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Slow weight gain in EBF baby

5 replies

mumumumumumm · 11/10/2022 19:42

Hi there, my baby will be 11 weeks old tomorrow and is EBF. As far as I am concerned she's fed well from Day 1 and we've had no problems (first baby had tongue tie so feeding was really hard so it really uplifted me how much easier it has been this time).
The health visitor came last month and expressed some concern that baby had dropped a percentile since birth 75th at birth (birthweight gained back within 2 weeks), down to 50th. She said she would arrange to see me again to check up on this. I've always fed on demand and had made a passing comment that a couple of nights prior she'd gone 5 hours through the night between feeds instead of 2-3 so I'd had a better night's sleep. I got a rather negative reaction to that and told I shouldn't let her go that long. Incidentally it didn't happen again.
She's producing plenty of wees and poos and is bright eyed and healthy looking. I've been really mindful to keep feeding on demand and have been making sure she feeds long enough to get the hind milk.
Health visitor is coming tomorrow so I weighed baby myself today to see if she'd maintained at 50th percentile and although she's gained since her last weigh in, she's now dropped to 25th percentile.
I've got myself worked up a bit about this
and to be honest it's been playing on my mind this past month like I'm doing something wrong.
My husband was a small baby, my toddler is at 50th percentile for weight and 25th for height. I really think my baby is ok. Has anyone had a similar experience, what is the Health Visitor likely to say?

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Cuppasoupmonster · 11/10/2022 20:01

What was her birth weight OP? She might just be ‘catching down’. I doubt the breastfeeding is to blame as she would’ve always had slow growth surely?

mumumumumumm · 11/10/2022 20:22

She was 7lb 14oz 8 days overdue

OP posts:
Hello12345678910 · 12/10/2022 15:52

Probably too late now because I'm assuming you've the HV has been now!

My bub dropped from 91st centile (birthweight) to the 25th centile (by 7 weeks)
They wanted me to take him to be weighed every 2 weeks! It's my first baby so it completely ate me up, I felt like I was failing him!

Eventually I got fed up and said "can I weigh him at home and just call you if I'm concerned) and they were fine with that..
Hes 5.5 months now and still on 25th centile x

Cuppasoupmonster · 12/10/2022 16:08

Oh I’m sorry this fell down my list of watched threads so I forgot about it! How did the visit go?

mumumumumumm · 12/10/2022 17:30

Health visitor is coming back in 4 weeks to weigh again. Baby's just above the 25th percentile line but have been told if she drops below she may have to refer her?? But she's agreed that it's likely that she is just going to be on the smaller side due to genetics rather than issues with feeding so the hope is that she will level off on the 25th percentile. She measured baby's length today for the first time and that is also 25th so she's in proportion at least.
I'd never heard of catching down but looked it
up and it's offered some reassurance so thank you for mentioning that!

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