Baby not gaining weight - help please

[Brouhahaha]

Hi everyone I'm just looking for some advice. It's a wee bit long but please read, I'm beside myself with worry.

My baby is six weeks old, and had a bit of a rocky start with a traumatic birth / emergency c-section followed by severe jaundice in the first 24h. She was too lethargic to feed and spent 48h under a phototherapy machine, and by day 5 had lost 13% body weight. The difficult start really messed with my ability to breastfeed as she was too sleepy to draw milk and I had to top up with formula to urgently get her weight back up.

Anyway this worked and she was back up to birth weight by 2 weeks and I continued mixed feeding. I have tried my best to get back to exclusive bf with expressing etc but to no avail 😢

Until yesterday I thought all was going well, she takes on average 1.5oz formula per feed after breastfeeding and I thought she was getting the rest of her milk from me. Yesterday was her six week check and she has dropped weight again from 50th to 25th centile. HV advised I skip a few BF sessions as baby might be using too much energy to BF then bottle feed and I might not be producing enough for her, so I did this. Turns out she's only taking 1.5oz from the bottle even without the breastfeeding (I haven't breastfed since seeing the HV yesterday).

There's no way she's getting enough if she's only taking 1.5oz per feed. I thought I was doing the right thing by breastfeeding her but once again trying to breastfeed has meant I'm depriving her of what she needs. I feel so selfish and like I've failed her again. I really wanted to breastfeed but I know I have to do what's best for my daughter.

But I can't get her to take any more milk after 1.5oz, her mouth clamps shut and she gets agitated if I try to get her to take more.

Does anyone have any advice on how to encourage her to take more from the bottle or to help her feed more? I just don't know what to do and I'm so worried 😢😢😢

Thank you

Personally I think that's pretty poor advice from your HV @Brouhahaha.

A BF baby won't be used to drinking as much. At this age she will typically only take 1.5 to 2 floz of BM at a time and the same with formula.

I think you need the help of a Lactation Consultant or a BFC to help you come up with a feeding plan especially if you do want to return to EBF.

Have you got someone who can hold her for a while you call one of the BFing Helplines this morning? Have you got the numbers?

These articles might help as well:

Weaning from formula supplements

How might I increase my baby's weight gain and

Symptoms of Tongue Tie and a list of Tongue Tie Practitioners.

Hi @Brouhahaha, we're just moving your thread over to our Infant Feeding topic and giving it a bump to get it back into Active Conversations. Hopefully some more Mumsnetters will be along soon with some advice and support.

I think trying to breastfeed hasn’t been depriving her of her needs at all - if she’s only taking 1.5oz from the bottle anyway then breastfeeding was giving her more than she would otherwise have had. Please don’t stop unless that’s absolutely what you’d like to do.
Sadly lots of HV have only had minimal training in infant feeding. Second that you could seek help from your local La Lexlche League, a BFC, or IBCLC. Could you call the national breastfeeding helpline for some advice over the weekend?

How are you getting on now @Brouhahaha?

Can you pump breast milk and feed it to her in a bottle so you can see what she's taking? You haven't failed your baby.

Shit advice from HV, what she should’ve done is refer you to your local infant feeding team.

My steer would be call tomorrow and ask for their details

Falling one centile can be perfectly normal and not cause for alarm, it’s 2 centiles that’s faltering growth. But it’s a good idea to get a feeding assessment and get baby checked for tongue ties and get some support with positioning and attachment. HVs are notoriously shit for this.

If you’ve got the funds I’d consider seeing an IBLBC for a feeding assessment

Have you ruled out CMPA??