Slow weight gain confusion

[Keggles36]

So my little one is 14 weeks old and we've had quite a feeding journey. She's mostly breast fed, but we introduced formula as her weight gain was slow.

Thing is, it's still kind of slow but she rejects extra bottles, is a really happy smiley baby who is meeting/exceeding all of her mile stones (she rolled the other day!!), settles well and has loads of wet nappies and at least 1-2 dirty nappies a day. She did have tongue tie but was snipped, and we've seen an LC who was happy with her latch etc.

She is being weighed on Monday and I feel it's not going to be very good weight gain (weigh ins now strike terror and anxiety in me) and they never offer a logical solution. Just at a loss of what to do 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'm not even convinced the weight is as bad as the health visitor suggests. And the GP kept going on about her terrible weight loss on day 5 which was only 7% so fine - and she's always gained since then!

I've attached her growth chart, any thoughts welcome. I literally feed on demand which works out as 7-12 feeds a day depending on the day.

Also whichever health professional drew all the crosses in the chart plotted birth weight wrong, it was 3.5kg.

Who's told you there's a weight gain problem? It looks like she's gaining well on approximately the 25th percentile?
It's not uncommon for babies to not growth on a perfect curve and to move around a percentile, you go from the 5 day weight rather than birth weight percentile as birth weight can vary for a number of reasons such as mum having fluids during labour. 7% is a normal 5 day weight loss. It looks like they go from being just over the 25th to just under the 25th percentile with a max of 1 percentile change. For me I'd be monitoring the situation and judging my response by how baby seems happy, bright, alert, plenty of wet and dirty nappies.
It's only the 7 weeks measurement that looks off was there anything different at this time? I would continue as you are doing for another couple of weeks and if they are continuing on that just under the 25th percentile line not fret too much? It's dropped towards the 9th percentile then I would be redoing tongue tie and feeding assessments. Potentially looking at diet. My daughter was on the 9th percentile until I removed dairy and then moved up to the 25th-50th percentiles
When was the tongue tie snipped?

@Superscientist thanks for your reply. She took 3 weeks to get back to birth weight so everyone got really twitched about that. I got triple feeding for three weeks and it hit my mental health quite bad

Tongue tie was seperated at 11 days old.

I feel like there could be a dairy intolerance, poos are a tad mucusy but health professionals aren't worried. She did end up with a stomach bug at the end of January, so weight gain was a little slow again in the hospital after a few weeks - they didn't plot her weight at 13 weeks, but it was only a 270g gain in 17 days (but this was during the bug and the paediatrician wasn't worried) was still between 9th and 25th.

I'm so wrecked with anxiety that I'm starving her by carrying on breastfeeding and should just switch to formula.

Sounds like you have both been through a lot!
If she's holding her line (9th-25th percentile) even with a stomach bug I'd say you are doing pretty well! Would it reassure you to get another feeding assessment?
Feeding a newborn is so stressful. I had so many assessments as my daughter had feeding aversions. It was awful for my mental health. She gained weight ok despite barely feeding. She's 4 now and still gains weight despite not eating.
Would you feel happier breastfeeding if she had a bottle a day? It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

My daughter was 17 weeks before her dairy allergy was identified by which point she screamed all day. At the time I thought her poos were normal it was only when they improved I realised the difference. She was 15 months before we identified all of her allergies! How's your relationship with your hv, mine was probably my most helpful health professionals but I know they are hit and miss

@Superscientist gosh it sounds like you had s tough time too! Well done for sticking with it!

I might pop along to our local feeding support group this week. HV has been useless really, very friendly but a bit of a chocolate teapot. La leche league have been a great support ❤️

She currently gets 5oz bottle before bed of formula and she generally takes at least 4oz. I sometimes offer one in the morning as well but she tends to reject that.

It's not been very nice, she had shiga toxin producing ecoli, we think I probably had it and she caught it from me as I ended up in hospital with symptoms. But she got less sick, it just came up in a stool sample which I'm so grateful for.

I just think she may have lost weight and then I'm not sure what to do. But will be weighed on Monday by HV so we will see. I'm finding the feeding rollercoaster very lonely.

@Superscientist she was weighed today and had gained really well and is on the 25th today. I'm really pleased.

Thanks for your reassuring replies in my moment of need ❤️

It really is lonely, it was during the pandemic that I went through this which didn't help. My mum was quite helpful in a compassionate way. My sister had issues with weight gain and reflux, she was readmitted for refeeding at 10 weeks at less than 1lb over birth weight.

How has the HV gone today, it sounds like a good idea to try the breastfeeding group. Do you have an infant feeding team, I had a few appointments with them but the first 2 were nice but not ultimately helpful and then the third was unhelpful but i know others that found them more supportive. Sometimes you have to knock on a lot of doors to find your person

Crossed post, Oh brilliant! Hopefully it continues and feeding becomes less stressful for you!

I'll second @Superscientist , that chart looks very much like a baby varying completely normally around the 25th centile – and even the wee dip, you know she was ill. I can see why they might have wanted to have a wee check to make sure she didn't keep drifting down and down after her illness, but it sounds like your HV has made you very stressed over what is actually a baby following her curve nicely!

Very glad baby has had a good gain, and hopefully feeding becomes easier for both of you now!