Mighty oaks from little acorns grow - slow weight gain support thread

[FireworksScareMossyPets]

Thread for those of us whose los are:

• Healthy
• Meeting developmental milestones
• Producing plenty of soaking wet nappies
• Producing several pooey nappies (quantity varies after first six weeks or so)
• Gaining weight...

but just much more slowly than the centile charts tell us they should.

This is a thread for help, support and understanding from other Mums who have "been there, done that".

It's where we can share links, share our stories and what if anything we have done to help our lo's weight gain - or whether we've just ditched the scales and looked at the baby.

However, we also don't want to lull other Mums into a false sense of security; if your lo is not meeting the criteria at the top then it is best to get help from a breastfeeding counsellor (or general infant feeding specialist - not all slow gaining babies are breastfed) or supportive health care professional.

Mossy xx

soremummy - have faith. Your lo is getting very close to being on the bottom line on the bf babies chart which is the one you should care about.

I know she's not been too interested in solids - how's that side of things going?

And you don't need to give up bf. Or give formula, she can have full fat cow's milk (spiked with cream if you want!) now.

I do so feel for you. My worries seem more in the past now (although I have another paed appt Friday afternoon, hopefully the last), and you have had this for a whole year .

However, happy birthday to your lo! I hope you had a great day.

Would you like to meet up? I did send you an email once but I don't think you got it. I've sent you another.

ILD

superb! Amazing achievement, really!

Very chuffed for you. You're going to love weaning.

Hello all, well LO is 3mo old today. we are on the domperidone still and I am supplementing 2 bottles/day of 3oz each - usually EBM but sometimes formula if I don't get a chance to pump. my secret baby scales tell me Lo is now gaining 3.5-4.0 oz/week on average - but there is lots of apparently random fluctuation. Slowly slowly, he is getting more chub on him - eg there is less loose skin over his arms now. Centile wise i think he is bumping along just above the 2nd (started on 91st) but my scales aren't calibrated like the clinic ones so I am not sure of the exact centile. most importantly for me, he is meeting his milestones and is peeing aplenty!

soremummy don't despair! you have done the hard bit! IMO what's important is are they meeting their milestones and do they seem happy - not a number on a chart. those bloody charts must be responsible for so much post natal depression! wish we didn't have them, it just seems like they are a stick to beat mums with!

babymutha how are you doing? Soon you will be able to start your LO on solids, is that right? are you going down the puree route or baby-led weaning?

ILD CONGRATULATIONS!! that is an amazing weight gain! that gives the rest of us encouragement that all those night feeds are what really helps with the LOs' weight gain while bf - makes sense as that's when milk production is naturally highest.

e14mum how are things with you?

vlc hope your paeds assessment went ok!

figgis1 is the domperidone working yet?

best wishes to all x

Hello!
Well, I might be a bit of a fraud on this thread now as dd is slowly creeping up to the 50th percentile at 8 weeks and gluggling anything she can get her mouth on!
I am still on domperidone, although almost 5 weeks into it I don't think it has helped that much. It doesn't for some women. DD is still nursing and then getting a bottle after every feed. This was because she doesn't satisfy herself on the breast no matter how long she feeds for. I wish that I was able to top her up less, but in our case it was really led by what she wanted.
Thanks for the support guys. I'll keep you posted on what happens to us! E

Good work E14! I dream of seeing DD on the 0.4th, let alone the 50th!!

Well done ILD!! and mummy ILD of course!

yes tiring but true, I'm sure these frequent night feeds are the ones that do the trick!

DD is (whispers...I don't want to spoil it...) hovering under the 25th centile...I can't believe it - makes 3/4/5/a million night feeds very worth while!

We are also nearing weaning week (love your TM mark by the way, how d'you do that?!) and very very excited about it!

Caz - assuming you are typing on a proper keyboard (not a laptop). Hold Alt and type in 0153 on the number keypad on the right - et voila, instant trademark sign!

(I work with computers, I'm a bit of a geek)

The frequent feeds are getting a little too wearing, I think, for DW. We put her down at 7.30pm the other day, she was awake by 8.30pm! I think she is having something like 12+ feeds in 24 hours at the mo!

Cool!

Yes, it is very wearing, we can't be far off the 12 feed mark either (too depressing to count) - ALTHOUGH - I am so happy - dd slept for a 5hr stretch last night!! Stupidy old me then worries about her weight...

aaah but it was bliss, i feel human again today (almost!)

Can I do a slight hijack to say please come and join us here for weaning chat!

Im livid with my hv'ssss yes there were 3 of them today! I went for jabs today and they said had I had my referral letter from the hospital What letter I asked? Oh we referred you and baby to Regional child developement clinic so you can see a paed and dietician. I didnt agree to this and didnt discuss it with them! I went down this very long road with my other dd and am not prepared to do it again. How can they just get me referred without consulting me fgs she is little I know but got all other daughters stuff out and she is 1lb lighter than my older daughter was at the same age oh and btw my older daughter was 1lb 5oz heavier at birth and was ff from 4 months. So in effect she is 5 oz heavier than her sis was at 1yr old.

Can they make me go? I felt that they were press ganging me today especially as they asked could they weigh her again and I said no its only a week since she was weighed and shes upset and hungry so im not going to strip her just for you to be able to write it in her book.

vlc I will try email you my email was playing up on me.

soremummy - thats terrible they referred you without discussing with you! and why on earth did they want to re weigh? (unless they thought there was a mistake last week)

fraid i can't give any useful advice but am outraged on your behalf!

oh by the way soremummy I am in yorkshire too! so may meet you in person at the summer picnic thing!

sm-it might be worth going along and talking to a paediatrician who will be a lot more knowledgeable than the HV. If nothing else, it will get them offf your back and give you peace of mind

tinylady I would normally have gone BUT I have already been down that road with my other dd and I really do feel that there is no underlying problem. I also had to fight with regards to my other dd because I repeatly said her hearing wasnt right and eventually when she was 3.5 yr they realise that she had a total loss of hearing on one side. I don't think they get it though im 5ft and a size 6/8 and my dh isnt big and none of my other 3 children are big I have gone along with them and kept getting her weighed and have also said that if it comes to a point that she loses weight then I will seek advise.

