Worried - slow weight gain & stressed mum!

[decaffeinated]

Hello,

My 3 week old baby is only very slowly working his way back to birth weight.

He started out at 3570g, and is now at 3220g.

My nipples got incredibly sore, so I have been using nipple shields as a way of carrying on with feeding.

He feeds about 13 feeds a 24 hour period, each one about half an hour, and is a lusty feeder!

The HV came round last week, weighed him, and said 'his weight gain's slow, nothing to worry about though - we give it a month for him to get back to birth weight'. Then she called the midwife and asked her to come round to discuss positioning at the boob. M/wife said 'every baby develops differently, worrying won't help, you're doing great, keep doing what you're doing'.

Today HV's been round again, and bubs has gained 120g since lat visit. HV has said 'it's pretty slow weight gain now, I'll call in the breast feeding counsellor to check positioning'.

BF counsellor called round, gave me the same leaflet the HV had given me, and said she thought it was the nipple shields that were causing him not to gain enough weight and that I ought to try him without.

Basically, bubs needs weaning off these! He's got used to them! He's a happy and healthy baby, and I am feeling pretty disheartened that they keep banging on about his weight, but at the same time, should I be concerned?

He IS gaining, if slowly, and I was feeling pleased until the BF counsellor came round.

The nipple shields saved breast feeding for me, and the milk spurts through them, so I don't see why i shouldn't just keep on using them at least until he's regained his weight.

Has anyone got any thoughts or similar experience with slow weight gain? Do I need to be worried? Should I just follow my instinct which is to keep doing what I'm doing until he's back up to birth weight?

I can't help but think it's all a little fragile at this point to be changing what he's got used to, and seems to be working even if it's slow progress, but also am beginning to feel a bit stressed which I know is no help to either of us!

There's a slow weight gain thread in this folder, decaff.

Can I ask some more questions? What exactly is his weight gain? Is he consistently gaining? Is he producing several soft yellow poos a day and heavy with wee nappies? Is he being weighed properly (naked on digital scales)?

His weight gain is slow, but that is only a part of the picture - his recent gain of 120g may show he has turned the corner anyway.

The nipple shields can reduce the milk available to the baby - milk spurting through is a good sign of course but if he can suck directly he will prob get more. He is healthy, so there is no immediate panic to get rid of them, but most bf support people like me would be certainly exploring ways of working on getting rid of them.

13 feeds in 24 hours sounds a lot but it's not really...can you offer another one, and maybe three or even four breasts at each feed? You are, I am assuming, routinely offering two breasts anyway.

Hope this helps.

Hiya Tiktok, thanks for replying.

Here's his weight measurements:

3rd April (birth) 3570g
12th April 3300g
16 April 3100g
24 April 3220g

So he's really only just turned the corner, but I was feeling positive that he HAS turned this corner. Obviously, his weigh-in next week will tell us whether he is gaining consistently.

The weigh-in on 12th April wasn't on digital scales, all the other have been naked on digi scales.

He's doing about 6 mustard seedy yellow poos a day and lots of wee-y nappies!

His feeds tend to work out to be half an hour on each breast (with about 10 mins of burping between).

BF counsellor suggested keeping him on one boob for longer, and still offering the second, which sounds similar to your advice, and I'll be following that.

I guess I just wonder whether now is really the best moment to stop the nipple shields, or whether to do it when he's re-gained his birth weight.

Is cold turkey the best way? If yes, surely it's best when he's regained weight? Or is is poss to do a weaning programme?

Thanks so much for your help

Hi decaffeinated,
Your message sounds exactly the same as my experience so I wanted to post. I also used nipple shields for 4 days cos I had bleeding and sore nipples and my little one took 5 weeks in the end to get back to her birthweight (now 8 weeks). Looking back, I do think it was the nipple shields that caused a drop in my supply and when I stopped using them things started to improve slowly. I just stopped using the shields from one day to the next - many people here have used shields successfully for long periods of time, but I'm sure that for me they were detrimental for my supply. I would say to try a feed without and see how it goes? If anything, my lo latched on better without as she'd had to open her mouth even wider with the shields so had got into the habit. I would hedge a bet that weight gain would be greater without the shields.

From my experience, I would be reassured from the 120g gain that you've had this week - I think that normal weight gain for a bf baby in a week is between 112 and 200g?

Those weights would have had me twitching a bit, decaff, hafta say But they could only be understood in the context of everything else to do with his health and feeding...but on the face of it, the shields have not been good for getting max amount of milk into him, even though he has remained healthy.

I can understand you're a bit scared of i)being sore again ii) upsetting the apple cart just as he is seeming to be ok on the weight front

But with support, I think it would be a good time to really work on getting him to feed direct...he's doing ok, weight wise, just about, now, but boy-o-boy, he was sailing close to the wind

I suspect he has some catching up to do.

Hi Violeta,

He just doesn't take well to the naked boob when I've tried . I think his reluctance also makes me stressed, so he ends up beside himself with hunger/frustration and I end up upset because he's upset, not feeding, and hence possibly not going to gain weight... vicious circle. So am really not sure what's for the best at this point!

Thank you for your reassurance though, and I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one with this issue.

Argh! This is much tougher than I expected it to be, although on the plus side, my nips are recovering very well, and my left side, while sore, is much much better.

I really do'nt think I could've carried on bF'ing with my nipples as sore as they were, so in a way they saved it, even though they've also caused potential problems with supply.

Tiktok, I'm pleased at this point that he's gaining, although I definitely know that we're not quite out of the woods yet.

So bearing in mind his reluctance to take the boob on it's own, shall I start with the shield, then take it off half way through do you think, and just keep trying with no shield?

Busy tomorrow, decaff, and it's late now....I think it would be helpful to talk to someone in RL about this...try the bf helplines and talk it through. Good luck.