How long to regain birth weight?

[tollyfeeder]

My baby girl was born early, 37+4 and weighed 2.9kg.

On day 5 her weight had dropped to 2.6kg, a loss of 10.36%

From day 5 to day 10 she was weighed every day by different midwives and her weight went up and down each day.

On day 10 my midwife sent us to Pediatrics at the hospital, they did several bloods on her but were happy with everything and sent us home.

My midwife suggested formula top ups, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do.
So I got a pump to express my own milk to top her up with.

On day 18 she was admitted to hospital with prolonged jaundice for which she had treatment.
Her weight at this point was the same as day 5, 2.6kg. We saw a feeding specialist who said they were happy with our feeding and told me to stop giving the top ups of my own milk, so I did.

My midwife came back and said I must not stop the top ups and to restart, so I did.

We are now on day 26 and last week she had a gain of 80g, but we still aren’t at birth weight.

We have an appointment at the hospital at the end of this week and things will be reviewed then.

We’re also at a tongue tie clinic this week as two midwives think she MAY have a posterior tongue tie.

I’m trying my hardest to give her top ups of my milk, but a lot of the time she doesn’t want them.

Her nappy output is fine and she seems content, she’s just not been gaining weight.

Anyone else have experience with this?

[tollyfeeder]

Anyone?

[GrumpyHoonMain]

I exclusively breastfed so it took 3 weeks. I was told this is normal when you use breastmilk. Don’t worry about what the midwives say necessarily if you feel she’s doing well. They will want to get you onto the health visitor asap and may insist you use formula to do this - but ultimately it’s normal, provided she’s growing length wise and has a growing head circumference, for breastfed babies to gain weight more slowly.

[WhateverHappenedToBathPearls]

DS lost 12% of birth weight in the first 5 days and was jaundiced - we were readmitted to hospital. He also had a 100% tongue tie which was missed on days 1-4 but snipped on day 5 (luckily for us the community midwife was trained to do TT snips). His nappy output was very much not OK though - dark wees and no poos - so was getting dehydrated. I didn't want to to top up with formula but given the dehydration and the fact I was getting only a ml or two by pumping at that stage, we had to move to formula top ups fairly fast.

Has the jaundice cleared now? They want babies to regain birth weight by 2 weeks old so you will keep getting interventions/advice until your DD does. Have you been told to wake her to feed? We had a lot of conflicting advice from MW/paeds/HV but they all said wake to feed at least every 3 hours until back to birth weight.

How are you finding the expressing - are you getting good amounts?

[tollyfeeder]

@WhateverHappenedToBathPearls
She had treatment for jaundice and her levels went down, she still has jaundice but not enough for more treatment. They are re testing her blood at the end of the week.

She wakes for feeds every 2.5-3hrs

They’ve said to give her 20ml expressed milk every 3 hours. I’m managing to express 20ml (10ml from each) every 3 hours.
Sometimes I get 20ml from each.

I’ve been told not to worry about how much I express as this doesn’t indicate my supply, but I do find it stressful as I’d like to see more.