Newborn lost 12% body weight in 3 days - very stressed!

[Newbiemum25]

Hi All,

Sorry for the long post.

But basically in summary, my LO lost 12% of her body weight on day 3 (if you count the birth date as day 0), which I think was from trying to exclusively breastfeed but looking back, it was obviously not working (I could express so looking back definitely more of a latch issue rather than supply). So then we have now put her on a regimented routine of formula/expressed milk to get her weight up and it’s gone up to 9% loss on day 7.

We did start topping up with formula on day 2 due to midwife visiting and seeing LO lethargic at the breast.

I’m just concerned that for those first days (Saturday (her birth date as she was born 2am in morning) Sunday &
Monday morning) before the midwife visited on Monday midday, that she was getting nothing. I feel awful and from reading online, I’m worried about the long term effects this could have caused and I’m struggling to move on past those days even though she is now gaining weight and it’s really just affecting me it’s really getting me down from enjoying having a new LO so I’m just wondering what you guys think and if I’m overthinking/how to get over this and move forward.

I’ve put the full detail below for background.

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I’m a first time mum, and I had my LO the Saturday just gone. She weighed about 2.7kg.

My idea had always been to breastfeed, so straight after birth on the Saturday morning, she latched on (at least I think she did), and then throughout the day in hospital I put her to the breast and I would call the midwives and they would help by trying to stuff breast into her mouth/get the latch right but they didn’t explain anything or say anything so looking back, it wasn’t very helpful as I didn’t know what was going on, and so I gave her expressed colostrum (that I expressed there), it was small quantities like 0.5ml-1.5ml every few hours after trying breastfeeding and not being successful and then in the evening i put her on the breast for feeds.

Sunday morning we took her home, and I tried breastfeeding regularly but looking back I don’t think the latch was right so unclear whether she was getting anything at all.

That night through to Monday she was screaming all night and then midwife came for a visit around midday and watched my breastfeeding technique but LO was so sleepy so she suggested formula and LO gulped it down (which was quite a shock as made me realise she must have been starving).

On Tuesday we took her in because she looked slightly jaundiced and that’s when doctor said she had lost 12% of her body weight and to give her bottle every few hours and get her weight up so we have been doing that.

I still would like to breastfeed but more concerned about her weight so been expressing in the meantime to keep supply up and had a lactation consultant come visit and that helped her latch yesterday but difficult to do when it’s just myself. Have another appointment on Tuesday with a consultant so will see how that goes but in the meantime making sure she gets enough from expressed/formula

Hi
congratulations on your baby!!
My twins are almost 8 now but they both lost too much weight: Dd lost 13.8% and DS 12% so I have been there. DS had low blood sugars so we started to top him up with formula on day 1 and DD on day 3 due to jaundice (she had to go in the phototherapy incubator)
Just to reassure you they both recouped the weight and thrived once we made sure they were feeding enough (definitely no averse effects either!)
I managed to exclusively BF my son for a while but needed to combi feed my hungry girl!
I remember the worry so I hear you, hope it all resolves soon

Was she an early baby? Often they are sleepy and ineffective at feeding which would explain the weightloss. But sounds like she's gaining well now and it's creeping back up!

You need some good breastfeeding support as this sounds awful. I would contact a local ibclc (the highest qualified breastfeeding help) or a local La Leche League leader. Either of these people will be able to help you with your latch and with a plan. You should have been getting loads more advice and support rather than being encouraged to use formula. I'm sure you're baby will be fine and I hope you can get the support you need to feed how you want

We had similar and DC had a tongue tie. Once that was snipped we EBF and it was fine. Hospital readmitted us but were useless with any kind of support so we had to get it done privately.

Hi - thank you!

Glad your twins are both doing well and have no adverse effects - that’s reassuring!

When your DD had jaundice did the doctors say anything about them being concerned she didn’t get enough feeding up till the point you gave formula?

How long did you combi feed her?

She was 38 weeks so not really but quite small at birth - 2.7kg so could possible be that?

