5 day old DD's nappies are dry

[iwouldgoouttonight]

My DD seems to be breastfeeding very well - she'll feed every couple of hours and seems to suck well for about 10-15 mins and then go a bit sleepy and either fall off or I'll eventually take her off. But since her birth she hasn't had any wet nappies. She has done one poo each day - they are still sticky and ark although starting to be slightly greeny in colour.

The midwife suggested I put a ball of cotton wool in her nappy as the nappy could have just absorbed the wee so I've been doing that and this morning after her nappy had been on for 12 hours it was completely dry. The midwife didn't seem especially concerned and spoke to a doctor who just told me to keep an eye on it. The midwife is coming back this afternoon so will see what she says but I'm just really worried - if she is drinking enough milk where is it all going?? My mum didn't help by just telling me there must be something seriously wrong with her and I've been in tears since then worrying about it.

DD seems happy enough though, definitely doesn't seem in any pain, she sleeps ok and seems alert, her soft spot on her head isn't sunken so I don't understand why no weeing!

Are you using disposables , as they are actually hard to detect wee in. She won't produce much and it may miss the cotton wool, try a tissue or leave her nappyless ! If she's pooing then she is likely to be weeing. Keep feeding little and often and then see. Sounds like you have a touch of the blues, are probably sleep deprived and maybe making more of this than is needed. If mw isn't worried thern don't be.

DD2 didn't wee for a few days when she was born (she was in nicu as she was very small) and dr's were concerned she might have a kidney problem. The regularly tested her bloods and around about day 5 the kidneys just kicked in and started working.

The green poos are an indication that she may not be getting enough milk- dd had those too!

iirc poo starts as black meconium and gradually becomes yellower, but is greenish in between - so perfectly normal

The green poo is prob just the last of the meconium coming out. I bet she is weeing but babies only wee small amounts anyway and disposables make it appear very dry. As well, you might be a very eager first time mum (are you?) who changes nappies very very regularly and so that might account for them not being very wet? This happened with my DS1 but with DS2 i was much more relaxed and didn't chang him as often so hence his nappies were wetter!

Also if your DD is 5 days old, then today is the day of your milk coming / hormonal shift hich means you will feel tearful, weird, scared and depressed (probably), so this seems way more scary than it reall is. See what the MW says and take her seriously. xx

IF you truely believe her nappies are dry and she isn't urinating, I would take her back to hospital, immediately. And I am not a parent to over-react about things but that doesn't sound right to me.

agree with geepers, take her immediately to hospital.

My ds was born at home, and I ordered special nappies with a urine marker - a strip that turned a different colour when the baby wees.

I did this because my ds potentially had a kidney problem and it was vital we knew how often he wee'ed.

I really think you should take the baby back to hopsital - five is very tiny, they can become dehydrated very quickly, and it's very hard to tell if the baby is ill or not.

Is your baby putting on weight? I only ask because a friend of mine decided to take her baby back into hospital after 6 or 7 days because he was losing so much weight. He seemed to be feeding (bf) fine and the midwife wasn't really worried. But she did worry so she took him in and discovered that she wasn't actually producing any milk! The doctors in the hospital said if she'd waited any longer he could have been quite seriously ill. But he'd lost well over 10% of his birth weight. If your baby's weight is ok it would suggest that she's getting milk and if she's getting milk she should be ok on the hydration front.

I really feel for you, it's a scary time those initial days with your new baby. Don't ever feel worried about what people will think about you over-reacting. If you're worried, do something. Every doctor I spoke to in my dd's first few months almost expected a new mum to over-react! And they were lovely about it.

if your baby is not weeing and the mec hasn't started to change by now, please take your baby back to hospital and get her checked over. Do this today if you haven't already.

thinking of you.

Does her cry sound hoarse? We had loads of problems bfing at first and DS wasn't getting enough milk so as well as the dry nappies, when he cried he sounded hoarse - like he had a sore throat. He also had orange crystals in his nappy, but those are pretty hard to miss so I'm sure you would see those.

agree with geepers and belgo. I had this with DS at 2.5 weeks (breastfeeding had gone pearshaped). He had to be admitted for a few days for tests - he was jaundiced and dehydrated because he hadn't been getting enough milk. He was fine once we made sure he was getting plenty of milk via ebm and formula topups.

