Baby girl, 26 weeks, no weight gain since more than three weeks ago, long sorry because I am stressing out. Again.

[monal]

Sorry this is such an essay by the way, feel free to cut to the last sentence.

She was 4.24kg when she was born, so quite big, and we had a rocky start as she didn't get back to her birthweight for more than three weeks, was very hungry, not draining the breast properly, poor latch, very stressful for all concerned. I used nipple shields for four months and they actually helped her to get more milk apparently, without them it mostly dribbled down my front. She was checked by a lactation consultant who suggested posterior tongue tie and lip tie, however neither her paediatrician or the stomatologist we saw thought there was anything worth revising (we are in France. My midwife when I asked about tongue tie before she was born said, "ugh, I think only anglophone babies have tongue tie"). Anyway, for what it's worth she's been fine without the shields for the last two months, or so I thought, and my boobs are also fine.

Her weight gain for the first few months was great after the rocky start, I weighed her daily and she regularly put on 100g a day. She followed a line somewhere in between the 85th and 97th percentile on the WHO chart (to the horror of the paed who thought I should feed her less). I stopped weighing her daily and tried to cut down to every week or so. On November 24th she weighed 8.49kg and so she'd doubled her birthweight, at some point in between I weighed her again and she was up to 8.6, but I weighed her today and she's at 8.49kg again. Same scales, weighing her naked.

I started trying her on solids at the weekend, but she's had a fragment of banana and a scrap of broccoli at most and her BFing habits haven't changed as a result. She's learned to roll front to back but not back to front, she's not crawling, so she's not suddenly getting massive amounts of exercise or anything. She seems perfectly cheerful in herself, not unwell. Generally adorable. Wee and poo normal for her, she doesn't poo every day but about twice in every three days, runny BF poo.

She's been waking up crying in the night every couple of hours for the last 3 weeks as well, and I thought it was wind because she is always super farty when she wakes up crying as well. She'll eat and then wake up again an hour or two hours later. She'll sometimes go back to sleep just with rocking but nothing to eat, so I assumed she wasn't actually hungry (before four months she was regularly sleeping 11pm-7am).

I am going to stop solids for just now, offer feeds more regularly, feed her every time she cries in the night wind be damned, and see if it makes a difference, but what I want to know is, how worried should I be? Is there anything else I should try? Should I take her to my slightly obesity-obsessed, thinks-I-should-have-weaned-at-4-months paediatrician or should I wait? I know weight gain slows but nothing in 3 weeks?

surely, by this age, you'd know if she was hungry? She'd wail and scream and be totally miserable, and you'd do something about it!
I know NOTHING about this, so don't take my advice (!), but I reckon that babies/children don't put on weight on a straight line. Mine have all done the 'eat everything in sight for 3 weeks' thing, and then suddenly elongated, almost overnight - while not eating so much.
I wouldn't worry. She sounds lovely.

Double her birthweight by 6 months is the guideline I believe so she hit it early and if she's still at that level there is nothing to worry about. Honestly if she is happy and healthy then step away from the scales!

I say this as a previously weight obsessed mother myself - my DD was prem and tongue tied - it is easy to get addicted to weight as a measure of well being and ignore other factors like how she seems in herself, which by 6 months is actually a better guide than weight.

And if she's waking crying for feeds, feed her more. There is a growth spurt at 6 months I believe so it's not surprising if she does want some more feeds. And maybe some more solids . There's also a development spurt which can cause more wake ups.

Watch out for banana - DD loved it but it made her horribly constipated, apparently this is quite common. Pear is a good starter food as is sweet potato.

monal, I think this is a confidence issue, not a weight or feeding issue.

Totally understandable, because of your early history, of slow-to-gain and worries about intake....but honestly not worth it now your baby is a clearly healthy 6 mth old who does not even need to be weighed more often than 2 mthly (tops) in line with current guidance from (UK) Royal College of paediartrics and child health.

She cannot have gained 100g a day - this has to be a typo. 700g a week? If she did appear to gain 100g a day then your scales are w....a....y out :) If you are using the same scales, then it's really even more pointless weighing her!

Just feed her according to her cues and continue adding small amounts of solids which she can enjoy feeding herself (see BLW).

So what if she has not put on weight for three weeks? This is well within normal for older, healthy babies. I don't think weighing her is helping anyone - would it not be better just to stop?

Not every day, no, don't worry, but there were days when her weight went up by 100g. One of the reasons why weighing a baby daily is silly, right? And my scales agree with the doctor's when I go, so they're at least more or less reliable I promise.

I agree that it's a confidence issue and I'm glad to hear you all say that three weeks with no weight gain is normal. I will back away from the scales. She looks pretty healthy and acts pretty happy so I'll just relax. I thought I had relaxed and thereby inadvertently missed some major problem. And breathe.

Thank you all so much.

So glad I read this thread my 27 week old hasn't put on weight for 3 weeks. However she's growing out of all her 6-9month clothes and suddenly looks much longer.