5 week old dropped from 25th centile and considering mixed feeding. Advice needed...

[Charlie111]

I'm sure people have similar experiences and I could do with some advice

My DS is now 5 weeks old - started off on 25th centile for weight but has dropped a centile. He is gaining weight but isn't really hitting the curve and if he keeps at current rate it does look like he'll drop another centile. He's been exclusively breast fed so far but...

I'm worried.. my partner and I are both really tall (I'm 5 foot 9, husband is 6 foot 2) andcome from tall families. I was a massive baby though my husband was always quite small apparently.

Plus I'm worried about my milk supply - doing everything I can to increase it but I still don't think he's getting enough. We introduced a bottle of formula last night and he gulped it down - I fed him for an hour and he seemed content and wasn't crying for food, but then we tried him on formula and he gulped down an extra 120ml! So he obviously was hungry - there is no way I had that much milk, Also I can't really express very much milk - especially in comparison to other mums I know who seem to be able to get loads. In the morning if I feed him on one boob and express from the other I can get 60ml but I've stopped doing this as concerned it means he isn't getting the milk he needs. Expressing between feeds I can only get about 10ml which I know is rubbish.

I really want to do the right thing for DS and just don't know. The health visitor said it was all OK and just to keep breast-feeding him, but I don't think I agree - I think we should top him up with formula, but equally I was to keep breast-feeding. I'm confused.

Sorry for the long post - am worried and need some advice!

Post in Breast and bottle feeding for good advice. My 2 penn'orth - loads of skin to skin contact (e.g. carry bub in sling next to your skin in just a nappy and wear baggy clothes on top) to stimulate milk production.

Oh, and if your husband was always quite small then maybe your baby is following the same pattern? Would make sense to me.

I would try to reduce the formula supplementation and stop trying to express, but that's because I would want the option to bf long term and supplementation/bottles/dummies can undermine this for some women.

Good luck x

Does he show signs of being hungry ? Gulping down formula is not a sing of hunger but more to do with the ease of drinking from a bottle (mine used to gulp down a bottle and then through it all up again, usually over me, which given it was ebm was not very welcome !).

Expressing is not a good gauge of how much milk you have, or how much the baby can get. Try feeding more often or offering both sides at every feed.

And dropping centiles is not always a problem - sometimes they are born at one level and then settle in to another one which they stick to.

As long as he is gaining and not constantly screaming for food then I would trust that your body is doing a good job. Obviously if he drops right off the centiles, or gets really unhappy then time to rethink.

I think though that the vast majority of women have the ability to make enough milk to feed a baby (or even twins).

throw not through !

My little one was born on 25th percentile and dropped down to 2nd (well below the 2nd) where she remained until she was 9months old! She was fine and EBF. Have faith in your own body - you probably are producing enough milk but it is really difficult to know that! I wish we had little measurers on our breasts or on the babies!!

I had this problem (compounded by a tongue tie and access to woefully crap breastfeeding "experts"and clueless paediatricians - not in the UK by the way) and at 12 weeks I introduced formula top ups, against my own better judgement. I wished someone would have just told me what I'm telling you: if you want to breastfeed, then put the baby to the breast as much as you can and your supply will adjust perfectly. Lots of cuddles, lots of skin to skin, try not to get too stressed about anything and let nature do the rest.
My boy is now one year old and MASSIVE. Jumped from the 10th to the 75th and no sign of stopping neither. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened if he was EBF... now I've got to work out how to get him on track again.
On the plus side: it's quite nice having a night off now and then when daddy's doing bedtime. With mixed feeding you can both hit the bottle!
Good luck whatever you decide.

If he's not distressed and you have plenty of wet nappies I would stick to what you're doing. Babies find their own centile.

I and a few friends have had children who have been born heavy then lost weight. In my opinion babys initial size often relates to how much the mother eats during pregnancy. After birth babies quickly find a weight that is more natural to them - and that is sometimes different to the mothers weight. I had one very large friend who had a 10lb baby but baby later found its natural weight which was on the 9th percentile - baby took after her skinny tall dad.

My babies had growth spurts at 6 weeks and 12 weeks - it took a little while for my boobs to meet the increaced demand but they did. Maybe don't introduce FF until you have estabilshed you BFing properly?

Can you also talk to an NCT breast feeding adviser - theres a number if you google it. I know feeding issues can be really stressful/upsetting but you are doing well.

IF the HV isn't worried, what is making you worry?

It's completely normal for babies to find a different centile to the one they were born on, mine was born on 50th but now on 25th and he's fine - the centile they're born on really relates to how much nutrition etc they were getting in the womb. Just keep offering the breast at each and every squeak and it will ensure your supply is right for your baby. As long as he's alert, happy, plenty of wet and dirty nappies then there is no issue :)

DONT PANICK!! im bottle feeding - one week my baby (currently 8 weeks) only put on one ounce and was alredy way below his centile the previous week. i was really worried and was told to just feed him on demand as i was doing anyway. this week he went from 10. 6 to 11.14 and is right back on his centile - i was amazed! they said cus were both over 6ft he is just a very long baby and probably didnt put on much cus he was having a growth spurt!

I'd agree with all the posters so far. Don't panic - you're doing great! My DS was a whopper at birth and dropped a centile at least. In fact I think he's dropped two now at 15 months. I actually think he was overweight at birth possibly because of gestational diabetes.
Anyway if the health visitor isn't pushing for top ups then I'd ditch them. Most HVs are so ridiculously pro bottle feeding that she would be pushing it by now if there was the slightest concern. TBH they often push them even when there isn't a concern.
And I'd ditch the bottles and the expressing. Your baby looks like he's gulping down a bottle with gusto simply because every time he moves his tongue off the teat a whole heap of milk floods into his mouth whether he likes it or not, so either he gulps it down or (like my clever son) he chokes and gets hysterical. He's doing it because he has no choice not because he's starving.
As for the centile thing, at this stage you are dealing with such tiny amounts of weight gain that him filling his nappy before a weigh in is likely to alter the results. It's that small an amount!
And finally I'd say you were about to hit the six week growth spurt. So just relax, stockpile the cakes and the books/magazines/tv remote and feed, feed, feed. Each time you do you're letting your clever baby build your supply. A wise but possibly odd friend once told me, your boobs are like rivers not buckets. They can't run out. So long as you let the baby feed when it wants to, rather than stick to a schedule, you'll no more run out of milk than you would blood. Good luck and be positive, you're doing great!

When my daughter was born, I was determined to exclusively BF. What was happening tho, is by the evening, she was at her hungriest, and my milk supply was at its lowest. What I did is , I gave her a formula bottle at the after bath feed. They say aptimal is closest to breast milk ? I then fed her from my breast for the rest of the feeds. I was also rubbish at expressing, but because i had missed that feed in the eve, my boobs were like balloons in the morn. i would then feed her from one, at the same time express from the other. this would give me extra to top up if i needed to during the day.
What my point is i guess, is she is now 3. she is health and happy, and i dont know why i got so stressed out about the BFeeding. so whatever you decide, im sure it will be best for your baby, but please do remember, it needs to to right for you to. if you are all stressed out, it will not help with the milk supply.

It doesn't sound like anything to worry about. They say you don't even need to think about problems unless they go through two growth lines on the chart.

But you know if your baby is hungry. I was able to exclusively breastfeed both my children but only til they reached a certain weight (the same weight for each child). After that my milk wasn't enough. But I have a VERY fast metabolism (am now size 6/8 despite eating like a horse) and my body simply didn't have enough left over to produce decent milk.

Don't give bottles cos of weight alone, but don't struggle on with a hungry baby either - won't do either of you any favours