breastfeding help needed for friend-tiktok?

[sierrasally]

my friend has a 3 week old baby who was 7lb 11 oz born. he dropped to 7/4 and has now dropped to 7/3 1/2. he is feeeding frequently, is latched on correctly she has been reassured by midwife and health visitor, he is alert and weeing and doing yellow poos.
The midwife is coming to weigh him again on thursday and if no weight gain then she will introduce formula.
she is doing all the skin to skin to skin stuff.

any tips?

quick bump

Phone the LLL/NCT BF helplines? The MW might not be well trained enough to recognise a poor latch.

the midwife cannot 'make' anyone introduce formula. she can tell the midwife she wants to see a breastfeeding counsellor (with the recognised qualtification, not just someone who did a few courses, either) before she considers formula.

agree, get her to phone a helpline soon.

this is wrong - a midwife should not threaten to do that. If tik isn't along get her to call another bf counsellor - this is important.

(nice of you to help your friend)

sorry meant friend will introduce formula-she has said she she will do this as he isn't gaining any weight at all.

I can see why there is a bit of concern about the baby's weight, but all the other signs are fine

I don't think you can draw any conclusions with a drop of half an ounce - no baby scales in the world can detect a difference as small as that with any accuracy.

Baby does need to be weighed accurately of course - lets hope none of the weights were done on spring balance scales, or with the baby in a nappy or clothes.

She can call any of the helplines. They will ask her how often she is feeding and support her to feed often, with no dummy use, and to feed a lot at night, too. They will also check she is offering two breasts at each feed, and will explain that offering three or four if the baby will take them is also good. Breast compression will also help.

Latch may need improvement, too.

what's breast compression?

sierra - it's a useful technique...if you google Dr Jack Newman breast compression there are some good factsheets on it.

My ds toolk 6 or 7 weeks to regasin birthweight - but was happy, healthy and alert.

As Titok says, such a small wegiht difference is really nothing.

Does your friend want to continue to bf? Is it possible she is looking for an excuse to "allow" her to start formula?

If she does want to continue to bf, give what yuo have described - alret baby, plenty of wet nappies and yellow poos, I'd just try and give her confidence that her baby is following his own growth curve. She should try to stop worrying about ther browth charts and start looking at the baby - I know easier said than done!

I agree with tiktok - 7/4 TO 7/ 3.5 isn't really a drop, it's just not a gain.
dd1 took well over three weeks to regain her birth weight - can't remember how long exactly would have to look at my red book. but she was and is perfectly healthy.
if your friend wants to comntinue, there are many tangible and real benefits for exclusively bf as long as possible, that need to be weighed in the balance against the lack of weight gain imo. do you think your friend would like to hear about that, or would that put on too much pressure?
she needs to talk to the mw about the risks of holding out for another week - with lots of feeding, skin to skin mabe breast compression.