BF 9-day-old has lost 10% of birth weight - help

[CountBapula]

DS2 is 9 days old. He was MASSIVE when he was born (at 42 weeks) - 10lbs 13oz He had blood sugar readings at the hospital and all was fine.

MWs have weighed him three times.

Weigh-in 1: he'd lost 9%.
Weigh-in 2 (2 days later): no change
Weigh-in 3 (2 days later, today): lost 60g, taking the loss to just over 10%.

Other relevant info:
He had mild jaundice which MWs say is improving.
He poos after pretty much every feed - good yellow poos - and his nappies are heavy with wee
He'll usually only take one boob per feed - cries and turns his head away when offered second (or just falls asleep on boob 1)
He feeds every 2-3hrs during day, when he's v sleepy, but cluster feeds at night
He didn't cluster feed last night because he's caught a cold off DS1 which has made him really dopey
He has a couple of awake-and-content periods each day of about 20-30 minutes
He's swallowing, ears waggling etc

MWs are saying they want to top him up with formula. I'm not keen - DS1 never had a drop of formula and I fed him until he was nearly 3. DS1 also lost 10% (also quite big at birth) and dropped down a couple of centiles, where he then stayed happily.

I've said I'll express and cup-feed him instead.

Feel really stressed about it because I thought bf was going really well with all the pooing and everything. Anyone been in the same boat? Any ideas or words of encouragement?

[KatherinaMinola]

This is totally normal. And if he's 10lb already he won't waste away. I'd keep an eye on it, but wouldn't top up, and wouldn't worry.

[TheScience]

Was each weigh-in done on the same scales?

I wouldn't panic at this point, as pp says he's a big boy (!) and won't waste away. I'd be mildly concerned that he hasn't started gaining weight by 9 days though - did the midwives offer any bf advice? Has someone who knows what they're doing observed a full feed, checked for tongue-tie etc? If not I'd try to find someone asap.

Anecdotally, I have heard that being on a drip during labour can artificially increase the baby's birthweight and then it looks like they;ve lost a lot of weight - not sure if this applies to you or indeed how true it is!

[CountBapula]

I didn't have a drip - labour was spontaneous. Just gas and air and birth pool.

Each weigh-in done by different MW so likely to be different scales.

One MW checked for tongue tie and didn't see one (though I know from reading threads on here that's no guarantee of anything). Other MW inspected latch and said was good, but didn't observe whole feed.

[ExBrightonBell]

If it wasn't for the weight loss that you describe, everything else sounds fine. Expressing and topping up with ebm sounds like a perfectly good strategy, and I don't see the need to leap to formula.

My ds was quite big (9lb 13) when born also at 42 weeks, and slowly dropped down the centile chart (although never actually lost weight) until he settled onto a line and eventually followed that line until I stopped getting him weighed. I hope it's just something similar for your ds.

[PeaceLillyDoge]

We had this except it was 13% loss by day five. it was allawful.

Sounds like your dealing with it perfectly, well done and keep going!

We did breast milk top ups after each feed. First via syringe then from a bottle. Did this until she was back up to birthweight, which took three weeks. Very stressful but we got there and have dropped the top ups this week.

Unexpected upside to all this is we found out baby will quite happily take a bottle of expressed milk, so now DP does a feed if I'm exhausted and need a nap

Keep going, you're doing great! Feel free to DM me for more moral support, only just got thru this and know how stressful it is

[antimatter]

10% loss happened within first 10-14 days to both of my EBF fed kids.
Don't worry!

[PeaceLillyDoge]

Should add, we got a lot of support from our local infantfeeding coordinator at the local midwifery unit, plus breastfeeding susupport from local peer led support service.

Could you ask your mw if there are any such services you can access near you? Or ring the mw unit to ask?

The drop in feeding clinic was a god send to us at our lowest point. They assessed for TT and discussed a plan to top up feeds with expressed Breast milk and re weigh each week to review progress. It was only if she failed to put on enough weight via this method that formula top ups would be considered plus a referral to a paediatrician for medical review. Thankfully weer didn'tneed to go down that route.