Newborn has lost more than 10% of birth weight - we have til Monday

[FingonTheValiant]

I've posted a few times about 5 day old DS who is really not feeding well. He was weighed today and he's lost 380g since Sunday. The midwife said she wasn't going to "rush me through a&e to the paediatricians just yet", but said she'll come back on Monday pm to reweigh him, and if he hasn't gained enough he'll be hospitalised, and that the paeds will then insist he has formula top ups :(

I'm desperate to avoid this, but I'm now stressed beyond rational thought.

Also, he's refusing one breast completely (screams, flails, kicks etc) and I'm in agony on the other side. I know that that means he's latching badly, but he is drinking, and with a weight gain ultimatum I don't want to interrupt the feeding he's actually doing.

They've told me to wake him and feed him every two hours. But he spends the first 30-40 mins of that fussing/screaming and not feeding, and by the time I've calmed him and got him on and fed I only have 40 mins before we're meant to start again.

They also said I have to top him up with a cup after each feed, so I've bought an electric pump to help with that. But he wont cup feed properly - he doesn't stick out his tongue, he just gulps at it and hits the cup, and half of it is wasted.

How do I fix this mess? I just want to curl up with my baby and cry forever :(

Can I just say that my baby was feeding every 2 hours and then when he was still jaundiced at a few weeks old I was told to wake up every 2-3 hours to feed him but at night I could leave him as long as he wanted. I know it sounds confusing but the night sleep is great for baby to get used to going longer without a feed and also great for mum.

My advice would be listen to what the professionals have to say but get them to qualify their statements. ie if they say he hasn't put enough weight on, ask them how they think he could have put nearly 300g on in days and what do they propose to do if they admit him. They can't just tell you what to do without saying why. They might have qualifications but no one, no one, knows your baby like you do.

Good luck, you are doing brilliantly.

I wouldn't give water either - that is rubbish advice. Breastmilk is the best possible thing for an upset tummy in babies, it is the easiest thing for them to digest and absorb.

Fingon good luck tomorrow. The important thing is not to panic if he hasn't gained all the weight - it is a completely arbitrary deadline that they have set you.
phipps is right, the midwife, and then the paeds if you do get as far as hospital, need to qualify what they are saying.

Well the on call doc from nhs direct called back and told me to take him to A&E (predictably). We were then sent to the paed, who said that they are 99% sure that it's my anti bs causing trouble, but took a sample just to be sure. The dr also said that if I hadn't told him there was a problem he would have said DS was completely healthy after examining him :) And he seconded all your advice about carrying on with just breast milk - yay for him!

He also told me to tell the midwife to sod off tomorrow (ok, not quite in those terms) as the increased pooing will have thrown any weight gain, or lack thereof, into question. He said not to weigh him again until Friday. So hopefully the mw will agree to that!

Oh, and they stuck him on the hospital scales which suggest he's gone from 3225 on Friday up to 3280. I know he should be weighed on the same set, but I'm going to pretend that that counts as it will help me to sleep better tonight :)

It does count!

great news fingon! your baby (whether he has bad tum or not) has put on weight, a doctor has told you not to weight again until friday...pressure off for now!

you are doing fabulously well you know...I just know that within a week or so you'll feel out of the woods...the first few weeks are so hard.

Ah finally a GP that is talking some sense!

Guess you could have done without the a&E visit, but at least it's set your mind at rest.

Deffo get the midwife to leave you in peace and come again on Friday.

Have a good sleep.

This is good to hear!

Both my two lost more than ten per cent. They went on to do very well BFing.

The weight gain definitly counts and doesn't surprise me. Breastmilk is so easily absorbed by the baby's gut that even if it does seem to be coming straight out the other end, plenty will probably still be absorbed. Formula on the otherhand is not so easily absorbed and so if your baby has a dodgy tum it will not help weight gain at all. Glad you got some good advice from the A&E doctor - don't hesitate to quote him tomorrow when the midwife comes! Hope it continues to go well, especially now you're off the anti-bs!

and maybe you could mention the scales on carpet being inaccurate emphasizing that the hospital scales were accurate. Shame on the midwife.

