Really hoping for a bit of clarity here after 9 weeks of ebf and constant worry about my baby son's weight. Feeling like it might be time, for his sake, to admit defeat and add in formula rather than risk his health and development.
I'll try to give all the details since I don't really know what might be important!
He was born at 3.7kg and took to bfing easily in the first 24 hours so got some colostrum. Next day or two barely fed at all, he was so sleepy I just couldn't keep him going. He lost just over 10% of his weight. After that though, things picked up and seemed to be working out. The bf-ing has been straightforward. I seem to be able to latch him on well, have had no problems with my nipples/ boobs other than a painful let down in the first few weeks. I have fed him on demand which has been something like 12 feeds a day, gradually decreasing down to around 6, usually for 30-45 minutes. I tend to offer, for e.g. Right breast until he comes off then left (very short feed on 2nd), next time start with left offering right after, and so on.
In some ways things have gone well, like escaping many of the nipple/pain/latch problems many people seem to have, the fact that he always has plenty of wet and dirty nappies (probably 4-5 of each daily).
The problem however is that despite looking healthy and hydrated he has been really slow to gain weight. Reached birthweight around 5 weeks and just really slow ongoing gain such that he has gradually dropped down to the 2nd centile, and may even be dropping from there.
HV is reasonably relaxed about it, agreeing with us that the large amount of fluid I received in labour may have exaggarated his birth weight -he never really looked like an 8lb 2lb baby except in his first, very bloated 24 hours. But that isn't enough to explain his ongoing slow weight gain.
My own thoughts are that i am producing huge amounts of foremilk and this is the problem. I think this because i get very engorged rapidly, i often spurt (!) very thin watery milk, he gets very windy and distressed frequently, and often even after a very long feed (when i can feel him suck and swallow well) i notice that i can still express very watery milk and he is hungry agan after 20mins or so. I think this problem is getting worse and worse. I notice he seems hungrier and fussier at the breast, latching on and off. He is windier and we've now had some green nappies (for the first time, this weekend). It's quite rare now that i'll see the thicker, creamier looking milk beading on my nipple or spilling from his mouth at the end of a feed.
I'm just not sure what to do now. I keep reading conflicting things on whether or not the foremilk/hindmilk ratio matters. I had wanted to ebf until 6 months but feel like i might be doing this at his cost.
Does it sound like a fm/hm problem? Can I do anything about that? Any other thoughts?