Babies with slow weight gain - support thread

[Secondsop]

Hello, there are a few posts at the moment from people whose babies have had various degrees of struggle in gaining weight. I am one of them - my baby is now 8 weeks old and had tongue tie and poor weight gain; he's getting there, slowly, on the 0.4 centile, after a lot of effort with feeding and with the addition of formula top ups. I was wondering if anyone in a similar position fancied congregating on a thread - we can share advice, support each other and celebrate weigh-in successes.

Nursing is best but only if the milk is being transferred properly and the breasts are being drained and your supply has not been compromised. Breast compressions can help with transfer but even so, pumping stimulates a milk supply because the more milk expressed the more milk made. If your little one gets tired at the breast (which is very likely while they are not gaining weight) they won't have the strength to feed properly and it is not good use of your time to feed constantly if they are not getting enough milk that way. Helping them out with top ups of expressed breastmilk will give them more stamina AND protect and stimulate your milk supply. But until your supply is built you may well need formula. There are some pumping tips here How Can I Pump More Breastmilk For all slow gain situations I recommend an IBCLC lactation consultant to help you get back on track and make sure your little one is well fed and catching up.

We only put 11oz on in the last 4 weeks! She is kind of following her line...I just need to stop worrying about it and accept she's a small baby who is staying on the 0.4 centile!

My dd gained 4 oz this week, not much but a big improvement on 1/2 oz the week before!

Whitemusk, how do i know if dd has drained the breast properly? She will take a long time to feed which i put down to the tongue tie and her still getting stronger as she is just shy of 7lb some 5 weeks after she was born. And now she is gaining how do i know if my supply is where it should be and if breastfeeding is "established"?

Hi Returnvisit. In cases of low gain like yours (well done this week) you can assume dd isn't draining the breasts properly yet because weight gain tells the story. Working with an IBCLC is going to get you the best results to both build your milk supply and make sure little one is getting enough milk to grow and catch up. Once she is gaining at least 30g per day you will know she is back on track. Use both breasts and breast compressions. When there is no more swallowing going on, top up to satiety with expressed milk or formula. Pump after a feed to drain the breasts and stimulate more milk for the supplement tomorrow.