Newborn not back to birthweight at 2 weeks

[FolkSongSweet]

Baby was born on 95th centile (4100g) lost 8% by day 5 (3750g) which was also the day her tongue tie was cut. She’s been gaining since then - 3855g day 8 and 4000g day 14, but is obviously still 100g off birth weight today. We’ve been discharged from the midwife but I’m still a bit worried. Her nappies are good but she’s still a bit jaundiced (though this has improved). I try to feed her every 2 hours during the day and 3 at night but it’s harder at night as I think she’d go every 4 hours if left to her own devices. Does this sound ok or should I be trying to pump and top her up?

Sounds like you are doing a great job! If the midwife has discharged you then things are clearly heading in the right direction.

I wouldn't be worried unless:

• weight plateaus/ stays the same or reduces
• mouth is dry
• wet nappies are less frequent.

Feeding every 2 hours in the day and every 4 hours at night is fine. Once back at birth weight you can let her go as long as she likes at night.

Thank you @Tararararara. I don’t really trust the midwife - feel like she discharged us more because she couldn’t be bothered than because she’s confident all is ok. She’s the same one I had with my first child and she totally missed that he had a tongue tie and was blasé about his slow weight gain then too. I know that this baby’s tongue tie is sorted though so I’m hoping she’s just a couple of days behind because of that. But if I could/should be doing more then I’d really like to.

The only thing you can do is look after yourself - keep well fed and hydrated to maximise your milk production and put baby to breast every time they open their mouth! Don't be too worried about schedules, just look out for those first initial feeding cues, the little cats tongue and the soft mew noise, the searching snuffle and gentle head nudging - that is the time to feed, not after a set time, or when baby cries but waaaaay before that.

Keep doing what you're doing! She's going in the right direction. DD took 4 weeks before she got back to birthweight. Horrible midwife blamed the dummy and me supposedly missing feeding cues then happily discharged us to HV who was much more helpful and gave me confidence in what we were doing rather than making me doubt it. She was born in 50th centile but then dropped to 9th and has stayed happily at 9th, now 14 months old. I doubt a few weeks of not being fed enough have stunted her for life, more like she's found her size and that's her. 9th centile is more in line with mine and DH's builds anyway.

Hi OP, I feel for you - my first baby didn't gain his birthweight back and I was horribly bullied by a hospital paediatrician into stopping BFing because of it - which in hindsight I really regret.

I've since found a lot of BF positive sources which say that as long as baby is healthy, wet nappies and no signs of dehydration, then it can take 4 weeks to regain weight, with no cause for concern.

Best of luck and do try not to worry - perhaps you can access some online BF support during lockdown to give you more confidence and a bit of expert advice? But it sounds to me like you are both doing great and she is going to get there very soon :)

Thanks all for the support! Baby seems to be doing well - more alert each day, huge numbers of wet and dirty nappies (5 big poos so far today). I realised though that since we’ve been discharged by the midwife she won’t be weighed again until 6 weeks so I won’t actually know when she’s back to birthweight. She’s also still a bit jaundiced which again j can’t really understand given all the nappies. I’ve been keeping up the 2 hourly feeds which is brutal as means i can only really sleep in 1-1.5hr blocks but don’t know when I can stop those now! I assume I should keep it up til the jaundice goes at a minimum?

Maybe it's different where you are (or maybe just in covid times) but when we were discharged by the midwife we had the health visitor out the next day to take over. We had weekly visits and weigh ins from 2 weeks to 6 weeks when we were both happy that things were on track. Going from that to the next weigh in at 12 weeks seemed a big jump but it quickly became not an issue as I realised I knew what I was doing and DD was happy and thriving. Has your HV been in touch?

In our area midwives shouldn't discharge before babies are back up to their birth weight. Have you not had your new birth visit from the health visitor? Again, it varies in areas, but here they're doing face to face appointments for new birth. They would weigh and keep an eye on the jaundice for you. The Heath vision should visit on day 10-14.

I had a phone appointment with the health visitor yesterday. Won’t see her in person until 6 weeks so baby won’t be weighed until then. Thanks covid.

The midwife discharged us because she’d been steadily gaining 30g/day (average) since day 5. She lost 8% of birthweight (they said not to worry if it was under 10%) but because her birthweight was so high (4100g) 8% was quite a bit. She’d got back to 4000g by day 14 so I guess should hit birthweight by day 17ish (tomorrow). I would quite like to know that though. I feel pretty let down by midwives/HV in general and I think they discharged us really because they couldn’t be bothered rather than because they thought all was fine. This is my second baby so I think they assume I know what I’m doing but I’m actually really anxious about everything.

This could have been written by me 3 years ago! My baby girl was born 9lb and lost 8% birth weight too (and had tongue tie which we had cut) and I spent so much time worrying about her weight as it seemed to increase so slowly!

As long as it is increasing, even gradually, and she seems fine otherwise I probably wouldnt worry too much about her weight.

I found that although my daughter was big when she was born, she isn't actually a big child now (although still got plenty of padding ). I think sometimes they are just born big and then even out afterwards, so could be the case for you too?

Thanks @SamMil. I do wonder about this. I didn’t have any fluids in labour but looking at the pics of her immediately after birth she looks like she’s been pumped up - really puffy! So perhaps a lot of her birthweight was fluid.

Anyway her nappies are all good and she’s alert. I think it’s just the jaundice I’m worried about now. HV has said to see if it’s gone by 3 weeks and if not to contact them, but don’t know whether I should do something sooner.