Baby dropping centiles, how can I help?

[Sahkoora]

DS has dropped from 25th centile to 9th in the space of four weeks. he's happy and healthy so the HV hasn't been too concerned, but she did advise me to eat more carbohydrates as I am ebf.

Is this the right thing to do? It wouldn't be the first time I have been burned by HV advice over bf so I wanted to check with the wise MNers!

TIA!

This is very poor advice, and when the dust settles, do complain.

Your intake of carbs will have no impact whatsoever on your milk or your baby's weight.

If you want to check with her, then ask her where she got this info from. How on earth does she think that extra carbs will make a difference? It won't make the slightest difference to the contents of your milk or the quantity.

It's shocking, that mothers should be told this rubbish.

If there is concern over your baby's weight, then the easiest and most effective way of addressing it is to feed more often.

So:

• you fit in more feeds, day and night, by offering the breast more often (this is helped by you keeping your baby close so you can spot opportunities : ) ) you ensure your baby has the opportunity to feed from both breasts at* least, on every occasion (deliberately feeding one-side-only reduces intake and supply)
• you can switch nurse (google it)
• you can do breast compression (google it)

The most important points are the first two.

In addition, you could express and top up with expressed breastmilk but for a baby beyond newborn who is feeding well, this is extra hassle and prob not needed at all.

What other daft stuff has your HV told you?

My four week old has dropped from 50th to 9th percentile. I'm breast feeding and I'm just keeping at it. I now feed every 1.5-2hours and whenever she wants it. I have been doing breast compressions too. You're not alone - keep at it!

Thank you! I suspected it was twaddle, HV always has the air of someone fabricating information about her! The last piece of crap she dished out was that there was no nutrition for a two year old in breastmilk, which I knew was ridiculous thankfully.

That's excellent information Tiktok, I have been feeding from one breast only at each feed (and have done for all my kids ) so I will definitely offer both from now on. At which point do I swap over?

I find it almost impossible to express so I'd like to avoid that if possible. I suspect that being very busy with two older DSes means that I'm just not giving feeds the attention they deserve. Baby's also sleeping very well at night so probably not getting much then either.

Good luck to you too, BigEars!

You can swap when your baby starts to lose interest in side one - a quick switcheroo before he nods off :)

Most babies are prob fine on one side only, but when there is an issue, it's an easy way to improve intake and supply.

My DS2 is 14wks and was 98% at birth and is now 75%. HV said they're not worried and he's perfectly happy and podgy.

However he IS's distractible feeder and is a pain to feed in public and can be easily distracted by DS1 at home. I offer boob often and always both sides (which he often refuses) but I think he takes most calories at bedtime and during night feeds.

Wondering if I should be trying to get more milk into him if he's slipping %ile :( He's gaining weight, just dropping %ile. DS1 has followed 91% spot on since birth and he's now 2.5yo so got no experience of this...

My dd dropped from the 25th to just below the 9th.
I became very stressed over it and obsessively tracked feeds, put dd to the boob hourly or more when she wasn't hungry etc ... although hv said they weren't worried (then of course made worried noises and silly suggestions).

After a while I decided to go with the flow a bit more as she wasn't going back up to the 25th no matter what I did, but seemed fine in herself.

Almost 3 months after that dd is still just under the 9th, which just suggests that's where she's destined to be! She gains steadily each month tracking the graph lines as she should, but has not returned to the 25th.
So don't worry ... it might not be a problem that needs fixing. It might just be "one of those things".