7 week old slow weight gain. 220 grams in almost 4 weeks :(

[rrrl88]

Hi, seeking real life advice obviously but looking for some on here too. Baby EBF

Baby is quite dainty, born at 3.15kg at 38+5weeks. Was slow to get back to birth weight but did around day 15
—weighed again at 3 weeks 3 days old and weighed 3320g.
-then again today at 7 weeks and 1 day old. And weighed 3540g. Only a 220g gain in all that time.

baby feeding well, she did have a spell just before Easter where her nappies weren’t too heavy and she didn’t poo for a few days, I asked GP for advice who said it was normal for bf babies not to poo too often. This lasted a few days- a week. I was worried but literally just kept feeding very frequently and she seemed to have turned a corner!

fast forward to today, she’s feeding good, nappies are heavy and frequent and she’s pooping at least once a day. I was so excited to get her weighed as she seemed so much heavier and bigger! She’s recently moved up to 0-3 clothes etc.

HV was very unconcerned, said she didn’t want to put me off breastfeeding etc.. but did say treat with caution and referred me back to the infant feeding team. Our check at the doctors in next week to. She did say we’d like it to be more than that normally but I think she just didn’t want to panic me.

As soon as she went I’ve just spiralled and sobbed all day. She’s my 3rd baby and i feel (well felt :( ) really good about our feeding journey, she’s the only baby I’ve managed to EBF for this long..

now I feel like I’m failing her and have just a pit in my stomach. It hadn’t crossed my mind before but I may just switch her to formula tomorrow 😔 she acts so content and HV said latch is great and she actively feeds etc.. but obviously it’s not working 💔

any advice? Or had this happened to anyone else?

It is such a hard one but as long as they are gaining I’m not really one for the numbers at all but I know people get hung up on them. To me gaining weight, even slowly, plenty of wet nappies and most importantly a content baby after feeds is a baby (and mum!) who are doing amazing.
My experience. Fed my DS for 9 months. Took 3 weeks to go back to birth weight, very slow to gain, dropped from the 25th to the 2nd centile and stayed there until he was 2. I was never worried, he was so content. I think he was just finding his centile tbh. I was advised to top up but never did but for other reasons started combi feeding at 6 months and can confirm he didn’t put on any more weight that way either. He’s 4 now, still super skinny and eats 4 full meals with 6-8 snacks a day and I wish for my food bill I was exaggerating.
My DD is 6 months. She was also born small. 2.9KG at 41 weeks (they think my placenta wasn’t working properly because I was so sick). She took 5 weeks to gain back her birth weight and basically fell of the charts she was so small. Shes now 6 months and on the 50th centile, just started randomly gaining like lb a week 😂. Once again, I’ve never been worried she was always content after her feeds.
I mean your saying it’s not working but your describing a content baby, will plenty of wet nappies and a great latch who you are enjoying feeding? Sounds like it’s working great to me, try not let the lines in a red book tell you more than your mum instincts, they serve a purpose but they aren’t everything! Your HV sounds great too!

By 4 weeks, my third baby hadn't gained enough weight and I was told to put her on formula. I thought everything had been going really well and I had no problems feeding my other kids. Anyway, I hired a lactation consultant who came to my house for 2 hours, watching me feed and pump too. She told me that I didn't have enough milk, which I had no idea about. She put me on a gruelling plan for around 10 days of pumping, breastfeeding and topping up with formula. I had to set alarms every 2 hours and it was so awful. I was distraught! About ten days in, I went to pump as per the schedule and lashings and lashings of milk came out. And that was me, baby started gaining weight like a champ and I breastfed until she was 19 months.

I know a lot if people say that weight gain isnt everything, but it is a question of calories in, and in my case I had no idea I had a low supply.

I put it down to being kind of ignored by hospital staff after my c section and getting no support when it was painful to feed. A midwife just told me I had to endure the pain or it would never get better. Anyway that affected my supply so maybe consider that. My daughter was quite petite too but once I got my supply sorted, she started chucking out in no time!!!!

Chunking

I had to use google to convert it but as I understand she was born 6lb9 and has gained 7 ounces in 7 weeks. Which, as you’ve identified, is not very much at all. You don’t have to stop breastfeeding but this is quite extreme and I would be worried about her growth at this point - can you add a bottle of formula a day and see if that makes a difference, and breastfeed the rest of the time? You could pump when you give the bottle to make sure your supply doesn’t suffer.

My second has been slow to gain weight. Formula fed so I could track input, he always drank more than average. He’s 9 months, looks a lot younger & is still in 3-6 month clothes. Meeting milestones, crawling etc and HV isn’t concerned. Started around 8-9 weeks for us he dropped from 25th - 2nd percentile, but apparently all is okay as he went on to the 9th percentile and has followed that.

I feel the same as you, like I’m doing something wrong. My only advice is to push it further you’re not happy with HV’s advice. We spoke to 3 different doctors, 1 was a paediatric doctor and they weren’t concerned either.

Very frustrating as a parent though.

hi everyone,

thank you so much for taking the time to reply and share your experiences. I’ve never experienced anything like this before! I think it’s just blindsided me as I thought it was going so well.

I’m still considering introducing formula. Both my other 2 were mostly formula fed so I’m not bothered about that. It’s just more the fact she’s so content and it seemed we were both doing really well 😔 to then learn that actually she’s not gaining how she should. It’s really upsetting. But obviously the main thing is getting her fed.

Will ring the feeding team tomorrow, then I have the doctors next week. I’ll see how that goes and I might pay to see a lactation consultant in the meantime. This seems like the thing to do from my research.

