Hello, my DD is 14 days old today and is not gaining weight. She was a decent weight to start with (9lb 2oz) and only lost about 5% by day 5, but then lost a bit more by day 10 and is only now just starting to gain minute amounts. She has not been discharged by midwives yet and they are weighing every two days.
exact weights have been:
birth 4140g
day 5 3940g
day 10 3820g
day 12 3860g
day 14 3880g
(these are all from different scales / on different surfaces but you get the drift)
on day 10 the midwife observed a feed and had a few tips on making sure it was a deep latch and showed me how to encourage her on to other side once she'd finished on the first side, but overall said positioning etc looked ok.
I am feeding on demand, which is roughly every 2-3 hours in the day, every 4-5 hrs in the night. she's weeing plenty, pooing only every couple of days but they are quite big when they happen and yellowy etc. My milk came in quite early, on the afternon of Day 2.
she is very alert and seems very happy in general - as the midwife said this morning, if we didn't keep weighing her, there'd be nothing to worry about!
I had similar problems with my older DD but they didn't start til about week 7 when she suddenly plateaued and didnt really gain much til she was weaned just after 5 months. ended up on domperidone and doing nightly formula dream feeds with her, none of which seemed to have any effect. So I was determined not to get obsessed with weight this time around but don't really have any choice with it happening so early on as I obviously want to see her back at birth weight and upwards.
I've now been advised to top up with expressed milk after feeds, which i will do, although worried about nipple confusion. If this works though will I end up having to do this forever? are there any implications of her not regaining her birth weight for a couple of weeks (which at current rate is how long it would take)
Why are my boobs not just working like they should?? :(
I'm fairly sure supply not an issue as they feel full and then softer after a feed and she is sleeping well between feeds. And I've pumped 3oz while typing this, after having just fed her.
I know what you eat / drink should not affect the milk, but are there any things you can suggest I might be able to do to improve things? I had a PPH so on iron tablets as am a bit anaemic - one of the midwives did say that anecdotally she has noticed this does seem to affect weight gain in the babies, even though it shouldn't make any difference.
Apologies for the length of this.