of the bf helplines and talk it through. There is plenty you can do.

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

Two of mine took about a month to regain their birth weight. They lost a few ounces initially, regained what was lost within a week or so then slowly slowly regained their birth weight.

They were both pooing and weeing, and had distinct awake and asleep times. So looking at them they were clinically well, they just took some time to put on weight. Once they got to their birthweights they they then carried on putting on weight. I have no idea whether it was down to their feeding, or my milk. Either way they were clinically well. There's more to a healthy happy baby than what the scales are telling you.

I would suggest speaking to a breast feeding counsellor about it. The NCT have a free breast feeding line that is available to everyone, I think it's open from 10-12. If it's engaged keep trying, you will get through and it will be worth it. You can talk through everything and if it helps, come up with a plan that you are happy with.

formula top ups could compromise your supply. Your supply is still being established and it will supply what is being demanded of it. If you lower the demand by supplementing with formula it may affect your supply.

You're both doing really well, keep the faith

[puddleduck16]

She was born 6.6 and lost 4% in hospital which they were really happy with. When still under midwife care she started to regain so they discharged us to HV but then she lost and was 6.2 on Tuesday and the exact same today.
She feeds every 2-3 hours and we have plenty of ewes and poos. She always takes at least 2 sides

[puddleduck16]

Tiktok, nope no advice at all so hence I knew folk on here could help!
I'll go look at those sites thanks!