Yes I do want to get this checked also, I will ask the breastfeeding consultant when I see her or will look privately as well

I feel like the advice I’ve been giving by every midwife has been conflicting and I just feel a bit annoyed that nobody was concerned when I left the hospital

Oh it's horrible isn't it when you think everything is going ok then you're suddenly pulled from the newborn fug by baby's weight not measuring right

I'd echo the suggestion to get some specialist breastfeeding support

But early feeding challenges in breastfed babies are very very common. You won't have done baby any harm

I had this with my first born, he lost so much weight as I was trying and failing to breast feed. We went back into hospital and sorted it with formula, I was beating myself up but a very kind midwife told me to do the best thing for him!

He's now a strapping 18 year old.

Get all the support and advice you can, try not to worry xx

Hello OP,

It could be several things - insufficient supply or ineffective latch. However :

• This is not your fault
• Babies are expected to lose up to 10% of their birth weight in the first days, especially if bf. So yours went a bit below that but only a little. This is why they have these checks.
• Your baby will almost definitely be fine now that she's receiving what she needs.
• Again, this is not your fault.

Get her checked for tongue tie, weigh her regularly, express your milk and see whether you have adequate supplies. If/when you go back to bf offer formula top ups at the end of a feed to be sure she ate her fill.

It sounds like this was caught in time and there's no reason to believe that she won't be fine.

My twins were born very healthy weights (each 7lb12+ at 40+3) and we had similarly stressful early days. I had planned to exclusively bf and opted to stay in hospital an extra day just to make sure I had all the necessary support on hand to get feeding established. There wasn't really any support though, I was just told how amazing we were doing breastfeeding twins. However, when the midwife visited us at home on day 3 for a weigh-in, one had lost 14% and the other about 11%. They were readmitted for 3nights for intensive feeding support with nursing staff taking over some of the feeding completely. I felt terrible and never gained the confidence to exclusively bf but we did mix feed for 6months and 13months. However, they are now 15yrs, over 6 foot tall and totally fab and those days are a distant memory.

I had that after giving birth too. I was kept in for my "prem" baby- 7lbs and needed no support. And constantly got different advice. Find someone competent and listen to them. Last leche also do meetings across the meeting and you can go monthly to chat about breastfeeding and support each other. It's a brilliant group. Hunt out advice to get what you want

We had this. 13% drop at 3 days, 16% by day 5. We were also advised to top up with formula after every feed, but then that hindered breastfeeding. He was never assessed for a tongue tie as it was during Covid, and by the time anyone really listened, he was beyond 4 weeks old and they wouldn’t assess it anymore.

He's 3 now and 14kg, and happily on the 55th percentile. It was an ordeal, but we got here. He breastfed til 2.5!

Congratulations on your lovely new arrival. Our perfect baby is six weeks old now. I was in hospital with her for over a week due to my health issues, baby, thank god, was fine. I was trying to breast-feed her for the first couple of days with midwife support. However, on day two, one of the midwives noted that she was jittery and strongly advised that we begin feeding her formula which we did. We started cup-feeding her but it soon became clear that she was getting insufficient milk this way so we quickly switched to bottles. On her five day weigh-in she had lost 8% of her weight, which is below the 10% concern threshhold but high enough for the midwives to advise continuing to formula feed her.
Unfortunately, despite having excellent daily support from the infant feeding team while in hospital and when I returned home, I was unable to increase my milk supply from more than a few ml, even with regular pumping and hand-expressing, so it was soon clear that she would need to be mostly formula-fed.
I continued to latch her on to my breasts for a while, which she seemed to find comforting even if she wasn't getting much milk from them, unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago, she completely lost interest and began screaming every time I tried her on the breast so I stopped doing it as it seemed to be distressing her.
I felt terrible about not being able to breast-feed our baby, however, she seems to enjoy the formula, has an excellent appetite and continues to gain weight steadily. I'm sure your baby will thrive, I just wanted to say don't feel guilty if you need to partially formula-feed, you're only doing what's best for your baby and making sure they get enough sustinance, one way or another.

Tongue tie is not routinely checked in the NHS but you can ask for it to be looked at if you have a midwife or health visitor appointment soon. We have had multiple DC with it and getting it snipped is a 5-minute procedure without anaesthesia that made the world of difference for us. It was about £250 but I figured we saved that by not having to buy formula. Good luck - don't worry, you're doing a great job.

Mine both did this. Turned out they had cmpa. I bf on demand then topped up exactly 30 ml every three hours with my first. Second gained weight as soon I stopped eating dairy.
The top up lasted a few weeks and then I bf first for 3 years and second for 4 years. Expressing wasn’t really recommended as baby can get more out. Paediatric consultant drew up the feeding plan.

