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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

all ye women with slow-gaining babies... come and sympathise with Aitch here please...

288 replies

Aitch · 01/10/2008 12:28

oh bloomin' heck. she's only put on an ounce and a half in 6 days.

OP posts:
nappyaddict · 10/10/2008 15:50

you know when you were having all the trouble last year with dd gaining weight? did she ever cross the thrive line?

vlc · 10/10/2008 16:01

Yes indeed - when we got to 6 months and I introduced solids with BLW (Ta v much Aitch) and weeell, OK, just a leeetle bit of spoonfed banana and cream, she gallumphed up with her weight gain. I think she just made it onto the bottom of the breastfed baby weight charts at about 7 months. She still eats really well but gains 2 or 3oz a week now. At 14 months she's 20lb 3oz. On the bf baby charts this makes her just beneath the 50th centile, but on the standard charts she is way down at the bottom I think. She's still bf and showing no signs of slowing down there!

nappyaddict · 10/10/2008 16:06

so until she was 7 months she wasn't even on the bottom centile of the BF baby charts?

vlc · 10/10/2008 16:12

That's right. She was only 9lb 10 at 6 months. Tiny. I was freaking out. She still is dainty, and apart from a spurt of catching up over 2 or 3 months, she has settled back into her own pattern again.

nappyaddict · 10/10/2008 16:17

did you ever see the thrive line acetates of the BF babies growth chart? I have heard about them on here and told my friend but when she asked her HV her HV had never heard of them.

moondog · 10/10/2008 16:36

You gotta have faith!!

expatinscotland · 10/10/2008 16:55

i've only been following along on this thread, and i have to say, aitch, HATS OFF and RESPECT to you for having the energy to both pump and bf!

my lazy arse would have collapsed from exhaustion by now.

i'm going to be on here starting begging threads about bfing lying down with big, saggy tits with huge nipples so i don't have to be arsed even sitting up in the night to feed him!

you deserve a huge pat on the back for doing so well!

Aitch · 10/10/2008 19:34

hhhmmm, don't speak too soon expat. not a lot of poo and pee in the nappies today, don't feel like i have much milk, feeds don't seem to be that great either.

the bfc i spoke to said i wasn't getting dd to the breast fast enough and her mouth was partly closing. i acknowledge that this is true but having followed her advice to unlatch and start again i can't hardly get dd2 to open her mouth at all to have a good long feed. it's like she's not unhappy with a few sucks and a mini-snooze, then a few sucks etc. i doubt if she's had two or three proper good going feeds today. gah.

OP posts:
beansontoast · 10/10/2008 20:52

this is just what happened to me with dd.

i was advised to do less and eat more and make myself more available for feeding...which helped a bit but it didnt get her back on to her birth centile.She remained snacky and content!

she was def a lean baby (hanging out around teh ninth/twentyfifth mark)and is less so now...but i really really think that she was fine...and yours sounds fine too.

wont be long before she has her hands in some spag bol

beansontoast · 10/10/2008 20:55

ohhh just read your last post...i sometimes wondered whether raised anxiety in the last coupel of weeks affected my let down?

i stopped weekly weigh ins and really really concentrtaed on relaxing when i was feeding.

hang in there aitch....x

Caz10 · 10/10/2008 21:14

Minor hijack, but nappyadict - I saw the thriveline acetates once when we paid...deep breath...£160 to see a private paed....this was after the HV had told me to buy formula "in the next half hour" and the GP had told me to top-up with formula before every BF....

I had the BFN support but obviously GP and HV did not rate them, and put us down for a paeds referral, and told me I should ff until the referral came through, then bf after that if it was "ok" WTF....oh yes and referral could take 2-3mths....

can you tell I'm still angry?! Anyway long story short, lovely paed showed me thrive acetates, dd had climbed over them (all this was triggered by a 0.5oz weight loss ) and had never fallen. They were really quite extreme lines actually iyswim, the weight loss would have been quite drastic to go through them. Paed said she was fine, keep on bf-ing, and wrote a stinky letter to the GP and HV. Hoorah!!

aitch you sound down - HONESTLY you will get there and somehow one day you have this mad mental hoover-gob of a baby who can latch on in pitch dark and sucks so hard she leaves you with a massive love bite if she gets the wrong bit! . I was in tears for weeks with desparation to start with, it just magically comes right, honestly. Do you like your BFC? Because I think that is key, try the other support groups till you get one you like. I had a bfn group near me, once weekly meetings were a lifeline.

toodles · 10/10/2008 21:15

I'm joining this thread late and haven't read all the posts so if I'm repeating someone else, apologies. That's all I have to add is that it is very important to weigh babies with the same weighing scale and at the same time of day.

Hope she starts picking up soon for you. Personally my own experience with HV's is that they are a huge PITA and not well informed on breastfeeding issues.

nappyaddict · 10/10/2008 21:17

Caz10 - i assume they would be of no help to someone who's dd has already fallen off the WHO breastfed babies chart?

Aitch · 10/10/2008 21:24

cheers toodls.

i didn't really like the bfc, tbh, but am generally hard to please...

OP posts:
Caz10 · 10/10/2008 21:29

No, I actually think they would be useful nappyaddict - they were further down the page than the bottom line of the chart iirc and also it would show you how many lines your LO had crossed, if any, i think that is an important factor when looking at them

vlc · 10/10/2008 23:44

Gosh I wish I could get a copy of those thrive lines. When I took dd for her MMR a couple of weeks ago I glanced at the computer screen and there in BOLD on dd's notes was a huge black failure to thrive. It made me so sad and miserable. That stupid black cloud is going to follow us around every medical appointment. Caz - any idea how to get hold of them? I looked for them once to no avail. The paed hadn't even heard of the WHO bf baby charts.

Once again, sorry for the hijack, Aitch.

Aitch · 11/10/2008 00:07

hijack away, vlc.

i've just realised ive been doing breast compression All Wrong. although the bfc i saw didn't mention anything about it, which has made me like her even less...

OP posts:
vlc · 11/10/2008 00:25

I've gotta know...

What way is "all wrong"? See I'm visualising weird stuff now. I've always just squidged my teeny boobs as best I could. What else is there?

Aitch · 11/10/2008 00:28

it doesn't seem to be about squidging, more like timing let downs. works well so far.

www.bflrc.com/newman/breastfeeding/compres2.htm

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vlc · 11/10/2008 00:34

mkay, think we've been doing it fine. To be fair I hardly ever do it these days except perhaps if she's feeding in her sleep on one side of me and I want to get the last few drops out of that side before turning over in bed.

Have you been shown how to hand express, Aitch? Might be helpful now the pump has kiffed it.

Aitch · 11/10/2008 00:37

i have. can't imagine being able to do it other than absolutely first thing in the morning tbh.

OP posts:
nappyaddict · 11/10/2008 10:09

thrive lines

Aitch · 11/10/2008 11:03

still ahven't got anywhere near cracking feeding lying down. do you think it's because she's so teeny yet?

OP posts:
ilovemydog · 11/10/2008 11:16

aitch, can't the hospital lend you one? At the local maternity hospital in bristol, there's scheme to lend them out.

I couldn't feed ds on side until was about 6 lbs.

CorpseBrideOfJohnCusack · 11/10/2008 11:22

aitch, I never cracked feeding lying down in 24 months of breasfeeding, and I really tried as it sounded so convenient!
I don't think it's for everyone. It might be easier when she's bigger though - then you don't have to hold them in place so much IYSWIM

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