Trust your instict then, definitely.
I didn't have the same problem with subsequent children, probably because theu were much bigger than my first but I also kept my distance from HV!

Sorry I just realised that I might have sounded a bit curt in my post was typing whilst feeding lo. I am going back in 4 weeks for mmr so I will get her weighed then ideally they would like her back in 2 weeks but because I have such a bad memory/busy life I know it will be 4 weeks till weigh in

meanwhile looking into more high calorie stuff to shove into her cheeese going down well but wish she would have chocolate much nicer for mummy to help her with maybe nice bar of galaxy......

hey everyone, haven't been on for a while. Was on another thread about slow weight gain and was pointed in this direction. Ds weighed 13lb 7oz at 28 weeks, have been refered to a paediatrician, thing is, I can't say he eats loads but gains very little cause he just eats normal amounts and gains very little. Therefore my hv spends all her time suggesting ways to get him to eat more even though he won't and no matter how many times I tell her he won't I don't feel like she believes me!

Has he got any food allergies? Tbh they dont reccomend feeding till 26 weeks and it takes a while to get them to take more food. In our case it was months! but thats just my lo.

Very littlecarrott as some good high calories suggestions so watch out she will post a reply to this soon.

ILD- wot an achievement! just encouraged me to try and carry on myy dd is 16wks and considering supplements!but maybe i'l keep going!

sallyforth- i thought domperidone was working cos felt like i had more milk, but only gained 1 oz last wk. i did put her on scales at bf cafe yest and got really excited when i thought we'd hit double figures, then scales went back to 9lb 15 and half oz! but was pleased she had gained 1 and half oz in less than a wk, so hoping for double figures at clinic tomoro when i take her for jabs! wot dose are you taking? im on 30mg 3 times day, wasnt sure when to start reducing it, thought mite start after 2wks.

Hi all!

for anyone worried about supply I would totally recommend this - I know everyone is different but it has def worked for me, when domperidone (4x a day) didn't

We are almost on the 25th centile now having dropped to 0.4th...

I don't think he has aby food allergies... I've been adding cream cheese, whole milk or cream to his purees to try and get some extra calories into him, also tried to get him to eat avocado but he's not too keen on that, might try mixing it with something else. The hv said to try to get him on to 3 meals a day and that he should be eating lumpy, mashed food by now and finger foods. Thats her oppinion though, as his mum, I personally don't think he's ready, I have tried him on several occasions with lumpier puree and he just gags and sometimes vomits cause he's not used to the lumps. Have given him sticks of banana, carrot and toast with cream chese on but he just plays with them at the moment, occasionally puts them to his mouth but then they get chucked - i'm fine with this as he's just experimenting with the food but I don't think, as the hv says, that he should be eating the finger foods already. He eats breakfast just about every day but doesn't always eat dinner, if he does have dinner he usually has 10 spoons maximum so I certainly don't think he's ready for 3 meals a day when he's only 29 weeks old and struggling to eat 2, plus, surely giving him more food and less milk will be less calories and mean his weight gain slows even more? I want to go at Dylans pace, not suddenly force loads of food on to him cause the hv says so. If he eats breakfast and dinner he usually averages about 22 and a half oz of milk in a day, if he just eats breakfast he averages about 23-24oz a day. Before we started weaning he would take about 25oz a day. I knwo it's not a massive amount and some babies take more but I think it's still a n ormal amount of milk for his age. Doesn't really matter anyway because it is actually completely impossible to get him to take any more than this.
Sometimes we think he has an onboard computer which works out exactly how much food and milk he's had and rejects any more, it is impossible to get him to take even 1/2 an oz more than he wants to. If he takes 6oz in a feed it's almost guaranteed the next one will be 4oz, he usually takes 5 oz a feed. Over the day, no matter what he takes it always balances out at the same amount, I just don't know how he does it!

figgis - am taking 30mg 3x/day dom. also 2 fenugreek capsules 3 times a day (most people take more but it gives me the runs, sorry if tmi!!!)

tried to wean dom. after 3 weeks, but my supply fell off so I have just been prescribed another 3 weeks and will try to wean off towards the end of that.

caz - thanks for the tip on more milk plus. might think about switching to that from the fenugreek capsules. those defo work tho, I ran out a couple of days ago and am making much less milk now.

dalrymps - surely his onboard computer is a good sign - that he's taking just what he is supposed to?

soremummy - maybe if she sees you eating lots of galaxy she will cotton on...

Dalrymps - sack your hv. What IS she on about?

Hi all - we have had a wee bit of a breakthrough - DD is now on the 9th! She is bucking the system. and at 5 and a half months weighs a hefty 13lbs 7. She's even overtaken my friend's 8 week old again! I put it down to a big pump before bedtime (mine not hers) followed by a dream-feed of that pump - the quantity of milk has been steadily going up and then going in to LO. Feels a bit like forcefeeding her - but she looks nicely chubbed up (in a very teeny way) and seems quite settled, so hopefully it's the right thing to do.

Domperidone mas - I would also recommend raspberry leaf tea for increasing milk supply, if you've got any left over from those pre-baby days of yore......

and soremummy - sack your hv too. All 3 of them.
I would like to sack 4 out of my 5 hvs. Anyone else like to join in? Or we could do their appraisals? ....