Help with 10 day old weight loss....ebf

[snowchick1977]

Hi

After a bit of advice re:dd she was born 10 days ago and ebf. She weighed 6lb 14 at birth and went down to 6lb 3 in hospital. When we came back home her weight increased to 6lb 5 on day 5 which was good.

Today the midwife returned to discharge us and she has lost weight and is now back down to 6lb 3 again.

Im a bit worried. The midwife said that if she hasnt gained weight by Thursday she is going to refer us to a lactation consultant.

She feeds well (15minutes) every 3 hours. She isnt crying a lot or restless. She is sleeping a lot though, but is not overly lethargic. She has good colour and is alert when awake.

Has anyone had a similar experience? What can I do to help her? Is my milk naff? I dont really want to top her up with any formula just yet, but I guess I am going to have to if they say so.

Any advice would be brilliant....thank you x

Hi, there are a couple of things you might want to try before Thursday, Perhaps you are doing this already so ignore if you are! Try feeding from one side only per feed, as this will ensure your baby gets both fore and hind milk, the hind milk being full of the rich creamy stuff that makes babies gain weight. Secondly you could try feeding your baby more often, try 2 hourly, a lot is trial and error, your midwife will keep an eye on the weight and often it just takes a little time to settle in. Make sure you drink plenty of water yourself and eat Carbs to make milk. I have never heard of naff breast milk so just see how you go! Don't worry too much about having to top up with formula, I know many people who have done this In the first few weeks then gone to to exclusive breast feeding afterwards. Good luck!

Congratulations on your new dd snowchick. Has the mw kept you on her books and did she check for tongue tie?

I don't think your milk is naff at all but feeding every 3 hours at 10 days doesn't seem very much. I'd try waking her every 2 hours for a feed, no matter how small and feed her whenever she asks for it too.

Hopefully someone with experience will be along soon....

Could the mw refer you to a lactation consultant before thu too? If there is a problem with transferring your milk, it would be better to get it sorted sooner rather than later.

Your milk will be just fine (and won't be fortified by eating carbs by the way, or drinking gallons of water.)

Regarding the weigh ins- are you happy that these figures are accurate? Have they always been done with a naked baby and on digital scales?

Did the mw give you any suggestions for how to increase milk intake? I would suggest feeding from one breast and then offering the other one. You could also try breast compressions and I agree with JJJ to offer more frequently. Could you stay in bed for a couple of mornings and just hold your DD skin to skin and offer the breast at every squeak?

Finally did the mw look at your latch? Are your nipples sore? It could be that it needs a little bit of tweaking to ensure good milk transfer.

Actually cricket that is a very good point about the scales, know that there was an instance with my dd at around that age where she was definitely incorrectly.

Bloody ipad. Crikey not cricket[hblush]

Cricketbadger has quite a nice ring to it actually.

I wouldn't restrict the baby to one side per feed - you want to wait til the baby comes off one side and then offer the other, and then go back again to make sure the baby gets as much milk as possible. Restricting to one side per feed is actually a technique to reduce supply, so won't ensure the baby gets more milk or calories.

Definitely feed more often as well, at least 10-12 times in 24 hours but more if possible, and as many sides as possible each time.

If it helps, mine needed waking every 2 hours for feeds (still does) or he wasn't eating enough and was dropping weight. So definitely worth trying to feed your baby more often! The difference between every 3 hours and every 2, is 8 feeds to 12 feeds - massive!

Really, really important not to feed one side only when trying to increase milk into baby - mangotreepink, you are right about increasing frequency of feeds, but not right on this, sorry.

It is very rare that anyone needs to have slightest concern about fore/hindmilk and deliberately feeding one side only and withholding one side reduces production and volume of intake, see here:

www.nancymohrbacher.com/blog/2010/6/27/worries-about-foremilk-and-hindmilk.html

snowchick , 3 hrly feeding ie 8 x in 24 hours is usually some way below what is needed to increase a baby's intake so she stops losing weight. You could nicely double that if you can, even if some of the feeds are short and close together. If you treat this quite intensely for a few days, all should be well :)

Water and carbs irrelevant, BTW, too :)