Not feeding

[emtsimps]

My 9 week old hasn't been feeding properly for a week now. At one point she was having 4/5oz bottles even a few 6oz every now and then. Now she rarely has anymore than 3. She's just gone a 7 hour stretch from her last feed at 12:30am to 6:30am. She's only drank 2oz. Surely she's still hungry. I don't know what to do I don't know how she is putting any weight on. She gets weighed on Wednesday but I am now just getting more and more worried.

I didn’t want to read and run. I breastfed my babies so please feel free to ignore this. When you breastfeed you never know how much baby has had. If your baby is well and responsive then I wouldn’t worry, I’d assume that she’s been having growth spurts and she’s just not as hungry this week. Definitely mention it when you get her weighed for peace of mind.

Is she still having lots of wet and dirty nappies?

Yes but she was weighed today and has dropped from the 10th centile to the 4th. She wees a lot though.

Who weighed her, public health nurse or GP? Were they able to give you any advice?

I'd be a bit concerned about that. Is baby alert or quite sleepy? How many ounces in 24 hours? Little babies get dehydrated extremely quickly so I'd be carefully watching wet nappies and checking they aren't getting too light.

Have you tried going up a teat size? I would try feeding smaller amounts more often, and change nappy halfway through to wake her up. Also wake during the night for an extra feed until she stops losing weight

She drinks anywhere between 16 and 24. Most days it's on the lower end at the moment. I change her nappy normally then try again and there's been 1 or 2 times where she will but mostly no. I use Lansinoh bottles the slow flow teat, I tried to use the medium flow but she's even slower with them than the slow flow. I've tried mam bottles size 0 and 1, she sometimes drinks more with them but not really much more than the Lansinoh slow flow. I don't really know what to do with the bottles, I ordered a set of the Lansinoh medium flow and I don't understand why she won't drink them properly seeing as the first time she used one she demolished it.

She's not actually lost weight but she was weighed today as she was 4.23kg which puts her at 4th percentile when she was the 10th last time she was weighed.

She's definitely not dehydrated though, she wees a LOT😂 every time a change her it's wet. There's been times I've had to change her not too long after the last change because I can tell the nappy is heavy. Also the waking up for an extra feed would help for maybe just making her drink more but the other night she went 7 hours and only wanted 2oz so I don't know if she will even try for an extra feed. She normally has 6-7 feeds a day.

Have you asked anyone medical for advice? Obviously she is quite a small baby's for her age if she is 4th centile (although someone has to be at each centile I guess!) if she's not tracking a centile line then that's something your HV should be keeping an eye on. What centile was she born on?

She should be taking between 150 and 200ml per kilo of body weight per 24 hours, so I think that works out about 22oz. That's the bare minimum, so just try to get her to take that much and if she's consistently taking less than that and also continuing to drop centiles Id be getting medical advice.

Her bigger appetite could also have been a growth spurt or something and might happen again next time she grows