Baby dropped from 3rd to 0.4th centile

[expectingourmiracle]

My EBF 17 week old was born on the 9th percentile but soon found her curve on the 3rd. TMI but I went to get her weighed as my AF arrived despite exclusively breastfeeding. She has dropped to the 0.4th and weighs 10lb5 at 17 weeks. Initially we were doing formula top ups as breastfeeding was a real challenge, but for some time we having done that for some time. She is otherwise happy, albeit doesn't nap well so is a bit grumpy sometimes! Should I be concerned/consider formula top ups again? She is lactose intolerant so would need to be dairy free milk prescribed by GP. Anxious mama here!

You could try an extra bottle and wake her for a feed mid way through her 6 hour sleep - an extra feed at night may help. It does sound as if she has a feeding problem - hope it can be sorted soon.

It’s not about how she feeds it’s the quantity of breastmilk she is getting. Have you had if measured to see if baby is getting enough?

May I ask how you do 50/50 feeds? I.e which feeds are formula which are breast? Thanks

My lactation consultant gave me a timetable. My supply dropped around the 3 month mark and after trying everything to get it up she proposed bigger gaps in between feeds so that there was more time for my supply to build up.

so an example of a 24 hours for us roughly:

11pm bottle of formula
5am/6am breastfeed
8am/9am formula feed
12/1 breastfeed
4/5 formula deed
8/9pm breastfeed

to know how much formula to give divide the total amount of formula for babies age by the number of feeds so in example above my baby would be on 1,000 of formula if fully formula fed so with 6 feeds baby should get around 170ml of formula per feed.

I also breastfeed for comfort if baby needs it at any stage.

Hi @expectingourmiracle lactose and dairy arent one and the same. Do not ask for a dairy free formula if you think she’s lactose intolerant

(my child has a severe dairy allergy)

Infant feeding team should be help, or private IBCLC even better, my friends boy dropped off the bottom of the chart but worked with an IBCLC and got back to 25th!

breast compressions, extra feeds, and plenty of switching sides to get extra milk in. If your periods are back then magnesium and calcium supplement helps with supply, you get a drop off around ovulation until a few days into period - check Le leche league for dosage but needs to be quite high.

just be awake any formula given will reduce your supply by that amount (if a regular thing) so might be worth pumping if you want to avoid getting into the top up trap!

Oh and I assume you are dairy free? Lactose intolerance is very very rare, it’s usually CMPA which babies have - allergy to the dairy protein, not the sugar which is in all mammal milk - if you are still having dairy (even lactose free has the protein) she might be dropping because of this - the IBCLC told my friend to stop dairy too (although she didn’t!).

Hi, @expectingourmiracle can I ask what the outcome here was? We’re having something similar - dropped from 9th to 2nd, and weight gain really slowed right as my cycles have started (at 12 weeks pp)