Baby not feeding and losing weight

[Floryella]

Hi all, we have today been referred to paediatrician but as I don’t know how long the referral will take I thought I’d post here in case anyone has any ideas
My 12 week old had been really off food for around 4 weeks now. She drinks from my breast but unfortunately my milk supply is really low, even with Domperidone prescribed by my gp so I have to top her up with formula

I thought it could be silent reflux so we tried gaviscon, no difference except she became constipated. I’ve swapped her formula to Kendamil which tastes much nicer. She’s not unsettled after feeds, she just doesn’t seem to have much appetite. Even at dream feeds she takes a max of 90ml and in the day takes an ounce at a time. I’d say she’s drinking about 16oz a day instead of the 24oz she ‘should’ be drinking

She seems happy and content and is hitting her milestones but seems to have no appetite

I’ve tried to chill out about how much she should be drinking but she’s completely stalled on weight gain since Christmas and lost weight this week. I really don’t know what to do!

Bump

Are you still BFing @Floryella? If so, I wouldn't worry about the amount of formula she's drinking.

@BunnyRuddington hi there, yes but she has always been mixed fed since end of week 1. She had a tongue tie and oral thrush and I had a bad infection after she was born. My milk supply never grew to what she required, but I’m feeding her as much as I can as she will breast feed even when she refuses the bottle. I’ve tried everything to boost my supply but it’s not enough, as evidenced by the fact that even though I bf her constantly and (try) to top her up with formula she is losing weight.

Sorry to keep asking questions but I'm just trying to get a full picture.

Was the Tongue Tie divided abs has it been checked to make sure it's not reattached?

Does she have any other symptoms such as eczema or mucus in her poo? It could be an allergy if she does.

Ensure you are feeding on demand. You can up your breast milk supply by feeding as often as possible- your body makes more the more baby takes so frequent feeding is key. I combi fed until 8 weeks and then went EBF. Though stick with whatever plan your HV has advised for now.

Great that she’s hitting milestones and seems content- she might just be plateauing and then her weight might take off again

Hi all, thanks for all your questions. I’m feeding on demand, tongue tie was divided. Haven’t checked to see if it had reattached so will try to do that but as she latched and feeds well at breast now it seems unlikely. I also pump after feeds when I can and power pump must evenings to try and boost supply. Eating lactation cookies, drinking tons of water and even taking Domperidone so I don’t think there is much more I can do - I’ve seen two lactation consultants so have sought advice.

The weight stagnation and loss correlates with when she stopped drinking much formula after her 8 week jabs.

No eczema or rashes or mucus in poos. Does seem to have some reflux with coughing and some posseting after feeds. Gaviscon didn’t help her and made her constipated though she tends to be quite constipated anyway. Hard to burp but farts a lot!

Well done for reaching out for support. If you want to check if the Tongue Tie has reattached, it's probably better being checked by a Tongue Tie Practitioner, like Milk Matters.

You've probably been told all of this by your Lactation Consultants but the article How may I increase my baby's weight gain? from Kellymom is probably a good reminder.

I read a tip recently which might be worth trying, when you express, put a baby sock over the bottle. Apparently being able to see how much you are expressing can have a negative effect on the amount you get.

Definitely push them to hurry up with your paediatrician referral. There’s probably an underlying medical condition causing the slow weight gain.

TBH I suspect that you have been driven down a rabbit hole with domperidone, tongue tie surgery and formula top-ups and the real cause of her weight gain issues has been overlooked.

I agree with seabordium, there are a lot of other health conditions that can cause slow/no weight gain (heart problems to name one). I would push for that referral asap.

How are things today @Floryella?

Hi @BunnyRuddingtonwell, thanks for asking. Well, it’s been a frustrating day. Yesterday it seemed like she was making progress with eating, having regular but small feeds. Max 90ml but I was pleased.

Today back to square one. She has drunk about 9 oz today since 7am (on top of bfeeding so of course I don’t know exactly how much she’s had, but she has been very wriggly and keeps breaking off from the breast so it can’t be much), but once again seems happy enough. Lots of chat and playing, with wet nappies and one dirty so I’m not panicking. I guess the weigh in next week will tell the continuing story.

The GP listened to her heart again on Wednesday and couldn’t hear anything wrong. The referral has been sent so hopefully we will see a paediatrician soon before any weight loss goes too far.

I just wish I knew why she seems to have such a small appetite and the reason for her conflicted feeding behaviour - for example she will latch onto both boob and bottle and then almost instantly upon starting to swallow she’ll spit it out or come off the breast. It’s so confusing.

If you know who you've been referred to, I would give their Secretary a ring on Monday and say what's going on and that you're available for short notice appointments.

Hope today is more positive

Oh and bobbing in and off the breast ca be normal at this age. They're getting far too aware of their surroundings and want to have a nosey

DD2 started refusing milk (FF) at around 5 weeks. She wasn’t weighed at her 6 week check up due to lack of scales despite me stating that she was tricky to feed, but by 10 weeks she was taking less than 12oz per day and I could tell she wasn’t thriving so I fought to get a HV appointment to get her weighed. She’d dropped from the 75th to below the 9th centile. Cue weeks of admissions to paeds, trials of medication and an increasingly unhappy baby.

Eventually we were referred to a dietitian for early weaning, which I was sad about because we had to wean DD1 at 17 weeks due to severe vomiting, and I really wanted to do BLW this time. However, food really sorted her out and at almost 6mo she’s now thriving; almost at the 25th centiles, meeting milestones and even taking a little more milk at night thus upping her daily total.

I know this probably isn’t any use to you seeing as we never found out what was wrong with her other than just doesn’t seem to like milk, but at the time I would have really appreciated reading a real life story that showed that it probably will get better. Honestly, if you saw a picture of DD2 at 12 weeks and at 20 weeks you wouldn’t even know they were the same baby.

One thing that did up her intake slightly - from around 12oz to around 16oz per day - was switching to goat formula. No idea why that helped, but it did. We were on Kendamil Classic before then (she refused all others, including prescription milks) but switched to the Goat as a last try.

I have my fingers crossed that things improve soon for you.

Thanks @Timeturnerplease, it's nice to hear your experience! I appreciate it

Just an update. Paediatrician says she's 'within the range of normal' in terms of weight gain so wants to see how she goes a bit longer before doing anything. The only reason she's ok is that I am getting food down her all night and persisting all day, it's exhausting and I'm sick of seeing her so upset all the time. Mucus in nappies is getting worse and she's constantly arching away from bottle and pulling off breast crying.

I've also had advice from a feeding specialist and she thinks after seeing DD feed (or not feed...) it seems like a likely CMA. I'm going to try an elimination diet for 4 weeks and see if it helps.

She doesn't like the taste of the hypoallergenic formula very much unfortunately but hopefully she'll get used to it.