My experience (after 3 babies) is that the infant feeding support (which was poor to begin with) has deteriorated massively post Covid. All 3 of mine have had 90%+ posterior tongue ties which made breastfeeding extremely difficult. All 3 had them snipped on the NHS, but baby number 3 they massively pushed back and said they don't tend to snip anymore. She was a different baby after she'd had it done.

With baby number 1, my milk didn't even come in until day 5, so please don't stress about enduring impact of a slow start. Don't forget that the stats are done on a population level and that breastfeeding rates are very low here even in the early days. My health visitor and breastfeeding support both said that losses of 10%+ are very common amongst EBF babies.

My main advice would be try not to worry. Breastfeeding at the start can be brutal - sometimes it can take a while for baby to "get it" and that's OK. Whether you manage to figure it out or not, as long as baby is getting the nutrition she needs and you are happy and relaxed, it really doesn't matter.

Sorry don't have any good advice only keep going!

My DS was born at 37 weeks, jaundiced and really didn't want to feed. Lost 13% weight. We topped up with formula for about 3 weeks but tbh he didn't really want to drink that either.

Eventually he did gain weight but it was hard work initially. After about 3/4 weeks it a was like he suddenly realised how to feed and I then breastfed for 1year.

He's still skinny and now a teenager.

Keep going keep feeding, skin to skin can help

Congratulations on your new baby!

My little one lost almost 15% of birth weight in the first three days. We were sent back into hospital, and baby had signs of dehydration which showed in blood tests.

Initially I was told to put baby to breast every 3 hrs, then give pumped milk and a specific amount of formula (started on 43ml!). Settle baby then pump for next feed. This took an hour, so I had a 2 hr gap until it started again - during which I had to walk to the steriliser in the ward. It was exhausting but so worth it.

We were discharged after a few days, and baby was back at birth weight by their 2 week weigh in. By this point, baby was feeding and taking a bit of pumped milk, but was satisfied, gaining well with lots of wet and dirty nappies, and didn’t need formula.

I slowly stopped pumping (did struggle with oversupply and engorgement). The aim was to still pump a little, to share feeds, but I found it exhausting and breastfeeding was so much easier.

Still feeding now, 17 months later!

In our case, the weight loss was likely due to a very late diagnosed tongue tie - I was told repeatedly that baby didn’t have one, only do get a private opinion months later and he does indeed have a posterior tie (would have needed general anaesthetic).

Also, my midwife pointed out I had a lot of fluid during my c section, and said this can transfer to baby. Some countries don’t take birth weight until baby is 24 hours old, for this reason.

I hope you find this reassuring, it was tough and exhausting but we got there in the end!

I lost so much blood after birth (4 litres) that my milk never really appeared. I was in hospital for a week. I was trying to breastfeed. Day 4 they said she was jaundiced due to lack of nutrition. I then started formula feeding. I had no choice at this stage. She was starving. And as I never really got milk, it was the right decision.
She is now a 5ft 10 12 year old in top sets at school so those first few days seem to have had no lasting issues.

No they weren’t concerned, they were monitoring the jaundice and it improved… I only combi fed her for about eight weeks then moved to formula for both babies. Xx

This happened with my DD, she was only 5lb when born and then had jaundice and after a week was down to 4lb and we were sent back to hospital and she was but in the NICU as she was so dehydrated and non-responsive. They fed her and we went home after a few days, I tried pumping and topping up and was constantly feeding.

By week 4 she was still her birth weight and I was told by the health visitor that if she didn't put on weight by the end of the week she would have to go back to hospital. So I switched to formula and she was so much happier and put on weight. I don't think my milk ever properly came in. It may have been a combination of my CS, her jaundice and low birth weight, but breastfeeding just didn't work for us.

If you can make BF work for you and her it is great but if not then don't beat yourself up.

16 years later she is happy, healthy and absolutely wonderful.

I also BF her younger sister for 2 years.

I am seeing a NHS bf consultant tomorrow so hopefully that helps or I may look elsewhere too!

And thanks for your message - that’s reassuring to know.

Thank you! Glad your DC is doing well! It seems like what I’ve experienced is quite common from these replies