2 week old not gaining weight

[emilie89]

Hello, I am worried about my 2 week old son. After thinking we were doing pretty well with the bf ing, I am now in a real state after a midwife visit yesterday. Ds was quite small at birth, only 5lbs 9ozs he then lost weight but it was within 10% of his birth weight, he then gained 80g but since then he hasn't gained anymore. The midwife came yesterday and helped with positions and the latch but I've struggled doing it on my own. Ds has a really small mouth and my nipples are quite big and I just can't seem to shovel it all in there. The midwife seemed to think he wasn't getting enough breast In his mouth.

I was surprised that she thought we were doing so badly as I have had no problems with sore nipples etc and ds is definitely not dehydrated as he has lots of wet nappies and his poo is a good colour and regular. He also seems content although I am now convinced that this is because he is too weak to be anything else!

The midwife has told me to express and give him a bottle when he had finished on the breast but I haven't been able to do that either.I'm using an avent manual pump and I just can't get anything from it.

I just feel so guilty and like I am failing to feed my little boy properly. He is so small and I want him to be able to thrive.
Does anyone have any advice?

Perservere with pumping - it's a learned skill for many. Ironically, the more stressed you are, the harder pumping will be. Massage, compressions and warmth can all help.

Keep getting irl help with latch/position. Do you have a bfing clinic near you or a bfc who could help? Is the MW coming out again?

Don't feel guilty - a lot of people struggle. In our culture, we're not used to having bfing all around us so lots of Mums need outside help.

I agree you want to get real life help to check the latch.

How often is he feeding, and do you offer both sides (or more - after the second side you can go back to the first and so on) each time? I am no expert, so you would want to discuss this with a bfc and/or your midwife, but once the latch is sorted you might find it more effective to fit in more feeds per day plus more sides per feed, rather than or in addition to the expressing and bottlefeeding.

If you're not sore and he's producing lots of nappies then you can't be doing that badly!

It may just be he needs more milk - personally I find expressing and bottlefeeding a total faff so that wouldn't be my first choice, but I'd try as Ruffles says feeding more often and swapping back and forth between sides 2,3,4 times each feed until he won't take any more.

My DS plateaued around then, too, and I felt exactly as you did. Then he just started gaining and I swear I didn't do anything differently. Wet/pooey nappies + happy baby = sofuckingwhat he doesn't follow a lovely curve of weight gain as far as me and my boy are concerned. Also a woman at a breastfeeding group I went to, her small DD didn't gain for 3 weeks, but that baby was so clearly fine - happy, alert, pooing and weeing etc. - she was just a slow starter. Just keep feeding him as much as poss, you are uniquely designed to do so. You spend the whole day with him - if he seems fine and he's definitely metabolising then you are probably doing fine.

FWIW mine jumped back up to birth weight just after two weeks, having not gained at all for a week, putting on 170grams in 4 days. Then he did a bit of 'normal' growth (followed a curve) until he had another plateau at 4-5 weeks, then put on a kilo in a month. HV and I have decided to weigh him less

... aidentally posted that, anyway, we're weighing him less often cos all it did was do my head in. Good luck

"cos all it did was do my head in. "

That's why the recommendation is only to weigh once a month once they have reached birth weight Sparklyboots.

*emilie8 - is your son back to birth weight yet?

As he gets bigger, he'll get stronger and his latch will improve. Can you just try and feed him a bit more frequently and see if that helps?