9 week old LOSING weight.

[debka]

DD2 was 10.6 at birth, but the fattest little thing- I had undiagnosed Gestational Diabetes.

11.12 at 7 weeks. Had her weighed this week at 9 weeks- now 11.6.

She's ebf and I thought was feeding very well, haven't had any problems. She has about 7 feeds a day and sleeps 8pm - 6am at night, and sleeps well in the day. She is bright and alert when awake and doing all the 'right things' developmentally. She seems healthy, but to LOSE weight????

Dr says it's just her evening out after the GD and not to worry.

What do you all think, and would you try to feed her more?

I'm not qualified in any way to give advice, but I would do what the doctor says, and keep an eye on her.

She sounds absolutely fine from your post, and I think it is common for big babies to 'even' out, btw.

Try not to worry; keep an eye on her and take her back to the doc if she seems listless.

How many centiles has she dropped Debka?

I suppose the easiest way to increase the weight is to get more milk in to her.

You can do this by-
Offering the breast more often.
Offering both sides at each feeding.
Feeding her in the night (something you probably won't want to do unless things are desperate!)
Breast compression.

I guess if the GP isn't worried and she seems fine to you in all other aspects then it could just be a blip.

If she was artificially big at birth, then maybe she is just finding her "natural" weight? If anything GPs tend to be over-cautious with babies and advise top-ups at any hint of a problem, so if yours is confident everything is fine I'd believe him.

what crikeybadger said just try and get more milk into her

losing weight is not great but might be finding her own weight like RitaMorgan said particularly given you had GS

what about output - poos/wees although at 7 weeks they can start going longer between poos. when she was younger - say 2/3 weeks old, did she do a good 2/3 poos a day?

keep an eye on it. she might gain lots next week...

go to a bf support group?

How many centiles has she dropped? Dropping up to 2 is considered okay usually and that's without a higher-than-should-have-been birth weight.

The same thing happened with my son 6 years ago and they pretty much railroaded me into topping up with formula (that's how it felt anyway) Really he was just meant to be a stick baby not the chubbo he was born due to my not so brilliantly controlled diabetes. If it helps at all we continued to breastfeed past that till he went on nursing strike at 6 months.

It's up to you what you do about this, if anything. Maybe wait and see?

Hi everyone- thanks for replies.

She dropped from the 99th down to the 50th in weight. 75th for height.

Having posted this question she's started feeding a lot more frequently- every 2 hours or so yesterday (thankfully night time was same as before!). Fingers crossed she keeps it up and starts gaining again.

notthewowy I think she is destined to be a stick baby too- her sister was/is.

Right...

Incredible Shrinking Baby is now 12 weeks and has lost MORE weight. She is now 11.4, and on 25th centile. 3 weeks ago was on 50th, born on 99th. HV was v sensible and said not to worry, just to go to breast feeding support group for some more tips.

She still seems happy and healthy, bright and alert and doing all the right things. She goes 9 hours at night, then every 2-3 during the day. She doesn't always seem to feed that well though, lots of sucking, not much swallowing. I'm trying breast compression which seems to be doing something. Any other ideas o wise ones?

My DS is 12 weeks too :)

Breast compression worked well for me - could see DS' sucks change when I did it, so from my experience, keep doing that. Have you had your latch checked to make sure it's ok?

Would you be up for feeding her ar night? 9 hours is quite a long time to go without a feed. Great that she's sleeping obviously, but a night feed doesn't necessarily mean you have to sacrifice a lot of sleep - DS barely wakes up most of the time, I believe it's something like a dream feed.