Regaining birth weight - help!

[MonkeeMummy]

OK, I am panicking so apologies in advance but my BF DD is 11 days old and hasn't regained her birth weight. She lost 8% of her birthweight and is gaining slowly but is still a way off (3375g at birth now 3160g). I thought everything was fine; she's my third BF baby, my latch is fine, she is happy when she comes off the breast, plenty of wet/dirty nappies etc and feeding at least every 3hrs during the day (4hrs at night). In other words, I'm ticking all the right boxes but she's not gaining enough weight. What am I doing wrong...? The midwife muttered about seeing the HV and feeding plans today if she hadn't regained her birth weight by 2 weeks - eek! And help.

Every 3 hours was never enough for my babies, in fact I was feeding at least hourly until 6 weeks. She is gaining though so I don't think you are doing anything wrong, but I would just feed more, whenever she makes a sound.

Ok here are some suggestions to get some more milk in to your DD...

• switch feed ie. offer one breast, then the other then back to the the first side and so on.
• can you feed a bit more frequently? Ideally every two hours for a bit.
• You could try breast compressions (if you google Dr Jack Newman, there are some videos clips of this)
• Lots of skin to skin is great too - if you can get a day or two in bed with just you and DD even better. (hard I know with two other DCs).

Try not to panic- you say she's gaining which is good, it might be that she is just a slow gainer, but you can try these suggestions and see if that makes a difference.

HTH

Good suggestions - especially about feeding at least both breasts and more often. 3 hrly and then 4 hrly at night is not usually anything like as often as most babies of 11 days , so lots of scope to get more milk into her :)

(wondering why the midwife never said any of this....:( )

Thank you for your speedy replies and helpful suggestions. Babymooning would be my first choice, too, but not while the children are on school hols. My midwife did tell me not to go more than 3hrs between feeds, which I wouldn't anyway because I'd be leaking but I'll set an alarm for night-time and switch sides more often. I always worry about switching sides too quickly because I have a lot of milk and worry she would just be getting the foremilk from both breasts and filling up before reaching the hindmilk. How long on each breast please. Thanks.

Dont worry the hindmilk foremilk thing. Kellymom.com has a great article explaining how there is only one breastmilk we produce. You can switch sides whenever your LO unlatches or falls asleep? Timing isn't a good indicator because every baby is different. For example my DD is always a efficient feeder, doing only 15min feeds as a newborn. And you know there are babies doing 40min feeds!

If you think your breast feels quite full after a feed, you can try lengthening it by keeping baby awake. Kellymom.com has a bunch of suggestions. I really like the deep breathing one. Works better for us than stroking chin, feet etc.