topping up with formula?

[emilie89]

Hi,

I have just come back from a stressful visit with my HV and am quite upset. My son is 9 weeks old and was quite small at birth 5lbs 10ozs, he now weighs 7lbs 14ozs. Apparently he is severely underweight and looks it (!), I knew he looked small but I presumed that was because he was small when he was born. He has always had good nappies, lots of yellow poos and he wees loads (mainly on me!). He is very alert and happy most of the time, he is smiling and is developing normally (confirmed by Dr today).

We did have some problems with feeding at 1st and he was slow to gain weight so I was told to express (to keep milk supply up) and give that to him after feeds, which I did and he got to 6lbs 3ozs by the time he was 3 weeks old which my midwife seemed happy with at the time. I have had my latch checked at a BFing support group which was confirmed as good and I have never had any pain in my nipples or boobs. However my baby doesn't feed for very long and still at 9 weeks wants feeding every couple of hours. I presumed this was because he had a smaller tummy.

Anyway, my HV seemed to thinking he was half dead from starvation and that I hadn't been paying enough attention to his weight gain. I was only visited at home once by her (didn't check his weight) and then told to go to baby clinic at 8 weeks for a check up. I have never noticed any signs that he is dehydrated and he is content so didn't feel the need to have any extra checks. I now feel awful about this obviously and feel as if I have neglected my son.

She has told me to top up 3 to 4 ounces after every BF and they will check his weight again next week. If he has not gained enough he will be referred to the hospital. I am going to top up even though I didn't want to give him formula at this age and I feel like an awful failure but feel like I have to listen to her.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Ideally I would like to go back to EBF, will this be possible? Going to try and express as much as possible as well to try and keep my supply up, although know I am going to end up feeling like a big massive milking machine :(!

This is my first baby and I feel awful and that I haven't been observant enough of my babies needs.

Did she only drop one centile? Mine went from 75th to below the 25th and I was never told he hadn't gained enough.

I'm surprised that they advised topping up after only dropping 1 centile. DS was born on 50th, dropped to 25th, even dipped a bit under and they just said feed as much as you can. He went back up to 50th again.

Yes and worth mentioning too that some babies experience nipple confusion and a reduction in supply in the long term by mixed feeding.

Glad that it worked out for you stabiliser and you are obviously happy with things now, but the advice to top up probably wasn't necessary from what you've described.

I like this article from analytical armadillo

Oh and emilie- I think it's terrible that you should have to wait up to 2 hours to get your baby weighed.

Don't forget that once they reach their birth weight, then the guidelines recommend weighing once a month.

Rita, Cosmosis - I think the advice was as much for me as well as in relation to DD's weight. I was exhausted and tearful and felt like I was in a viscious circle of not enough sleep and rest between feeds to have sufficient milk to give DD a decent feed meaning she needed to feed more often and on it went.

I was resolutely refusing to introduce formula because I wanted to ebf, despite DH and my mum trying to tell me it wouldnt be the end of the world and that my exhaustion was probably impacting on feeding. I felt like I didnt want to give her formula to benefit me, probably not recognising that my exhaustion was helping no one.

I suspect my very nice HV recognised that and mentioned weight as the reason, when it was probably for a combination of things that topping up was recommended.

Also I agree with crikeybadger and these are things which did worry me, so guess I have been lucky it was a positive experience.

stabiliser- He took it fine, he always enjoys having a bottle and it didn't seem to make any difference that is was formula. Although he was still whining afterwards so put him back on the breast and he sucked for a couple of minutes and fell asleep. I guess he just wanted the comfort. :(

badger- Good article, it just confirms everything that I think I already know/feel. I'm just finding it hard to ignore the advice of the HV as this is my 1st baby and I guess I still don't quite trust my abilities to make decisions without the help of "professionals". She made me feel so dreadful on tuesday and i know she will make me feel even worse next week if baby hasn't gained acceptable weight.

Sorry for continuous moaning and whining!

Yes, it's hard isn't it, trusting your body to do the right thing.

But unless your HV can come up with a medical reason why your baby needs formula, then the decion has to be yours.

You know what your baby is like and how he is behaving. The weight is just one way of assessing his development.

You've seen your GP and he didn't seemed alarmed from what you've written. Your HV needs to be able to give you good reasons for topping up.

She has no right to make you feel this bad when by my calculations, your baby has gained an average of 4 oz per week.

If he needs more milk- then you have it - right there in your boobs.

I really think you would benefit from a chat with one of the bf helplines - they may have some tips.