Worried - newborns slow weight gain

[newtiredmumma]

Looking for some advice or similar experience if possible please - baby girl was born 6 weeks ago at 6lbs 10oz and took a couple of weeks to get back to birthweight and to be discharged from midwife, however we got there in the end and I managed to EBF. She had her check this week with HV and is 7lbs 9oz and the HV wants to reweigh her in 2 weeks time as concerned she is very low percentile. I have had to top up with 1-2 formula bottles per day for the past couple of weeks as baby never seemed to be full after BF and I had some pain I experienced. I'm BF'ing, expressing what I can and topping up with formula if she's hungry. Does anyone have any words of advice of how to get her weight up, how much formula I should be giving alongside BF'ing? She's normally very settled, happy and alert, HV had no other concerns when I saw her.

[Pheasantpluckerswife]

Hey, we had a similar issue 6 years ago with our baby. Very stressful. She didn't make her birth weight back up quick enough for the midwives (she was cesarean (generally heavier anyway) and 9lb 11oz!! ) they referred us to hospital and I had to feed her every 3 hours for two days.. she made her weight and they signed us off and then never gave a shit after that....

One thing they asked me to do (which I couldn't) was express every breast feed for a couple of days, so I could tell how much breast milk she was getting..

I found my diaries from that period and at 4 weeks old she was having roughly 100ml every 3 hours... So 700ml over 24.hrs... I feel that was building weight... We were waking her to feed her at that point...

If you're not waking her and you can gauge what she's having in a 24 hr period then record it and if you're worried about her weight, speak to the HV.

You're doing a good job mumma x

[Mildred01]

Congratulations on your baby girl @newtiredmumma ! I went through the same thing, I had to bf, express and top up after every feed with expressed milk, it was so stressful, tiring and scary! I had to weigh my baby every week after he was born until he was 6 months!! Then it tapered to 2 weeks then 4 weeks and now it’s every 2 months. Anyways it turned out he had tongue tie so he wasn't getting enough milk poor thing but they didn’t confirm it until he was about 4/5 months old by that point it was too late to do anything. I also had pain when breastfeeding because of the tongue tie. I cried so much and I hated feeding him because of the pain but I refused to do formula, now I wish I had!

During the first 6 months I saw about 5 different paediatricians who were happy that although his weight was low my baby was happy and content otherwise. So not that much of a big deal. I think it was the hv that were making more of fuss about it.

Are you still experiencing pain when bf? If so please let your hv know or speak to a bf consultant- they can help with your latch and check baby doesn’t have tongue tie. Your health visitor should also be able to advise you with a feeding plan to help her weight. Good luck I hope you are okay, you're doing really well with all of the top ups and it sounds like your dd is really happy and healthy :)

[CadyEastman]

What centile was she born on @newtiredmumma and which one is she on now?

It's not unsual for a newborn to take two weeks to get back up to their birth weight. It's not really a sign that anything is wrong.

Have you read "How might I increase my baby's weight gain?" and "BFing your newborn - what to expect in the early weeks".

I don't know how much you should be topping up. A BFC will be able to give you support and the latest information.

If you haven't already please call one of the BFing Helplines and talk it through with a BFC.

Have you managed to get to a BFing Support Group yet? They should be able to help to support you both