3 day old lost just over 10% of body weight

[Yellowdaff25]

Feeling very disheartened and upset as just had a home visit midwife appointment and my 3 day old has lost just over 10% of his body weight so she has suggested topping up with formula.

I had a c section which I know can delay milk coming in but I have been producing colostrum and can hand express this in small amounts. It seems to be increasing and has changed from thick and yellow to more white and milk like and my breast seem bigger but the midwife today told me that because I lost a fair bit of blood (this was in my notes at 1100ml but hospital never told me this!) my milk would likely be delayed for several more days. She also commented that my nipples are quite bit so baby may be struggling with latch🫣😩

I feel so upset as I didn’t manage to breastfeed my first and I really wanted to persevere this time round. Baby is also a little jaundiced and midwife said formula would help flush this out?

She did say just to supplement with formula and keep offering the breast but I still feel very deflated - especially as I felt like all the signs that my milk was coming in were there.

Mine were breastfed, lost quite a lot of weight initially. By 10 days old the health visitor was saying to me ' what are you doing to him, he's a little porker'. All of the weight had gone back on plus loads more. Just carry on putting to the breast even if only for a short time. You will get a good supply the more you do that. And make sure you get as much of the areola in baby's mouth so he's not just sucking on the nipple. He needs to be pressing upwards with his jaw.

My baby didn't regain her birth weight until around 3 weeks as I was still finding my feet with BF. I took no heed of all the top up advice and just latched often on both sides. She regained quickly after that and has been fully EBF. I don't think there's anything to worry about at this point, just focus on BF if that's what you want. My girl was quickly back to 75th centile, it can't take time to get into the momentum of bf but it's still early days. You can definitely keep going without formula which can mess with supply.

This happened with both my babies.

Sorry if this has already been said but I just skimmed the PP. get baby checked for tongue tie (that was the issue with mine) and also get nipple shields. They will help baby latch a bit better until you are both more comfortable.

OP well done you. My second dc is 3 months and I had a very similar experience to you. Losing weight and very jaundice. Told to top up each feed with formula. I was distraught as thought formula would end our bf journey. Anyway I did what they said and topped up each feed. Dc put on weight immediately, jaundice went down and HV said to drop the formula top ups after just 3 days. I couldn’t believe it. We are now successfully EBF still. I regret being so upset.

the key now is to get rid of jaundice as it’s circular - it will be making baby tired and not feeding effectively. The formula flushes jaundice out much quicker than Breastmilk. Once flushed out you can revert to breastfeeding solely I expect. I personally would follow the HV advice here re top ups due to the jaundice.

if you are still putting baby to boob regularily (we were told every 3 hours at this point) milk supply will be ok despite the FF top ups

Follow what they say and baby will start to gain and formula top ups won’t need to end your bf journey if you don’t want it to

well done you x

PS we didn’t have any formula items or steriliser in the house as dc1 was ebf so just bought the ready made formula bottles that come with sterilised teat. Super useful size each bottle is perfect size for a top up. It is more pricey (£8 for 6 x 70ml bottles) but if only doing it for a few days so worthwhile as no faff.

Some good advice, one further point which is you have inputs and outputs if I could describe it like that, with formula you know and can measure how much goes in, with breastfeeding you can't. So if you make a note to show the frequency of dirty and wet nappies that will give you reassurance that the baby is taking in what they need or whether or not you need to worry.
Secondly, trust your instincts they are as primed as they will ever be in your life. Wake the baby for feeds every few hours, if you are content he's thriving and lively then you are almost certainly right.
It's so hard, if you had had major abdominal surgery you would be allowed to sleep and rest and recover in any other circumstances however when it's a c-section you are expected to look after a baby too! Make sure you get as much rest as you can, you only have one task which is to look after the baby and yourself. You're doing great.