My skinny baby!

[wastingmyeducation]

Hello all! I have gotten so much good info from this forum, but think I may need some tailored advice now please!

DS is 9 weeks (tomorrow!), and was 9lb 7oz at birth, 12 days overdue, born by C section. After he was weighed, DH heard them comment on this weight, and that they would reweigh him, but as my blood pressure dropped through the floor, DH and DS were taken into the recovery room, and he wasn't reweighed until day 6, when he was 8lb 5.5oz.
It took til week 7 to regain birth weight, and he is now 9lb 14oz.
He has dropped four lines on the chart from birth weight and two from his lowest weight and is now on the 9th centile, however he is on the 75th for both head and length.
He has been exclusively breastfed, and we have struggled with some latch and position issues, these are generally resolved, but there's still occasional discomfort.
He feeds almost constantly sometimes, one day this week we had no more than half an hour as the longest off-boob time, and I would say an hour and a half to two hour average between start of feeds.
Wednesday DS had his jabs at baby clinic and the Dr. had me have reweighed after feeding him, and advised me to express and feed the milk. The HV, who has been supportive then came round on Thursday with a breast pump to loan me and a referral to the Child Assessment Unit.
Anyway, at the hospital, the SHO eventually concluded that DS is fine, but that I should express to check my milk supply and that we might then think about supplements.
I did the smile and nod thing, but then when I was trying to feed him on the uncomfortable chair, a nurse came along and apparently they wanted me to do this expression then and there! I was supposed to be spending the day with relatives who were travelling back the following day, and we had been sent to an acute assessment ward so the HV and GP could cover their arses, to be told some bullshit that I know is wrong. The nurse rather took the brunt of my hysteria.
The Registrar then came and checked DS over, said there wasn't even any need to take any bloods and after asking me some questions decided that I needed looking after and we are to take him back to be weighed next week.
So my plan is to try everything apart from the pump this week. He gained 6oz in nine days last week, and we need to gain 6oz by Friday to track the 9th.
All advice and anger at HCPs welcome!

xx

Haven't read all of thsi but this is so similar to what happened to me. DS2 was 9 days late, weighed 7 14 and was on the 50th centile. Over the next few weeks he never lost weight but fell down the centiles, until around 4 months he was on 2nd. HV made concerned noises each fortnight and said "let's give it another couple of weeks" Was exclusively bf for 10 wks then bf + 1 bottle to 9 months. Held off weaning till 23 weeks and still his weight stayed bewteen 2nd - 9th ecntile. In one frustrated HV session i got them to check his length which was on 50th centile and always was. DS was always happy and did not seem hungry and neber looked scrawny. My DH is tall and skinny and aways has been and DS looks just like him. HV was not v helpful about it, they never actually redferred me to anyone which makes me wonder why they plot their weight in the first place! HV admitted tro me that all babies who are breastfed fall off the charts around 4 months. the charts are outdated, based on a bottle fed babya nd diue to be scrapped v soon. Some Hv have a seperate chart for bf babies, sk yours.

So in my wagffle I think my advice would be:

Trust your instincts. Do you think your abay is happy and getting enough food?

Look at family history, are you or DH skinny?

Unless actually loosing weight try not to worry

Meant to add I knew another Mum whose baby was truely not putting on weight at all (as opposed to putting it on sloely) her DS just looked ill, scrawny, pale and obviously not right. I really do thijnk you would know if his weight gain was a real problem

I do get v cross about those bloody charts!"!

fymandbean - that really isn't the case with your milk - the fat content is related to the amount of milk in your breast, so feeding frequently means that actually they get higher fat milk at the start of the feed.

Super swapping (switch nursing) can help to get babies to consume more milk - its giving more breasts per feed by feeding on one for 5 minutes, then swapping, 5 mins there, back again, and so forth (times depend on the length of their feed generally). Basically you get more of a flow to begin with, and your breasts get more stimulation.

Where are you ? You could go along to an NCT bumps and babes or LLL meeting to see a bfc face to face.

Ok maybe I've described it wrong but its here (about halfway down) and here

Basically the longer the feed the fattier it is so if they are just snacking every 1/2 hour or so they are getting all foremilk which is less fatty....

Anyway it worked for my DS and he put loads of weight on when we spaced out his feeds and he fed longer each time.

But this explains how, when feeds are close together, the milk at the beginning of the feed is fattier than if they are spaced out more here