Weight gain slowed right down in breastfed baby

[pacinofan]

Dd2 is 15 weeks, up until 3 weeks ago her weekly weight gain has been anything from 7oz to 14oz. The last 3 weeks it has slowed right down to 3oz, last week only 2oz. She is still feeding a lot and seems content, no change in number of nappy changes, but I am worried about the slight weight gain. She was born early at only 5lb 5oz and I go to baby clinic every week, seeing the weight pile on has given me the confidence to continue breastfeeding. This week my confidence has taken a dive, not helped by recurrent mastitits, and I am now supplementing with formula but not really wanting to. Sorry for the waffle, any advice gratefully received. Should add, my HV thinks everything all ok but one or two (well-meaning) friends have suggested otherwise.

Pacino,she doesn't need formula!!
You are doing fine.
Weight gain will slow down over time.

Have faith in yourself and I hope some others will come along to boost your confidence.

I wouldn't even bother looking at the chart to be honest.They only freak people out.
If she is feeding well,alert and happy and producing lots of wet nappies,all should be well.

I agree with Moondog - don't worry. I had a teeny babe first time around and gave in to pressure to top up which was completely unecessary.
DD2 is 16 weeks and has slowed down loads too I think but have only had her weighed 3 times!
Keep feeding her often in this hot weather and try to drop the formula.
Good luck.

I agree - DON'T WORRY!
You don't need formula!
It's entirely normal for breastfed babies to slow down in weight gain at around this age. Totally, totally normal.
And they don't have to track the percentile thingys either.
My dd's both started on the 98th for weight at birth and then went down gradually to the 50th, where they stayed. They are five and three now and very healthy.

As emkana says you expect the weight gain to slow down at this stage with bfed babes. Keep going, you're doing the right thing.

It sounds fine and normal, pacinofan, honest. As long as she's gaining overall, it's not a problem for the week-by-week gain to slow down like that.

You don't need to supplement. You say she feeds plenty, is content, pooing and weeing okay, actve and alert as usual? Carry on with the breastfeeding exactly the way you were (are you getting help with the mastitis?) and try not to panic, because you're doing great.

(and don't look at the charts either )

Agree with everything said here, pacinofan (hey - I adore Al Pacino as well!!!!) .
Your baby is following a totally normal pattern. A weight gain of 7-14 ounces a week has to slow down at some point - she gained beautifully quickly, making up for her early start and her light weight. Now she's changing in a perfectly normal, physiological way.

You risk messing things up with formula, honestly.....you don't want to give it, she doesn't need it, the HV has confirmed all is well, so you can simply stop!

The weight gain chart is based on bottle fed babies so don't fret too much. With my ds his weight started to slow between 12 and 15 weeks and he started dipping on the chart, I thought this was down to me and kept thinking I wasn't producing enough milk, and he was getting really fussing at the breast, so after 15 weeks I gave up breast feeding. I do wish I had carried on though. I'm going to try for longer this time round if I can, new bubs is due in 3 weeks.

Burstingbug, the charts aren't based on bottlefed babies, they're based on babies fed in all sorts of ways.

I was told that they were based on bottle fed and that there wasn't a chart based on breast fed or mixed fed.
Well, that just goes to show how good my hv's are at facts then!

BB - do you have the chance to tell your HVs how misinformed they were?

pacinofan - my ds did this too. His weight galloped up the graph until 15 weeks where it slowed right down. Between 15 and 22 weeks, he only gained about 1oz per week. But note the word gained. He was still gaining, not losing or staying still. The HV started to mention babyrice. I ignored her and in weeks 23 to 26, he gained well over a pound on breastmilk alone. So, if you don't want to give formula, then don't and well done for getting this far

Pacinofan-ignore the chartsand your well-meaning friends. Weight gain is often variable - my dd2 had put on 7ozs in 3weeks but I'm not worried.She was born on the 91st centile and is now just over the 25th - but she is fine and the hv thinks she is fine.

Trust your instincts and stop the formula - your baby doesn't need it.

Bustingbug- I will be posting a success story in 3 weeks. DD2 is 23 weeks and is exclusively bf am waiting until 26 weeks to cheer from the rooftops!

I gave up bf dd1 after 10 weeks and like you was determined to be more successful 2nd timearound it can be done.

I saw the hv yesterday, not due to see her again for a bit - it was a pre visit before new baby arrives. As soon as I have chance to see her again, I shall mention it.

