Tongue tie and 7 day old losing weight

[BearGrower]

Desperate for some advice and words of comfort here!

My son was born at 8lbs at full term a week ago, and we had a rocky start with breastfeeding and by day 3 he had lost 10% of his birth weight, but they were happy to monitor and for me to continue to exclusively BF on the proviso that he started gaining weight. On day 5 we had a lactation consultant come out and she diagnosed a tongue tie and snipped it there and then. Since then he has fed pretty much constantly but he has just been re-weighed on day 7 and he has lost a further 1.5% (11.5% in total)

If he is still losing by Wednesday they would like me to top up but I am concerned that this will affect my supply. However, I'm also really worried that clearly I'm not producing enough for him as otherwise he would be gaining? Has anyone had this and their baby gone on to start gaining weight?

Hi bear - I had this with DS, very similar, he was 8lbs at birth and in day 3 had lost 11%, I was advised to top up each feed which I did. I would bf for up to 45 mins on each side but still have to give 2oz formula afterwards.

When he was 1 week old we had tongue-tie snipped, I noticed an immediate improvement to latch and my own pain durning BF subsided a lot.

I was advised to keep him on the breast pretty much constantly which I did. Despite this, and despite the fact I had never given a top-up without BFing first, my supply never really came in/ recovered. I subsequently did a lot of pumping to try to address this but it still didn't really work and at one point (at about 3-4 weeks) I was either BFing or pumping with no break at all and I found it very tough.

I persevered with BFing for 8 weeks at which point my supply was gone altogether; DS would go on the breast for 30 seconds then come off and scream.

I will never know if my lack of supply caused the initial weight loss or whether the top-ups negatively affected my supply. My logic says possibly the former as even when topping up I had the baby on the breast so much that my supply should have been stimulated anyway. But who knows.

However, if I had my time again I would not top up on day three, I would have given until after the TT snip (although TT was not diagnosed until day 5).

I guess if they've asked you to wait until Wednesday then that's giving you a chance and if weight loss hasn't stalled by then I probably would give a top up.

Hope the above is of some help- it's so hard to know what to do isn't it? I'm expecting no.3 in a week and a half and although I'm determined not to get bogged down over feeding I'm sure I will!

Very best of luck with everything.

Thank you very much for replying- it's so frustrating not knowing why he isn't gaining as he's at the breast all the time. I really it goes well with number 3.

Gosh, this is frustrating, BearGrower :(

What have your ds's nappies been like? At a week, he should be producing several large yellow poos each day.

Are you confident in the weighing - the scales, the person weighing, the person recording the info, and the calculations made?

He should not still be losing weight on day 7, but we are talking small numbers, even so....easily accounted for if any of the weighing has been sloppy.

(I'm assuming he has been weighed naked each time).

It really doesn't matter if he is at the breast a lot if the milk is not being transferred, so you do need someone to observe a feed, IMO.

If you need to top up, though, you can do it with expressed breastmilk - it is no more of a faff to do this than to top up with formula, and of course there is no risk of compromising your supply.

What do you think?

My ds was still losing weight at 10 days. He was born at term but was smaller than your ds. i had diamorphine during labour and he was jaundiced so he was very sleepy for the first couple of days. He also had a Tt which made bf very, very painful. He had his tt snipped at 18 days old. We'd started giving f top ups on the advice (insistence??) of the hcp at 10 days and by the time he had his tt snipped we were topping up after every feed. It broke my heart.

I had a very nice, knowledgeable mw who sat with me for an entire feed and said that I should go home and do nothing but feed for a week (this was at about 19-20 day old)to fully wean off the f. I didn't, I just couldn't. feeding had become a bit less painful but I had some awful cracks in my nipples that still hurt and tbh I was hopelessly dejected. I gradually reduced the f top ups over the next 3-4 weeks but never got rid of them entirely.

Looking back I really wish I'd done things differently. I allowed the hcp to basically railroad me into giving f by telling me ds would have to be re admitted etc whilst not really giving me any bf support. I think it would have been better to express and top him up with ebm. I didn't even really know you could do that and the infant feeding specialist advised against it. I also wish i'd just taken him to bed for a few days and got my supply up. I didn't mind mix feeding (I did it again for dd!) but supplementing after feeds is different to swapping for a ff every now and then.

Have you tried the bf help lines?- the nct one was very good for me.
What do feeds look like op? Can you see your ds swallowing milk? Does he unlatch himself and seem satisfied? Nappies?

Any news, OP?

Thanks both. Following admission to hospital for jaundice we've had to start on formula top ups- bit upset about this but trying not to get stressed as they think anxiety could be affecting my let down.

I'm continuing to bf every moment I can but I'm having a few issues- namely he falls asleep very quickly! I've tried changing nappy before, stripping him down, tickling feet etc etc but nothing working. I hear a few swallows and then it all tails off.

I really really don't want to give up but just can't see how he's getting anything from me!

Have you tried breast compression, OP? This means spotting the moment when your baby's suck starts to waver/stop/show a lack of interest, and compressing to encourage another let down and to stimulate a response.

Google it, and/or see this clip:

If your baby is really not transferring much milk, then you need to express to make sure production is maintained.

Hope this helps!

Thank you I will try that!

TikTok - is it likely that he'll get less sleepy at the breast as he gets older? Just trying to give myself hope that we'll be able to continue. He was on breast for 2 hours this morning intermittently swallowing and then we offered the top up of 30mls and he absolutely guzzled it down. He would sit on me feeding literally all day if he could but probably only 10% of that would actually involve any swallowing....

BearGrower, babies do tend to sleep less as they get older, it's true, but the concern with a baby of 9-10 days is that the sleepiness is because of (in your case) jaundice, and/or lack of energy because the milk is not transferring...

Of course it's fine for babies to be on the breast a lot, and sleeping at the breast, as long as they are getting what they need by way of milk.

Can you go back to my earlier post and answer the Qs about his nappies and the way he was weighed?

It does sound as though the feeding has not been going well, though.

He has very wet nappies a lot but dirty ones have been few and far between. The hospital were less worried about that though- they checked his jaundice/blood sugar and hydration levels and all were within acceptable tolerances.

He's been weighed on the same scales in the same place every time.

They basically said he was getting enough milk to survive ok, but not to put any weight on.

It's just so frustrating as he wants to be on the whole time (which is fine) but then almost instantly falls asleep!

I found that the f increased ds's alert time and reduced his sleepiness. He was basically doing exactly as you describe before giving the f; feeding a little bit, going to sleep, waking starving after 20-30 minutes screaming, latching on for just enough milk to go back to sleep......and so on.

I used to do one boob then baby grow off (ds was a December baby so it was chilly), then the other boob, nappy change, then back onto boob. I then used to give 1oz of f and then back onto the boob. Breast compressions helped. He had his Tt snipped at 18ish days and he really had to re-learn how to bf I think. Tbh I thought we were going to ff at 2 weeks it was only after around 3-4 weeks when dp had gone back to work, I'd been discharged from the mw, bf stopped being painful, my nipples started to heal and ds had gained some weight that I really started to think about reducing the f. I sometimes wish that I'd addressed it sooner but it was very hard after such a difficult start.
Have you called any of the helplines? The nct one was very helpful in formulating a plan to maintain bf.
Have you been expressing at all?