Mine did this at about three days - we were still in the midwife-led unit and everyone seemed to think things were fine, but basically she was just doing a good impression of breastfeeding but not actually taking any in and I didn't know any better!

She got jaundiced and very sleepy. Basically fine once got going with formula top ups and pumping once my milk in, and then eventually she/we got the hang of bf properly.

iwouldgoouttonight - how is everything?

Thanks for all your comments and concern. Well, we've just got out of hospital since going in on Sunday! A midwife came round on sunday afternoon to do the five day check and she was the first midwife we've seen so far who has actually properly checked the breastfeeding - she said DD was only sucking the end of the nipple with really weak sucks so was probably getting a little bit of liquid but not enough. She weighed her and she had lost 17% of birth weight so we had to go straight to hospital where they did loads of tests and said she was really dehydrated and possibly had an infection.

The first night I was almost permanently attached to a breast pump to try and get enough milk to feed her with - they said she needed 460ml in 24 hours to rehydrate her. After pumping all night I managed to produce 66ml! So she had to be given formal as well, which we initially gave in a syringe so she wouldn't get mixed up with using teats, but eventually she wasn't taking it well enough and we decided to give it to her in bottles rather than her having a tube up her nose.

So now we are giving her all formula as I am producing nowhere near enough milk and am exhausted. I am disappointed as I really thought breastfeeding was going well this time (I only managed it for 6 weeks with DS) - its heartbreaking when DD still roots around for my nipple and there is no milk there and now she can't latch on properly so I've had to stop trying.

But as long as she's well that's what matters. We have to take her back in twice a day to finish her course of intravenous antibiotics for the possible infection but that's more of a precaution than anything.

After speaking to a few people about it it seems surprisingly common - lots of people have said the same thing has happened to them. I'm quite annoyed about the fact that we've seen four midwives, plus the ones in the hospital when she was born, and one who is apparently 'breastfeeding support', and only one noticed that she wasn't feeding properly and that dry nappies were a cause for concern. The others just looked at me feeding from the other end of the sofa and said, oh she looks very happy and looks like she's feeding fine. It was only the last midwife who actually properly looked at DD's mouth and jaw while she was feeding and felt my breasts to make sure milk was in them, etc.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on! After spending four days in hospital I'm desperate to talk to people and do normal things again!!

Same thing happened to us. Dd was hypotonic and unable to suck though I was absolutely bursting with the stuff. It was horrible and I felt a failure, but at least it got picked up on before anything dreadful happened (though afraid I let it go a lot longer before I reacted, though the HV was telling me I ought to be concerned).

It was the same thing of her seeming so happy (though gradually getting more and more sleepy).

The good news was, once it turned round it turned round really well.
But I spent weeks syringe feeding her which was a nightmare.

Iwoudlgoouttonight - I'm glad you got the baby to hospital and got her the treatment she needed. Dry nappies are a real cause for concern in such a tiny baby.

If you want to try and persevere with the breastfeeding, then you need expert advice for instnace from La Leche League.

If you start a new thread in the breastfeeding section, hopefully someone will come along with more advice.

I'm really glad things turned out the way they did.

Here's to a happy healthy baby x

Iwouldgo - just come back to this - so glad you got things sorted out.

We tried for ages to get a decent latch - eventually rugby hold worked, but then it all went a bit pear-shaped again, and I talked to a councellor and eventually we got it sorted and the pain stopped, but it did take a few weeks.

It is worth perservering with this, talking to different people.

I found a video online which actually showed the baby latching on and sucking and that for me was a real breakthrough cos I never knew if she was sucking or just hanging on!

Trying to find the link - this is 3 years ago!

Kellymon.com was incredibly helpful
just found this www.kellymom.com/bf/start/basics/latch-resources.html

and this www.thebirthden.com/Newman.html

best luck

Thanks for updating us, and sorry you and your baby ended up in hospital.

Iwouldgo this was almost exactly what happened to us. It was horrendous and I really understand how scared you must have been.

I know after what you have been through that you just want to get fluid into your dd, but I wanted to let you know after an equally difficult start I am now bf-ing my dd so it may not be too late.

It was bloody hard work and I only managed it because of amazing support from a bf-ing specialist m/w and the hospital's infant feeding team, so I'm not saying its not too late lightly. And I do understand you are probably emotionally and physically too drained to think about it

But if you do want to give it a go you could see what support is there for you.