Weight Loss in 4 month old

[TicTacsMum]

DD (19 weeks) got weighed at hospital yesterday after a 'floppy episode' which they have put down to 'non specific febrile illness'. After a horrible, horrible day yesterday she seems pretty much back to normal now.

When she was weighed at the hospital I was horrified to see that she'd gone from 10lbs 15oz three weeks ago to 10lbs 13oz yesterday. This means she's actually dropped right off the centile chart.

The consultant didn't seem too bothered about it but i'm not sure what to do now. I know that if i speak to my hv she'll try to get me to introduce solids, which i don't really want to do. DD is exclusively bf and would ideally like to keep it to that till 26 weeks.

She takes about 6 feeds a day and has always been a good sleeper. She now goes down between 6 and 8 and i lift her to change her nappy and feed her at about 11pm. Sometimes she doesn't actually wake at this time and feeds in her sleep.

She is a very content baby and rarely cries. I think she is pretty normal on the development side. One thing which may be relevant is that she has started sucking her thumb - about three/four weeks ago - and probably not feeding for as long as she gets comfort from her thumb. Up till yesterday i didn't think this was a problem as i thought she was still getting as much, just not comfort sucking on me.

Not sure what to do......

Advice please??

TIA

TicTacsMum, i have a WHO chart for bf babies and at 5 months the weight of 10.13 is within the lowest mean line, this chart is from the kellysmom website.

Try not to worry and no food is higher in calories for a baby than breast milk, if dd is happy, sleeping well and has good wet nappies i would guess all is ok.

Could you do a feed in the early hours of the morning 3-4am?

matnanplus - have thought about the early morning feed but am loathe to wake her. Would if it was absolutely necessary of course.

Bear in mind that they are probably diffenrent scales and that alone may account for an apparent fluctuation. When dd discovered her thumb she dropped her night feeds and her weight gain tailed off. I had a week or so of more concerted effort to feed her more frequently during the day and she gained satisfactorily again.

thanks lizs. I have been making more of an effort to feed her frequently today, even though she isn't really 'asking' for it.

Hmmm. Just had a thought. If i'm feeding her when she isn't asking for it, do you think she'll take less at each feed and as a result not get enough hindmilk?

Thanks for responses. Anyone else any ideas?

I don't think so tictac. Apparently the thing with fore and hind milk is that it's all the same milk but there are fatty deposits in the breasts which the milk kind of strips away as it's sucked out. So the more milk is sucked out, the more fat it will contain. So if your breasts are constantly on the go, then the fat should be coming out all the time. I think. If you do a search on Tiktok's name and fore hind milk then you'll see her explanation. Anyway, doing lots of feeds will increase your supply so I can't see that it could be a bad thing for your LO

TTM, a two ounce weight loss could be accounted for by 'operator error' on the weighing, or different scales. If your baby is healthy, then at 19 weeks it is no more han a sign to get her weighed again in a week or so.

If you think she is short of calories, then simply feeding her more often at the breast would help.

OTOH, she is probably fine.

You don't need to be concerned that freq. feeding means less 'hindmilk' - Big Myth! As Corrie says, this isn't how it works :)

Thanks for the advice corrie & tiktok. Will have her attached to me constantly today!!