Slow weight gain / Green poo in BF baby, Help?

[IWantToBeADragon]

My 8 week old (on monday) baby, has slow weight gain, still not regained birth weight

3.940kg at birth
dropped to 3.560
then slowly gained about 2oz-80/100g a week since, shes now 3.90

I have been on fenugreek since day 5, and domperidone for a week now

Nothing seems to be helping her gain quicker top ups (of EBM) have been offered since day 3 but she still refuses bottles for most of them, and makes her self sick from crying forcing the bottle away.

This week her poo is becoming more and more green
could this be too much foremilk? The domperidone? She has a cold, could it be down too that?

Saw a pead (two weeks ago) who signed her off as she IS gaining, so apparently its not a worry, but she said that green poo is a sign of starvation, so of course im now driving myself crazy worrying about that as well as the slow gaining, and if i can help any other way

My HV said to me last week that they now no longer take any notice of the colour of babies poos i.e. whether its green/yellow/brown.

My baby's poo is mostly green and he's put on a pound since birth 6 weeks ago. He has dropped a centile but HV not concerned at this stage.

redcarrot - your HV is right. Colour of poo is not the issue - overall health, growth and development is.

(I do think red poo is a clinical emergency, though, but with this, the baby has obvious other symptoms, too www.patient.co.uk/doctor/intussusception-in-children)

First week - colour of poo is useful to know, though.

I wouldnt know where to start finding SNS, i read about them, but only on american sites, ill talk to DH, we have decided without a big gain, she will go on formula on friday after the appointment, i really hope it doesnt happen, but have no idea how else to help her gain... went to bed with her all day saturday, spent most of friday on the sofa with her.... she SHOULD have gained if it was underfeeding, but i dont know how it could have been underfeeding... IDK anymore, i just want to cry lol

Dragon i feel your pain. I have a 13 week old who is a very slow gainer. The last 2 weeks he only gained 1.5oz per week, he averaged about 3oz per week before that. Much to my dismay I have resorted to formula top ups as I was so distressed and I'm sure the stress was doing nothing for my supply. My most shocking experience was from a female gp who told me on Wednesday that she 'doesn't promote breastfeeding anyway as it puts too much pressure on mums'.

The midwife that runs the bf support group I go to each week is brilliant. She saw how upset I was when I weighed him last week and has been amazing since, calling me each day to see how I am etc. as a previous poster suggested, she told me to ask the gp to refer me to a nutritionist to check for cows milk allergy (the gp refused this).

My hv told me to ask for Motillium from the gp, normally an anti sickness tablet but a side effect is increased milk production...the gp refused this also.

So I left the gp surgery none the wiser, with no helpful advise other than basically to give up bf and just give formula.

I was very upset. On one hand I'm furious at the lack if support from the gp but on the other I'm thinking that maybe I'm being selfish and just thinking about myself, I should just think about my baby and maybe ff is the only option?! I just don't know.

I put my foot down with the gp as I really don't want to give up on bf, I finally managed to get a referral to a feeding consultant but this could take weeks.

In the meantime I am still bf, but giving 2oz of formula after each feed, just do I know he's getting something, the hv suggested to do this so that he maybe had more energy to feed better at the next feed. I'm also drinking fennel tea like it's going out if fashion and eating porridge for breakfast, fennel and oats are meant to he good for milk production.

It's very upsetting, and not many people tell you how amazing and selfless you're being by working so hard to nourish your baby. Well done on persisting, I don't want to hang my boobs up yet either, if I get any suggestions soon I'll come back and post. Sending you a hug x

Dragon how did you get on?

You can get SNS in the uk, my local infant feeding team have them