12 week old weight and feeding less

[Mp362]

Looking for shared experiences and a hand hold.
My baby is 12 weeks and EBF. She was born on the 18th centile and rocketed up to just under the 75th by 8 weeks. She's always been a frequent short feeder. She had her 12 week weigh in on Monday, and although she has held at the 50th centile, she hadn't put on as much weight as expected (worked out about 17g a day or 107g a week- ish) Our latch has never been amazing (huge awkward boobs) but felt like we'd been making it work.

She caught a horrible bug at about 9 weeks and didn't feed properly for at least a few days- could this be the cause?

To add to the stress, she's suddenly feeding much less, and no matter how much I try just isn't interested. Behaviourally she's happy and smiley, napping normally. She poos a couple of times a day, occasionally skipping a day and has about 5 heavy wet nappies in 24 hours. I feed entirely on demand, including as many times as she wakes in the night.

Has anyone experienced period where baby didn't gain as much? Any tips on how to encourage feeding? So worried I'll need to start formula top ups, which destroyed my bf journey with my son.

I think it’s meant to be quite normal around the 3 month mark as they get stronger and more efficient at feeding, I hope so as my son is 13 weeks and I have noticed he’s feeding a lot less than he was even 2 weeks ago.

From what you’ve said it sounds like you’re doing a brilliant job - you’re feeding her on demand, even though her centile has dropped slightly she’s still gaining weight, having lots of wet/dirty nappies and sounds like she’s a really happy little girl. You could go get her weighed again in a couple of weeks if you’re worried? I know it’s easier said than done not to worry though ♥️

It sounds like she's growing up and what her body needs is changing. At the check up, was anyone worried about her (lack of) weight gain? She sounds happy and healthy, and it doesn't sound like she's unhappy about being fed. From what you've said it doesn't sound like she's:

• showing signs of being unwell due to being underfed
• struggling to feed, or being distressed by feeding (like stopping quickly because feeding makes her mouth or tummy hurt).
• loosing nourishment due to D+V

I would only really be worried if she seemed hungry or upset.

So she hasn’t fallen through a centile? If so there’s no concern. Guidelines are to keep a closer eye once weight falls through 2 centiles. And about 12w is exactly when they start feeing less, fussing around at the breast because the world is more interesting to them all of a sudden. Keep an eye on wet nappies, weigh again in a month(or 2 weeks if you’re really worried). It all sounds fine :)

Thank you all, this is all reassuring. I had a horrible experience breastfeeding my son where my milk supply tanked due to mastitis, he didn't put on weight for a week and I was put on a triple feeding plan by the infant feeding team with no support to go back to EBF and then my son developed a bottle preference. I think I have some stress leftover from this experience!

I will book us in for another weigh in in a few weeks. She is such a happy baby, it doesn't feel like she's not feeding due to illness, pain or anything else.

So is bouncing around within a centile relatively normal?