losing confidence (again)

[canadajin]

Sorry, just need to get this out of my head and talk to someone other than (very supportive) DH.

Had 9 week old DD weighed this morning and has only gained 2 oz in two weeks. Was 6lbs 6oz at birth and was gaining slowly but steadily on the 2nd centile until she got bronchiolitis and spent 5 days in hospital.

10 days after she got out had put on 8oz but was on the very bottom of growth charts.

She's now off the bottom....grr.

DS was tiny too and really slow to gain weight, didn't make it past the 2nd centile until he was 6 months old and I stopped BF. Because of pressure from HVs on his weight he was mixed fed until 6 months.

DD has been BF really well (at least I thought so) but does have a bottle at night so DH can have some time with her. Only started this 2.5 weeks ago and hasn't affected her latch or anything.

HV was supportive this morning and didn't send me off panicking, but am now worried I'll be struggling with weight gain all over again. She advised to feed more often during the day. I'm already feeding on demand (every 3-4 hours in the day - sometimes more, every hour in the evening until the bottle). But, DS is 17 months old and not sure how many more feeds I can squeeze in without ignoring him completely.

DD looks to be thriving in every other way: very very alert, smiling since 6 weeks, sleeps well at night.

Please tell me it's going to be fine and that I can't give up BF.

:( sorry you're feeling down about this, canadajin

Your HV is spot on - if there are concerns about a baby's weight, then the simplest answer is to get more milk into him/her. In your DD's case, the slow weight gain is explainable by illness and she may need extra 'help' to bounce back from that. Clearly she is otherwise fine and healthy from what you say.

3-4 hourly is not often at all for a slow gaining small baby, even with the cluster feeding in the evening, and the evening bottle will not be helping your milk supply - long gaps between breastfeeds reduce supply. Sometimes, happy babies with a laid back personality get into the way of not demanding much, and this is when you take a more pro-active approach. If you keep her close in a sling you will end up feeding more often as you will see early feeding cues. Use at least 2 and possibly 3 or 4 breasts each time, when you can :)
You might want to drop that bottle at least for the time being.

Hope this helps.

thanks, will try feeding her as much as humanly possible. Hopefully that will help. Wish me luck!

She's not having green poos is she? We had an issue with poor positioning meaning my LO was struggling to get the fattier milk and that really affected her weight, but green frothy poo is the classic sign of fore/hind-milk imbalance,

nope - it's classic yellow korma when it comes (massively, every 2-3 days). I was wondering that too. Just frustrating as thought feeding on demand would have had her gaining well. Will follow tiktok's advice and HV asked us to come back in a week.