help! reflux or supply issues or both?

[wellieboots]

my awesome little girl is
6 weeks today. she is so far ebf, but we've discovered today that she's only gained 70 grams in the last week and a half.
She had started doing linger sleeps at night, so doesn't always take a night feed. I hadn't really been counting the feeds she is taking, but will need to now! could the longer sleeps have affected my supply? She's also become more pukey, quite windy, and needs to be upright, so they're thinking reflux potentially and seeing the paed tomorrow. don't know what to do for the best, thought the feeding was the only bit of this parenting malarkey that we had sorted! am I nor feeding enough and need to wake her rather than doing on demand? anyone got any hints and tips for reflux other than meds? and increasing supply, anything else other than feeding as much as poss or expressing, any ideas?

thanks, so worried

How has her weight gain been apart from the last week? It might be an anomaly, bf babies don't always gain in regular amounts.

When is she feeding/sleeping at night? I was advised to make sure I did at least one feed between 12-6am. At 6 weeks I wouldn't have thought you'd want her to go longer than 4 hrs at night anyway, and during the day 2-3 hrs. It is really hard to keep track though I know.

You can try breast compression to get milk flowing during feeding, offering 2nd breast at each sitting and/or switch feeding. Some people use fenugreek to increase supply but I don't know if it actually works.

However she may just not have gained as much this week. If her weight gain has otherwise been fine, she is healthy, alert & filling nappies, I would give it a week or so and see the bigger picture.

What weight is she. My ebf LO has good weight gain and poor weight gain weeks I think it's normal esp if bigger to start with. She also slept for long stretches 8/9 hours from 5 weeks

wellie - it's the overall pattern of weight and health that's significant.

Longer sleeps definitely affect supply and night feeds are not usually dropped as early as this - but there can't be any conclusion drawn without more info about how your baby's been growing.

thanks everyone. She was 3.73kg at birth, 3.94 on day 12. so all going fine at that point. Yesterday she was only 4.39, having been 4.23 at 3 wks and 4.31 at 10 days ago, so something is tailing off somewhere! shes been a bit fussy at the breast the last few days, but I'm just really confused, I was being told to feed on demand every 3-5 hours in the day and whenever she woke at night. I was doing that! I told them when she started to do the long sleep at night, (about 12 days ago) and they said fine because its at night! I now feel like a bad mum!

Not sure why she is being weighed so often, wellie. Is there some other health problem? Normal good practice is not to weigh babies who have achieved birthweight more often than monthly - though often people do have their babies weighed more often, though for no good reason :)

If you think she does need more milk - and I agree the weight gain is slow though not alarmingly so, if she is fine in every other way - then you can easily feed her more often. 3-5 times in the day and not at night if she does not wake is very infrequent for most babies of her age and it's unusual advice, too. You cannot feed 'on demand 3-5 hourly' !!

Maybe she's only been having 5 or 6 feeds in 24 hours, and for most babies of this age this would be not sufficient to maintain a good supply and a good intake....happily you can fix this easily and quickly - much more frequent feeding, switch nursing, breast compressions should do the trick :)

I fed DS 1-2 hourly for the first few months. He also has reflux and found small feeds easier. They made him less sicky & uncomfortable. Keeping him upright for 30 mins after each feed helped. As did raising the cot at one end with books