In a nut shell my nearly 9 week old daughter is only marginally bigger than when she was born and i am feeling inadaquete

[mumofdjandbabies]

she is breast fed only
very tempted by bottle now tho in an effort to plump her up (pressure by MIL doesnt help)

cant understand why her weight gains so little tbh

I leak massively so have lots of milk

She is on the boob literally all the time and she is content there! she does not like ot be put down tho and it is exhausting but think thats a separate issue!

she loves to suckle away and is happy when with her mummy or on another human!

she doesnt have a feeding pattern or sleep pattern

would a bottle help

can breast milk even if you have alot od it be lacking in fat??

is she following a centile?

how are her wees + poos?

does she seem happy in herself?

have you had your latch checked by a bf counsellor (ie at a bf cafe)?

Being small is not necessarily indicative of a problem. If she is following a centile, wees + poos regularly and is content, she is probably ok.

Fat content in bm can vary from feed to feed, but not in the way you are thinking (super low calorie no-fat)

Some babies are just small.

Like Chibi says if she's following a centile and gaining weight then she's fine.

I understand how you feel though as my DD was always (and still is) small and it makes you worry.

I had this with ds, gave him formula top ups to try to plump him up. He gained a bit more but was very unwell on them.

Turned out he had reflux and we made it much, much worse by giving him formula. It took ages (almost 5 months!) before we finally found someone who would say anything other than 'it's a problem with your milk, give formula'.

When we did find the right doctor and they put him on medication, he caught up from totally off the bottom of the chart to the 90th centile in three or four months.

thnks guys
i did wonder about reflux
can i ask how it presents could it be like how i descibe? xx

What weight/centile was she at birth, and what is she now?

no she isnt following a percentil she is falling but was huge at birth well nearly 9lbs huge for me! and she has been ill with bronchiolitis too poor lamb

Second the suggestion to get latch checked btw. Do you have local baby cafe or BF group?

hi she was near the 90th and now under 50th (well she was 2 weeks ago before her hospital stay with bronchilitis) havent had her weighed for 2 weeks hv coming next wed

i really think her latch is fine she certainly latches on ok and suckles fine

no group near me per say and very hard to get there as have two other little ones of you know what i mean

she was 8 14.5 oz at birth
in 6 weeks went up to 10 3oz

when admitted to hosp i think she was back down to 9 8oz or something..(trying for life of me to remember figure but she was so ill and i was so caught up with it i cant remember)

dont know what she is now

will know on wed...

I'd guess that the bronchiolitis will have a lot to do with it tbh.

A bottle will not necessarily help with weight gain, and is more likely to start off supply issues. If she's feeding constantly she is building up your milk supply - its exhausting but it is normal for them to do it, especially during a growth spurt or after an illness. She'll be needing the extra at the moment to make up for the time she has been so ill. Must have been very scary for you, glad she is home now.

As for the q about milk lacking in fat - in short, no! Your milk is perfect - and especially so if she has been ill, as it will have all the antibodies she needs to boost her immune system.

I think at various stages I saw just about every presentation with ds, lol. Certainly what you have said about being happy on the breast and at no other time rang a bell - ds needed to be held constantly and was bf all the time but only drinking a tiny bit (apparently bm is a mild antacid, so a sip brought relief but actually drinking caused more reflux).

It can present as respiratory problems too, so that would give me concern. But the only way to know for sure is to do a ph probe, which I believe is not that common in the UK. I think given what you have said here it might be worth having it checked out.

Lurking with interest. My nephew is also about 9 weeks (born at 37 weeks) and is still like a tiny newborn. He is bf but is only gaining a couple of ounces every few weeks and at a check up this week he had stayed the same. He has dropped off the centiles and no one really seems to know why. HVs are starting to get a bit stroppy about it. Luckily SIL has bf her other two and is not easily put off if they try to get her to ff.

thanks all
xx

what meds did your little one get for their reflux? so i xan mention to the hv xx

ds was put on omeprazole and metocopramide - but that's because gaviscon did nothing and his reflux was pretty severe. I think there's a whole range of meds they can use depending on severity.

thanks all

thrive lines? what are they theyre not the centile lines are they in the red book?

also hmm i think ill mention to the hv this thread!