My hv is going to provide some transparencies for purely bf babies so they are more meaningful - but I'm not that bothered about the charts (was first time around) and now rely on my judgement.

My health visitor says so long as they are weeing and pooing ok and that Mum is happy with weight gain everything ok.

Just wondering do you think the heat could be anything to do with it??

Keep breastfeeding you are doing brilliantly

Judgement is likely to be far better than charts alone, hotmama. The transparencies your HV is talking about are probably the 'thrive lines' which give a more accurate picture of comparative growth (I don't think they are for bf babies, but maybe she means something else).

Charts in current use in the UK come from data sets of UK babies fed in all different ways. They don't differ that much from the newer WHO breastfed charts, except that the WHO charts show babies gaining slightly more quickly at first and then slowing down from about four-five months. Pacinofan's baby would probably match these WHO charts more closely, but it doesn't matter - in Pacinofan's case, this is a healthy baby whose very fast weight gain is now slowing, as it would be expected to. No baby continues gaining 7-14 ounces a week without slowing down drastically at some point....do the maths!!

My midwife also said to me yesterday that the charts were from formula fed babies at our local breastfeeding cafe, to which i replied "oh, i thought they were based on both breastfed and bottle fed babies" (havinh read your previous post about this) but she disagreed and my local midwives and hvs are normally great (surestart area, lots of emphasis placed on reading up on latest research and everyone within midwifery/hv team giving consistent advice). Do you know of any links where they explain growth charts based on a cross section of babies that i could take along next week?

If you want charts for bf babies- there are someon kellymom.com- they were helpful to look at (as in a lot of the stuff on this website) when I was getting a bit 'wobbly' in the early weeks - but I think I have chilled out a bit- at least I don't seem to be posting with queries quite so often.

Everything fine in my opinion. Don't forget we've had a really hot few weeks and she may be taking more foremilk to quench her thirst than hindmilk. All weightgain starts to slow at some point and she sounds as though she is perfectly normal. Honestly - she's fine and you're doing a good job of feeding her.

i heard they produced new charts for breastfed babies just about when my baby was born 8 weeks ago. i asked my hv to get me one for my red baby health book and she looked at me like 'eh?!' anyway she came back the next week all pleased with herself cos she'd got one for me. then when i took my baby for her first doctors check at 6 weeks, he was most impressed and surprised that i had breastfed baby charts. he looked at the normal chart and thought i'd never had my baby weighed! if i hadn't asked, i wouldn't have got.

Honestly, I am dismayed that health professionals are trotting out this erroneous stuff about charts in the UK being for formula fed babies. As if!? So out of all the thousands of babies whose weight has been recorded to formulate the charts, the researchers have systematically selected only formula fed ones? Do they really think things work like that? The babies in the data sets were fed in all sorts of ways, which were not differentiated.

Littleducks, your very nice but very uninformed midwives etc need to use a bit of common sense, and also look at this which is an academic paper underlining the recommendations to use UK 90. UK 90 is the name of the charts issued in the UK in 1990 and used almost everywhere since about the mid-90s, replacing previous charts that were also based on thousands of babies, whose feeding was again undifferentiated.

I can't find anywhere that says 'these charts are based on formula fed babies' because no one sensible in the healthcare professions would even think that they were - the paper talks about 'healthy babies', I think, as being the 'candidates'.

Currently there are two lots of 'breastfed baby' charts floating around. One set is from the Child Growth Foundation, which is based on a very small number of babies in Cambridge - so it really is not enough of a mix or quantity to apply generally, and this is why it has not been adopted. The other set is from the World Health Organisation, and this is of a large sample of breastfed babies who were born at term and whose mothers were given bf support, and who fed more or less exclusively breast till 6 months. This is, unusually, a data set where the babies were differentiated, deliberately so.

So, UK 90 shows babies 'as they are' - it's a picture of the UK population. WHO charts show babies 'as they should be' - a picture of babies round the world fed according to the biological norm for our species.

Whichever you use, charts can only give you one small assessment of a baby's health. Individuals have their own individual needs and pattern.

And just to add: breastfed babies don't grow more slowly than formula fed babies, at least not at first. It's only after about 4-5 months that the WHO charts show bf babies falling away from the UK 90 chart.

tiktok, thanks that link is brill all i could find when i googled was a bbc article that paper will carry alot more weight.
pacinofan, sorry for thread hijack and good luck with you with your dd.