Any experiences of ebf babies dropping percentiles?

[MrsBP]

I'm breastfeeding my second baby and at nearly 12 weeks she's now dropped from 60th to just under 2nd percentile. I've been supplementing her with 90ml formula a day from 8 weeks. She feeds every 2.5 hours in day and has recently dropped a feed at night. My first child was pretty much identical although she didn't drop below 2nd. She shot up the percentiles the moment I weaned her...

Anyone had similar experiences and what did you do? As I've a toddler to look after also I'm trying to avoid pumping hence the formula but don't want to be an irresponsible mother and certainly don't want to stop bf or impact my supply with too much formula.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

My dad did drop, but not so much. Have you called on of the Bfing Helplines?

[Laineypotato]

Hi, my baby dropped to the 2nd from between 25-50th when I was ebf and also expressing. When she was 6 weeks she was finally diagnosed with tongue tie, so maybe it's that.

I'm doing half bf and half formula now because I had mastitis twice and my supply dropped and she is slowly gaining but still on 2nd centile

[hopsalong]

I had a similar experience but in a shorter period of time -- EBF baby dropping from a chunky 90-something percentile at birth to 25th percentile by five weeks. I would have loved to carry on breastfeeding exclusively, but I was also scared of malnourishing him and felt that a lot of the potential benefits of breastfeeding, like fewer infections and better cognitive development, wouldn't materialise if he was short on total calories. This was also what the private paediatrician we saw said: breastmilk is only the ideal food if baby can also get it in adequate quantity. (NHS were a bit worried at 2 weeks but then discharged us once he was gaining weight, even though he was still falling through percentiles…)

In your baby's case it may be very different, of course. Are you and your DH small? What is her head circumference and length percentile, roughly? We are both tall and DS was long with a big head, so he looked quite skinny. I tried everything to maintain supply, pumping after every feed, compressions, fenugreek, etc, but I also gave him formula after every feed for a bit to work out how much he 'needed' over the whole day, and then ended up giving 2 bottles a day for a few months (about 250ml). Now he is eating solids and still had a mixture of formula and breastmilk, and is somewhere between 75th and 91st percentile. It is a royal pain to feed 8+ times a day, pump, AND use formula but was best solution for me. Actually, I didn't find that anything I did increased my supply that much, but nor did giving formula seem to reduce it… It was what it was, if that makes sense, and what it was wasn't quite enough… (Think now he is on solids, ironically, I could go back to EBF, but I also work full-time and can't manage pumping with a double electric pump at work.)

[LizzieLou3]

Could you try bfing more frequently? My ds definitely needs feeding more frequently than every 2.5 hours. He might have one or two stretches that long but otherwise it's roughly every hour. He's 11 weeks.

[HeadDreamer]

DD2 growth went flat after about 3 months. She gained weight well at the start but dropped through the centiles. She was born at 9th, went up to 25th and then down to 0.4th. She's seen by the GP but they didn't suggest supplementing with formula. They just said she was meeting her other milestones so might just be small. And looked too alert to be malnutritioned. Her weight stablished at 0.4th when she was weaned at 6mo. (Basically she barely gained weight and dropped steadily through the lines from 3-6mo). She's weighed monthly and have check ups at the GP.

If you are worried maybe have a chat with the GP?