Just gutted as I was so happy it was lovely and stress free, she’s such a happy baby!! And honestly is filling out nicely (so I thought!). She’s definitely moving up clothes sizes and feeling heavier- so confusing, I actually thought the scales were wrong but surely they won’t be.

Also, to clarify, she was born 6lb 15oz and now weighs 7lb 12oz ish. Still not a lot of weight to gain I guess😔

If I’m being honest I think postpartum hormones might be overriding logic here which is completely understandable.
I’m really not anti formula at all but I’m also very pro breastfeeding and I especially stopping the narrative that formula is ‘just as good as breastfeeding’ when it’s not and Iit does make me so sad when people are like ‘here is my happy and content baby who I’m loving breastfeeding and no medical professional is worried about but they aren’t being a robot baby and putting on the exact amount of weight I want and might not on formula either but I’ll give them that instead’
And we wonder why 1% of mothers feed beyond 6 months

@Withthe2Lshi! I get exactly where you’re coming from and I’d love to just wholeheartedly agree as I thought we were doing so well and now feeding is just so stressful 😣 but from everything I’ve read and been told, baby needs to be gaining 20-30g a day, on average mine will have been gaining less than 8g a day 😭 I’m stuck between wanting to carry on how we were but then knowing that’s an insanely low weight gain and that baby most likely isn’t getting enough milk? I don’t know what level of concerned I should be, I only have the numbers to go off. I have noticed baby is falling asleep today on breast a lot too- very quickly. It’s all very confusing and I just worry she isn’t getting enough nourishment or hydration…

@rrrl88 ok you seem pretty set in your thoughts and I never want to upset anyone postpartum so I’ll say no more 😊

Hi Op,

You are right to be concerned and as a mum your primary job is to make sure all your baby’s needs are being met, including nourishment and hydration.

This poor weight gain isn’t something that should be sat on and I would advise you seek out the support of a lactation consultation to see if it is a breastfeeding issue, and get a GP appointment ASAP to rule out any medical reasons.

A lot of babies who aren't gaining weight and are described as being “content” are actually just too tired to feed/cry because they are lacking in calories and energy.

None of what I’m saying is to upset you, but just to be realistic. 8g a day weight gain, only pooing once a day and being sleepy and tired is not normal and when it’s a new baby their health and well-being is the priority and whilst the reasons for your current situation are being investigated, it’s important you act on your concerns to get things back on track. You have a sense that something isn’t right so absolutely follow your instincts here.

I'm going to separate some of this out

For 38+5 3.15kg is a decent weight and taking just over 2 weeks to get back to birth weight is fairly typical. My daughter was 3.11 kg at 36+6 and took about 14 days to get back to birth weight.
My son was 3.08kg and took 16 days to get back to birth weight.

3.32 kg at 3 weeks is ok for this size of baby - my son and daughter were both 3.3-3.4kg at 3 weeks. I would focus on the time since which is where things are potentially starting to slide. 3.32 kg at 3+3 is between the 9th and 25th percentiles and now at 7 weeks she has dropped to just below the 2nd percentile. This would count as a drop of just over a percentile. Babies can drop a percentile and it be normal for them but once you start getting towards 2 percentile drops it might need looking at.

I think getting input from the infant feeding team is a good place to start. My son was born with a 100% tongue tie and needed this releasing at 8 days to help with feeding and my daughter has multiple food allergies and severe silent reflux and these caused feeding issues. It might be worth keeping a diary of symptoms and observations and keeping an eye on her weight over the next couple of weeks to see if this is a blip or more of a drop.

How regularly is she feeding day and night? I'd probably be tempted to offer the breast more frequently before offering a bottle of formula

If it is any reassurance my sister was 6lb 13 at birth and was only 7lb 10 at 10 weeks when she was admitted to hospital for refeeding as she had dropped completely off the charts. We retrospectively think she had a milk allergy too as my mum noted so many similarities between her and my daughter and she has never been able to tolerate much milk.

On the clothes front it can be really varied my son still fits in some <1 month clothes at 7 months! We have short torsos and is still in nearly all of his 0-3 month vests. He has long legs and out grew the sleepsuits at about 5 months.

Hi everyone, thank you for insight, all really helpful! a bit of an update, for 2 days I supplemented baby with an ounce of formula after 2 feeds, spent a few days in the house just feeding and trying to relax! Then all of a sudden baby started feeding like a champ! Milk gushing out when pumping now etc and baby guzzling and not just sleeping on the breast anymore! She’s always been nice and alert but I think the comfort of feeding was just sending her to sleep, effecting her weight gain. Got her weighed again and had put on 180grams in 6 days 😊 did take her to the GP too who was pleased with her and said she’s doing great. Infant feeding team still haven’t approached me (referral went in) so I might touch base with them myself this week.

overall, I’m a lot more relaxed and happy with her. Glad I didn’t swap to formula but those few ounces helped massively as a tool to get back on track! 😊

Also, baby will be getting weighed 2 weekly going forward as per advice. Fingers crossed she keeps gaining 😊

That's great, I hope it continues to go well from here.

When did the infant feeding team referral go in? Mine reviews referrals on a Monday. My son was born on a Monday with a tongue tie identified at birth they did the referral the next day so the Tuesday and we didn't hear back until the following Monday but they saw us the next morning and they cut his tie. I was fearful that the wait for the referral to be looked at would mean we would then have a wait to get is send and reviewed but it all went really quickly once we spoke to them.