Weight loss in first week: I think I know the answer to this but would love some reassurance

[SydneyB]

Just back from m/w with DS, 9 days old, and have been told that I have til tomorrow am to get him to put some weight on or we're back to the hospital. He was 10lbs at birth and has lost about 1lb - we're exc b/f and I've been really pleased at how that's going. He latches on really well (m/w even made me feed him in front of her and agreed), feeds happily, glugs away (such a diff experience to DD) and I've been feeling like everything is just fine. He does yellow poos, is alert and produces plenty of wet nappies so why am I so freaked by the m/w? He was born at home and weighed with one of those handheld scales and then again with one of those the other day and so today was his first day on the digital scales. He's lost 9.95% bodyweight apparently and they say 10% is the cut off. Have read many threads on here over the years on the tyranny of the scales but would love some people to come on and say 'hey, you're right not to worry, its just stats'...

Grrrr, those bloody old fashioned scales. My midwife told me that they were a rough guide to weight so could definitely be that they were inaccurate. Surely if the HV/MW sees how well your DS is feeding then they wouldn't be so stupid as to send you back to hospital....is there no such thing as common sense any more?!!

Well done on the breastfeeding and just keep doing the brilliant thing you are doing to nourish your baby.

(a) it's just stats
(b) he hasn't even been weighed on a digital scale until today, so they are crap stats
(c) he will almost certainly put on weight now, so there shouldn't be an issue even or those relying on crap stats.

Feeding well, alert, pooing and weeing. Why do they look for problems when there aren't any?

You're doing a fantastic job.

big babies can and do often lose a bit more.

and 'giving you until tomorrow' what is it, a test? harrumph

tell her to sod off and you will come to have him weighed i a week or so. baby clinic that is,not hospital.

With DD we ended up in this awful cycle of expressing and topping up with formula and it took ages til she was exc b/f. DS is jaundiced as was DD but much more alert than she was. mw told me to feed him hourly today. Thing is that he does sometimes feed hourly but mostly its naturally 2/3 hourly when he demands it. he's in a sling during the day and we are co-sleeping so dont see how i can be missing his signals and surely if i forcibly feed him hourly neither of us will sleep in the next 24 hrs! also i didnt think weight gain worked like that. if i have a big meal one day it doesnt show on the scales the next day. grr.

eh? mine lost 17% and didn't have to go back to hospital. i was told 10% is the average, not the 'cut off'?

madmouse, i thought i'd heard that too. and also a 10lber losing 10% is surely less to worry about than say, a 6lber?

you did not mention jaundice before...

jaundiced babies can be sleepy and not give enough hunger signals while they need to feed loads.

it explains mws caution

kat - they say they will want to do tests to rule out infections!? i asked what infections and she said urine or something.

madmouse - he doesnt seem overly sleepy that's all whereas dd definitely was.

sydney i am not saying she is right, just that there was a little bit more to your story than you initially mentioned explaining her behaviour. you (unlike me) have obviously dealt with a jaundiced baby before so follow you instinct

yup, over 10% is when they strt asking questions, not the cut-off. 10% is better described as the norm, i'd have thought.

for example, dd1 was released from hosp at 12% off cos they thought she was feeding okay ([hollow laugh] shows what they knew). and dd2 was born at nearly 34 weeks weighing 4lbs 1 and they weren't hugely panicked that she lost over 10%.

plus... he hasn't lost even the norm has he? so your hv is an idiot. welcome to the world of post-natal care. mine has been advising me to top up before feeds 'so you can see what she's getting'. dur. they really are morons.

congrats, by the way, my dd1 sounds similar to yours, delighted for you if you're going to skip the horror of mixed feeding this time.

oh, he's jaundiced is he? still wouldn't describe 10% as a cut off but would go along with frequesnt feeds.

hadn't realised massive significance of jaundice to be honest as everyone, inc mws i've seen, has said how common it is and its only been described as 'slight'. am having feeding marathon today anyway so will see if that helps. not easy with a 22 mth DD...

aitch - have been following your progress by the way, and congrats to you too. sounds like you've really been through the mill.

ds was a similar weight and my HV said that big babies (a) sometimes lose slightly more and (b) can take up to 3 weeks to get back to birth weight

If he is feeding and pooing/weeing ok I wouldn't worry just yet. Perhaps try to ensure he has just been fed when he is next weighed as that can make a difference and get the m/w off your back.

jus' keep feedin', syd, and stick on cbeebies A LOT. sooooooooo worth it whem you realise the steriliser is gathering dust!

Oh gawd, trying to feed DS but he keeps falling asleep on the job. Perhaps he's more jaundiced than I thought... So bored with worrying about all this!

or maybe he is bored to sleep with all that feeding all your mws fault

Ha ha. Poor boy is probably knackered and dying for a proper kip. Maybe i'll leave him alone for a couple of hours..

good news today is that DS has maintained his weight so we have a 2 day reprieve and mw also said he looks less jaundice. knackered with sore boobs and 2 days ahead of us to actually gain some.

I'm sure it'll all be fine. They say they're supposed to regain birth weight in a week or so but my daughter didn't, it took her weeks. It might have been as many as six, in fact. She was kind of skinny in the early months but then around three or four months she suddenly started catching up and got nice and plump. Luckily for me, nice HV, who wasn't telling me I had to give her formula or anything.

My DS is 5 weeks old today and his weight gain went like this:

Born at 9lb 10oz
weighed at 3 days old and had lost 1lb 2oz. The midwife said if his weight loss was more than 10% he's have to be admitted to hospital but worked it out wrong and didn't notice that his loss was well over 10% ! I kept quiet because I really didn't want to go to hospital unless it was absolutely necessary.

At that point I stepped up the feeding and made sure I set the alarm to wake every 3 hours in the night to feed.

At day 10 he weighed 9lb 3 oz and by day 17 he was back up to his birth weight.

I think his weight loss was so high because he was such a big boy to begin with which is probably the same for your baby.

Good luck and congratulations on your new baby!

Good news SydneyB.

Your story could be mine 6-4 weeks ago.

DS 9lb 10oz at birth, falls to 9lb 1oz and stays that weight for two weeks. It seems the little monkey was only taking enough milk to sustain himself and not any extra to put on weight.

Luckily I had a very experienced independant midwife who didn't mention formula top-ups and gave us useful info instead.

After I fed him both sides I would express then give him the ebm top-up. I done this for 7 days and it seemed to kick start his appetite and he has put on weight since.

It was a pain to do, but it worked. So if you lo doesn't put on weight in his own time, the above maybe something you could think about doing.

Good luck and well done.

Thanks for the tip Iliketoscare, finding it hard enough to feed DS all the time with DD here so hoping that it'll be enough for now. He seems to have a bit of a cold this am so hoping that doesn't effect our weigh in tomorrow...