Some scales are ok on carpet - but I wouldn't assume the ones being used in this situation are. Easy enough to check any way - weigh baby once on carpet and again, immediately on a flat surface. You could get difference results even with the best scales though - weighing wriggly babies is not exact!

I shocked at NHS direct suggesting cool boiled water for a tiny baby - and a tiny baby whose weight has been causing concern. This is just incorrect and even risky advice. The nurse at NHS direct has given advice suitable for an older formula fed baby :(

woohoo fingon that is great news! awesome. and at ineptitude of health professionals supposed to be in charge . just think how many women's attempts at breastfeeding are being sabotaged aaaaahhhhh!

anyway, you go lady! good luck today and hooray for the a&e doc .

tiktok - it is really shocking. How can they be so badly informed? :(

Fingon - that is great news! I am so glad that you've had some sensible advice at last. Enjoy your weighing free week! :)

So glad you finally saw somebody who seemed to be knowledgeable! And here's hoping they do leave you alone until Friday as your DS is clearly starting to go in the right direction :) Hope the midwife accepts the paed's advice rather than putting more pressure on you.

It went well with the mw today. She's agreed to come back on Friday to do the weigh in, and announced to me and dh (who's on half term - woohoo!) that she thinks DS looks as healthy as the next baby and is just one of life's slow weight gainers.

We tested the scales and there was no difference on our solid floor compared to the carpet, so alas, cant argue that that's been the problem. But never mind, a bit of breathing space feels like a massive win right now!

tiktok, I'm so relieved now that I ignored her, I was fairly sure that I'd read that breastfed babies don't need water, so I just gave him more EBM top ups instead.

Was speaking to SIL in France last night and she gave up EBF at 2 weeks after her paediatrician told her that her milk was plentiful enough, but not nutritious enough for Dniece ! And then the "breast feeding councillor" told her that her bleeding cracked nipples meant she had to give up completely. So in comparison to that I feel really well supported by HCPs in the UK.

Here's hoping for a good feeding week :)

Thanks again everyone for all your support and encouragement :o

Hurray :) You've done brilliantly to stick with bf in the face of all this HCP angst. Be proud of yourself and your little boy :)

DS was, and is, a slow gainer but at 2.6 he is happy, healthy and bright. There were points along the way that I doubted myself and my bm, particularly as the little cherub had his biggest ever growth spurt at 12mo immediately after I gave up bf! So don't panic if he does well for a while and then has a slow patch - it can be tough when your peers have babies that gain 8oz per week without fail and yours only hits 4oz on a good week. Just learn to focus on the other things as well - if he's alert, happy, content after feeds and meeting milestones etc then that may become the better way to judge his wellbeing than his weight.

Great news!

great news fingon .

I've been away so only just caught up on your good news! Well done! Hope it's continued to go well this week!

Hi Fingon - I just remembered this thread and wondered if everything had now settled down 2 weeks on. Hope all is going well!

Hi Meg,

Was going to post an update this evening anyway. The midwife came today (first time since last Monday, so almost two weeks - we naughtily ran away abroad to see PILs and get the pressure off a bit) and DS is back at birth weight, in fact he's 10g over!! :o

So he's gone from 3230 to 3530 in 11 days, which they said is plenty of weight gain and we've been discharged at last!! :o :o

We're so relieved :o

Thank you so much to everyone who has posted on this thread with advice and support, and also your own stories; you've all helped so much and I don't know what I would have done without people encouraging me and reassuring me on here. DS would probably have ended up on formula, when in fact he's stayed on breast milk only, and we've dropped all the expressed feeds over the past few days.

Thanks so much to you all again - you're all wonderful!

:o :o

brilliant! :o

Hurrah -

Was only wondering this morning Fingon what had happened to you.

So glad it's going well.