11 week old breast fed dd, not gaining weight (rather long..)

[PartOfTheHumphreysGroup]

Hello. Apologies for the long post, tried to be brief but also trying to get what I think the relevant details are in..

My DD has only put on 3oz in the last 4 weeks, and I am fretting..

She seems to be perfectly healthy, is alert and pretty active (as much as you can be when you can't walk) when awake and otherwise seems very settled. She's been sleeping through since she was about 7-8 weeks (roughly when this started I guess) but not every night, perhaps 3 nights out of 7. If she cries in the night then I always get up and feed her.
I've never tried to get her into any sort of routine, whenever she needs feeding she is fed until she takes herself off, so I was pretty chuffed when she slept through and figured it was because she was feeding so much in the mornings / evening to make up for it.

My HV has been pretty relaxed about her weight but after no gain at all this week sent me along to the doc who suggested extra feeds (ideally a bottle) at 10pm and 3am (roughly).
The doc suggested that she might be sleeping through as her metabolism is slowing down as a result of not getting enough. I have a bit of a hard time with that as she does sometimes wake up and cry, but other nights I might hear her awake but happily gurgling and then she settles back to sleep on her own. And she only sleeps for a couple of hours in the day so winds up getting about 14hrs a day which seems about right to me.

I don't have a lot of patience joy with pumping so the extra feeds would be mostly formula; now while I don't mind giving her formula occasionally I don't really want to be doing it every night (not sure why really).

So tried this last night, I gave her a bottle of formula at about half 10 (had hit the wine in the evening so boob out of the question) and this went quite well - she didn't really wake up and took 5oz.
Then at about 4am I got her up and gave her both breasts (she stayed about 20mins on each) and then some formula left in the carton from earlier so she had another 2oz of that.

So far, not so bad, but I then woke up at 10am and she was fast asleep still.. normally she'd be awake by 8. I got her up and fed her (breast only) but it just seems to me that waking her up for a night feed has effectively made her miss a morning feed so is just going to turn her (currently very sociable) sleeping / feeding patterns upside down.

My instinct is to stick with the extra 10pm feed but I don't want to be disrupting her sleep for a middle of the night feed if it's just going to make her sleep longer in the morning (or am I supposed to wake her up at 8 too? If I was her I'd be pretty pissed off)

Do you think I am being reckless if I ignore the doc and just do one extra (10pm) feed (and mostly breast rather than bottle)?
I'll also make sure to always offer both breasts at every feed (usually do anyway) and I might start taking fenugreek or something.

Anyone else had / solved this? What I'd really like to hear is that someone else had a gain plateau around this age and how long it lasted for.

Could I be damaging her in any way?? She has dropped from the 75th percentile to just under the 25th.

I just don't really understand why it's happening when she was gaining well for the first 7 weeks. The dream feed feels a bit like I am fattening her up to make foie gras or something, but maybe it's true that her metabolism has slowed down for some reason and needs this boost.

Other things that happened around the time this started:
I went on the mini pill
I went on a diet (v sensible one, not crash and stopped after 2 weeks)

All opinions welcome!

Thanks

Hi

Thought I'd bump for you as don't have experience of this. If it were me however I would offer breast feeds rather than the bottle. I'm sure one of the experts will be alone shortly didn't want you to think no-one was listening x

I don't really know why your doc told you 'ideally a bottle' (well, yes ok i do know, most drs are idiots)
there's no reason why you have to give her a bottle feed at 10. you could just breast feed her (even if you've had wine!)

Hi - am in almost exactly the same boat! DS is 12 weeks and breastfed, gained like a maniac for the first 10 weeks, but then over the last 2 weeks has also only gained 2oz. This also coincides with me going on a (fairly hardcore) diet. However, I don't think it's anything to do with that, as you get women who are half starved managing to effectively feed their children.

I'm thinking it could be two things. Like you, my son has started to sleep for longer at night (we are co-sleeping), and going longer between feeds, and that he has also had a cold and been very bunged up at night. I agree that I wouldn't top up with formula, (mainly because if my parents ever found out thay'd take it as proof that breastfeeding is shit!)

What I'm doing is making an effort to put him to the breast more often, which is good and will keep your supply in synch with demand. I'm hoping it's a blip but I will be keeping an eye on it. HTH a bit? I've just qualified as a BF counsellor, but I still worry myself silly and it's very hard to see the wood for the trees when its your own child!

Firstly, do remember that the weight charts are for formula fed babies so the 25th percentile is still ok.
I am no expert, but I personally would ignore the doctor and see how she does with the 10pm feed, it seems really daft to be feeding her in the middle of the night when it messes up her sleep pattern.
As much as you may not want to hear this, you need to be having extra calories if you are breast feeding. Don't worry, the baby weight will come off, but you'll need to wait a bit.
My DD had a weight plateau, but I'll need to go and find her red book to find out when (she's 18months and doing fine now!)

The doc probably told you to give her a bottle feed because he has this illusion that formula contains more calories than breast-milk... which it may do, but calories are not the same as nutrients!!!
Could you contact someone at the La Leche League directly and ask for advice? Off the top of my head I'd say go with your instincts about the 10pm feed rather than the 3 am feed. Mums' instincts are usually spot-on. 3 oz in 4 weeks is a bit low, I believe... I seem to remember babies can gain between 1 and 4 oz per week and be considered "normal"... but perhaps she's just on the small side and that's normal for her. If she seems well and happy otherwise, and has the appropriate number of wet and dirty nappies, she's probably fine.
About pumping, I've heard that it takes a while for some women to be able to pump breastmilk well, and some women's breasts don't seem to want to let down for the pump very well, ever. I've always found that I got a better yield on the pump when DS was nursing on the other breast (obviously this only works if you have an electric pump), or doing both at the same time (I have the Medela Pump in Style).
Kellymom is also a great resource if you haven't tried it.
Sorry, that was probably not very useful but I didn't want to read and run.
GOOD LUCK!! Let us know how she does, k?

BF babies often gain quickly to start with, and then slow down a little compared to FF babies. Also some babies are born bigger and then settle down to a lower centile than they were born on.

You could start rousing her at 10pm to offer another BF, or offer more BF in the day if you think she could do with more milk. Don't feel pressured to give bottles if you don't want to, as this could have impact on your supply, and as you say your little routine was working well for you.

Your BM is the BEST thing for your DD (even if you do have the odd glass of wine )

A couple of things:

The mini pill will have had no effect on the breastfeeding and if it's any comfort to you I have fed three babies whilst taking it. (At seperate times - NOT all at once!)

Also - you don't have to have her weighed! You say your HV has been 'fairly relaxed' but is now worrying. Well stuff that - it's you who needs to be relaxed and frequent weighing and pressure to give formula will raise your anxiety levels through the roof. I've just looked through my red books and poor dd3 was weighed at 7/52 and 20/52! If she is alert and settled then I would just let things go for a bit and see how her weight evens out. We are not all destined to be on the 50th centile and weight gain varies from baby to baby - just like all adults are different shapes!

thank you everybody, that is all v reassuring and helpful. I think I'll spend the weekend feeding hourly in the day and do the 10pm feed one way or the other. And not get her weighed this week! Might get checked at a bfeeding clinic too
Good luck meredithland

(Omg am a bit at size of original post!)

I think your OP was perfect IMO - I'd rather have all the information relevant to a question before weighing in with any advice. Have a great weekend - I'm sure you and DD are doing brilliantly.
xxxxxx