6 do feeding issues - please help

[ChocolateBiscuitCake]

Am having feeding issues with DD.

She has dropped 20% body weight but midwife is, imo, not considering the individual picture...they want her back in hospital (a different one from where she was born, so they don't understand her history).

She is 6days old and born by ELCS at 38+1. Birth weight was 9lbs 4oz. She is very long. HC 39cm. But in every other way she is dinky.

She was undignosed polyhydramnios and couldn't breathe when delivered - lots of calm panic and the paed team entered. Obstetrician completely unworried and kept saying she was just struggling after so much liquid (2litres...she was born in her sac!). Paed team said 50/50 special care and took her.

She spent first 24 hours in SCBU on dextrose drip and was on IV antibiotics for 3days. Her lungs were drained and she passed lots of excess fluid (imo - lots of "weight"). Blood cultures all clear (ie no infection found).

My milk has been slow to come in, she is tongue tied, I feel we are a bit behind because of her 24 hours away from me and I had some postpartum issues (all resolved).

She is starting to produce green poos (midwife wants yellow). She is a bit jaundice (139 units in hospital on light metre - hospital very unworried). Her mouth is wet. She is alert, very strong, eager to feed (nipples sore due to TT?).

This is my fourth baby so I feel I am able to say this with confidence.

I am not surprised she has lost weight but I also know that if I step into the "new" hospital for her to be assessed, they will be over cautious, admit her, do endless blood tests, drips etc. it will take many hours/days to be discharged. My milk will dry up with stress etc, etc.

I really want to ebf- last baby, lovely to do and much easier than worrying about bottles with three other DC.

Midwife back today to review. Paed doctor called yesterday to tell us about sodium levels and potential brain damage - was all very OTT and upsetting.

I am feeding directly and expressing. Lying in bed together now. Any other suggestions?

Also, I have noticed when I feed her, I don't get the let down/tingling feeling I have had with other dc. Does this mean anything?

Finally, I can feel her sucking and milk flows quite easily. Her cheeks are puffy and I can see her jaw sucking BUT I rarely hear her gulp or swallow. What might this indicate? What can I do?

Thank you for reading.

Have you been given any dates/time frame on when they'll deal with the tongue tied issue?

No - the midwife coming today is on the ball with TT so hoping she can urgently refer...but nervous about walking into the hospital in case they won't let her out again. They tried to "trick" me into going to hospital on phone yesterday saying she needed her heel prick test, until I pointed out that the midwife had just done it at home. It's so frustrating and upsetting.

It is not severe but both DH & me are TT, as are the other 3dc. Ds3 was cut and it made a huge difference.

For the sake of baby could you consider expressing and bottle feeding in between breast feeding?

I am expressing and feeding it alongside!

Meant to say - just not much coming off with pump.

And DH off to get formula for top ups (live rurally so tesco closed last night at 4pm when midwife broke the bombshell of hospital).

Just need to get my boobs working and DD to swallow/gulp...

Ah, sorry, I read that you only wanted to ebf. I cannot understand why tt operations take so long to organise.

I obviously can't comment on whether it's best for your baby to be in hospital or not, but I do think it's useful to be very clear with them what they intend to do in hospital that you can't do at home.

I was in a similar situation a couple of weeks ago, DS has a heart condition and was not gaining weight. His consultant wanted to admit him to "monitor" feeding. I argued strongly against this - a hospital ward is not a good place to successfully breastfeed a baby. They would monitor his feeding, he wouldn't have fed very well because of the environment, they would have taken this as evidence breastfeeding wasn't working.

I managed to get them to agree to give us a couple more days at home, spent a lot of time skin to skin in bed, gave top ups, snd luckily he put on enough weight in that time to reassure them. (We're also on a high calorie formula supplement due to his condition.)

Of course, the situation is different if there are otherwise tests or medical interventions they want to try for your DD, which is why I suggest asking what they've intend to do.

In terms of what you can do, skin to skin really helped us, and so did topping up with EBM from a bottle. Volume of milk is the key thing for weight gain. If you search Kellymom and "weight gain" there's a page with lots of useful info.

I would also seek additional support from a breastfeeding councillor to check her latch. No swallowing sound doesn't sound right. You could call one of the helplines to start with. Good luck.