slow weight gain - am I being paranoid?

[ThisIsBloodyHardWork]

I posted a few weeks ago about my baby's feeding and got loads of really helpful responses. I went to a weigh-in this morning and am now totally wigging out, so would really appreciate any reassurance/advice.

DD was almost 8lb when she was born and now at 10 weeks she is 11lb 2oz - she was just above the 50th centile at birth, and followed that line for a bit before dropping to just below it 2 weeks ago - I wasn't too worried then, but today the line has flattened again and she's much closer to the 25th centile. The hv was very nice and said not to worry just yet, but to bring her back in 2 more weeks and see where she is then.

I am really stressed though - I'd noticed for a week or two that DD wasn't feeding as much (ie going longer between feeds, slightly longer at the breast when she did feed) so I was half worrying and half pleased that she was going around 2.5 hours in the day rather than 1.5 hours. at night she's generally good for about 5-7 hours at the beginning of the night, then will feed about 3 hours after that, then the morning. she tends to drop off on the breast at night and haven't been 'making' her take the second breast.

Am I bonkers to be really worried? Is there anything I can do to up her intake or whatever? I don't have any pain from the latch and had stopped worrying about this, although now I'm thinking maybe her mouth is quite tightly round the nipple, maybe that's reducing her intake?

[can you tell I'm totally freaking out?! I didn't get much sleep last night, have a teething 2yrold as well!]

Really appreciate any guidance.

OK - here are some facts :)

Dropping two centiles is normal for a healthy baby. Your dd has not even dropped one, from what you say (I'm not actually checking on the chart). A drop of more than two centiles should be investigated, simply to check for any underlying concern (illness, baby who's miserable, mother obsessed with restricting feeds). In the vast majority of cases all is well.

Your dd isn't even near that.

Maybe she isn't feeding as often....that's ok! Maybe she gets what she needs with fewer, shorter feeds - that is normal.

Your HV has seen her. She has suggested a repeat weight in 2 weeks - perfectly fine, though actually, once babies have reached their birthweight and are healthy, weighing more often than once a month is not considered good practice. Why? Because it is misleading! Your HV may have judged you needed reassurance sooner than a month.

If you go here www.rcpch.ac.uk/Research/Growth_Charts_Education_Training_Resources and find the factsheets links, you'll find factsheet 3 and factsheet 6 give guidance.

From what you say, and what the HV says, I can't see anything to worry about. Get some help with the worry, perhaps...what is it that's really getting to you about this?

Hope you get some good help soon.

OP, I have just read your previous threads.

Seriously, all this worry and concern seems ill-founded and related not to this baby but to the crappy experience you had before.

It would really help to find someone to talk to about it.

You are on a treadmill of worry, and explanations that all is normal are not reaching your heart - you can understand them, and accept them in your head, but not deep down :(

Thank you so much tiktok. You are absolutely right that the worry is all about the previous baby. I did have some counselling about it and have an open invitation to return if I find I need to - and maybe I do! But actually, your first post has massively reassured me. I think I am definitely prone to worrying, and not much sleep for 2 months has probably made it worse - I'll see how I go and keep an eye on myself.

But my heart is sort of thinking about accepting what you say, so that is a start! I feel MUCH MUCH better already. Thank you so much [sob]

:)

Your dd sounds similar to my ds - he was 8lb6oz at birth and 11lb2oz at his 8 week check. He also does a 5-7 hour stretch at the beginning of the night then 3 hourly after that, and his feeds are much shorter now too and spaced out to 2.5-3 hours during the day.

Don't take her to get weighed more than once every 4 weeks. I'm in a similar position as you, DD dropped slightly from the 9th centile to just above the 2nd at 16 weeks. It is very hard when breastfeeding not to begin to obsess about every detail of the feeding and before I had DD I assumed that babies were little machines for turning milk into more baby. Actually my baby is a wriggling blur who exists to turn milk into movement!

Initially I was fairly frantic so I read up on things that cause babies to fail to thrive, and it turns out the reasons are either very obvious (I think I'd have spotted if she had an enlarged liver by now), cause the child great misery (so your baby wouldn't just be small she'd be cross and exhausted all the time too) or are related to how you parent (e.g. limiting feeds). So if your baby seems generally well in herself and you know you aren't unresponsive and failing to feed her it is highly unlikely there is anything to worry about.