Come talk to me about bf-ing and Failure to Thrive

[SoupDragon]

For a friend-of-a-friend, honest

Full term baby, um 5 weeks old or so IIRC, is only an ounce or 2 above their birthweight.
How can they avoid formula top ups? She seems unwilling to see a bf-ing counsellor. apparently there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the latch and obviously the advice has been to top up [sigh].

I've dredged through my memory and come up with skin-to-skin, baby-wearing/kangaroo care, feeding frequently... Anymore

OMG FTT. Welcome to my world...

Co-sleeping if possible to preserve the all important night feeds when prolactin levels are higher. Co-bathing too to encourage biological nurturing. Offering several 'sides' at a feed, also known as switch nursing. Breast compressions to increase milk into baby and stimulate active suckling again after it slows down.

Some questions; how often are the feeds? One person's frequent is anothers, well, not so frequent. Does the baby fall asleep shortly into a feed?

I'd definitely advise her to rethink seeing a bfc, especially if latch is fine, purely to get someone 'in authority' in her corner prepared to say that feeding is fine and topping up is unnecessary, and potentially harmful to the bf relationship. And if improvements can be made with the latch, well that's cool too. What are her reservations about seeing a bfc?

I'll keep thinking...

Thanks

Not sure what the reservations are TBH.

It's her 3rd baby and both the others were bf with no problems so (theoretically!) she knows what she's doing (I suspect she thought it would be a breeze 3rd time round). I think the fact that there are older children to consider isn't helping.

I'd forgotten about several sides per feed (although I guess technically there are only 2 sides rather than several )

Who is pushing formula top-ups? The health visitor? Does the baby look well apart from not putting weight on quickly enough? How old are her other children and would she be able to get to a local breastfeeding group (if there is one)?

Soup, the basic thing about breastfeeding, even more basic than positioning/latch, is simply feeding frequency.

If the mother doesn't feed often enough, the baby won't gain weight and the mother's milk supply will dwindle.

Simple as.

If she's feeding to any sort of schedule, or using only one breast a feed, or trying to make the baby go longer between feeds, then she needs to stop....feed, feed, feed instead

And I see this is a third baby - often (in my experience) subsequent babies in busy families can be a bit 'underfed'.

They may have a placid, laid back personality and not actually cry much for feeds, and because the mother is waiting for the cry and overt signs of hunger (of which crying is a late one), the baby gets enough feeds to tick along with, but not enough to fully flourish and not enough to maintain a good milk supply.

Answer is to be proactive and offer lots and lots more feeds.

Yes, both my friend and I thought the friend-of-a-friend was trying to do too much rather than just feed. I've passed on all this advice to my friend who will have a good chat with the mother later Thanks.

Had a little smile at 3rd babies being underfed as I remember being on MN asking if bf BabyDragon could put on too much weight. BF-ing is the only part of motherhood I'm any good at!

I'm not generalising here at all

It's just some third babies whose mothers report a concern with weight gain....

I know I can see why too - there just isn't the time. One child you can stick in front of the TV etc whilst you feed a baby. 2 bicker and fight as soon as you get settled.

tiktok, dc3 was like that.

Even now at 20m he never actually asks for food, just scavenges where he can.

at cad's toddler rootling through rubbish bins and begging for left-overs!!!

my dc2 is like that - she deliberately drops half her cereal on the floor at breakfast so that she has something (she thinks) to hoover up later (and she's usually right too - double at slovenly housekeeping habits)