Could sleeping through the night cause weight gain to slow?

[mahaliha]

Ok I vowed not to stress over weight centiles etc, but it doesn't seem to be working! DD2 is almost 4 months old, ebf, and until recently was gaining weight along the 75th centile. Had her weighed today and she's only put on 7oz in the last 4 weeks and is now on the 50th centile.

She's been sleeping through the night for the last 3 weeks (last feed at 10-11pm, wakes up at 8-9am, sometimes later). She's completely fed on demand, we haven't "sleep trained" her or let her cry it out at night, this just seems to be her normal sleep pattern. While this is wonderful in terms of getting a full nights sleep, I was wondering if this could be causing her weight gain to slow as she's obviously not getting any milk at night. I also think my supply has decreased, but had oversupply issues before so this may be no bad thing! Has anyone any advice/experience?

TIA

It depends, has she upped her daytime intake? If not it could well have had an effect. if she has dropped feeds rather than replacing them during the day it's a bit like being on a diet. Could you encourage her to nurse more during the day?

Most babies' weight gain slows at 4 months doesn't it? My ds dropped a centile around then too (from above to 25th to below it) but he'd started feeding more often in the night. Other friends found the same, and one weaned her baby at 16 weeks because she was worried the baby had gone from the 90th to the 75th.

It could, but as she's done it herself, I don't think that it should be a reason for you to worry if that makes sense. Often breastfed babies' weight gain will plateau a bit at 4 month or so anyway.

If she is still gaining (even if she is gaining less) and she's alert, does plenty of wet nappies, seems contented etc, then I would think she's probably fine. If your supply has decreased it sounds like it is doing it in response to her feeding cues.

I think it's normal for their weight gain to slow at that age. DD went from way off the chart to sitting on the top line at 4/5 months. She increased feeds again a few weeks later and the night wakings returned. I just looked at how she was, how alert, how hydrated, weeing, pooing, meeting milestones etc.

But it's also quite a long stretch at night if the feeds haven't upped during the day so I suppose it makes logical sense that weight gain would decrease slightly on sleeping so much all of a sudden.

It is fairly common for babies weight gain to slow a little around this age you might find this helpful.

My DD dropped from 75th to 50th centile around this time or a bit earlier. She has since tracked that line.
HV said was absolutely normal for ebf babies.
I'd say as long as she is fed on demand in the day, plenty of wet nappies and is happy and alert, just go with it and be grateful.
I think the HV only really start to worry and then only slightly, if they drop two or more centiles.

Thanks everyone. It's hard to say if she's upped her daytime intake, she hasn't really increased the number of feeds (usually 6-7 per day) but she does seem to feed more efficiently (no more clicking, crying and latching off during feeding). HV says she must be getting enough milk during the day as she wouldn't sleep through the night otherwise, but I know they're not always experts on breastfeeding.

DD is otherwise thriving, she's happy and alert, certainly not acting as though she's constantly starving. In fact if I offer her the breast when she doesn't "ask" for it she gets annoyed! I'm wondering if she's adjusting to her true growth curve, my other 2 DC fell through the centiles during their first year and are still very small but very healthy!

I think HV logic makes sense on this point - if she was hungry, she'd be likely to wake up.