Help! Falling off the weight gain chart

[Grapes2]

My dd, (who is my third), is 19 weeks old and has just fallen off those lines on the chart. She is exclusively breast fed, born at 7lbs 14 oz, and now weighs 10lbs 5oz. I would like to hear from anyone whose baby has fallen off the chart. Should I give a bottle? Will it make a difference? She was following just above the 0.4th percentile line and she has had 2 colds in the last month which could cause the lack of weight gain. What happens if she is referred to a pediatrician? I have to say that she is happy, and doing all one might expect for her age. She seems to feed well, and poos and wees etc. Please help me as it is making me very miserable and sad. (I should point out that I exclusively breastfed my dd2 for 14 months. My ds1 I switched to bottles at 11 weeks because his weight gain was slow- although he didn't gain any more and continued on the 25th percentile.)

Not necessarily. Breastfed babies often put weight on slower than FF babies so it might be worth asking HV to plot her weight on a WHO chart aswell.

I bet your dd is just on the bottom line here

It's from about this age onwards that she will look much more 'normal' on the WHO charts. I bet she climbs up in a few weeks too.

Grapes, I just have the one dd. If I ever have more I would avoid HCPs from the get go. My HV was dreadful and I wish I had never seen the doctors. It just sent me loopy with worry and pressure. Ugh. I bought my own scales to weigh her, and I think I know better when to seek help now, and when to leave well alone.

Take encouragement from your own experience...you know you are capable of nourishing a baby because you've already done it, and you also know your babies don't grow in a typical textbook way. So pffffftt to the charts.

You are doing brilliantly!

Nappyaddict you're right, my dd never lost weight, just was sloooooooow to gain it.

nappyaddict - see my post on charts....plotting slow gaining babies on WHO charts will make them look even lighter

Tiktok- thank you for your knowledgable contribution. Why might it be that my three never put on large amounts of weight to start with? (I have always checked latch... been to see b/f clinics etc.) However I fear that it must have been orginal technique and that perhaps this still hinders us now? They just get use to recieving a smaller amount than they should? (As you see I am always looking for ways to blame myself...)

Grapes - the most likely answer to your question of 'why did my kids gain slowly?' is just that this is how they were 'made'.

Plenty of normal, healthy kids gain weight at different rates from the curves plotted on the charts. Remember that chart curves are 'ironed out' to look smooth, and in real life, an individual baby's line might be all over the shop with peaks and troughs and spikes.

When the numbers of all the individual sets of data are crunched, outlyers are discarded and the bumpy bits are smoothed...if you have a friendly statistics bod to ask about this, they can tell you more.

Plotting an individual baby's growth to compare with the chart, and then using it as a comparison, and then interpreting it, is a skill and an exercise in judgement - you cannot draw any conclusion about a baby's health, growth and development solely by looking at a chart. Anyone who does this, is (IMO) exposing their ignorance

Wow! Thank you

I have had this with ds since he was 8 wks old. He is now 13mo old and weighs 16lb. He is trying to walk and a very cheeky little chap indeed. I tried to bf him and managed to mix feed until 5 mo where it all went a bit wrong and he went on to formula full time. He was born on 9th centile but gradually dropped to the bottom of the chart so the (busy body, annoying, interfering, pesimistic) HV referred me to the paediatrician, dietitcian, speech language therapist, physiotherapist (nothing wrong with his physical development, just a tiny bit late with milestones) and a program where psychologists look at how he eats. I'm sick of appointments!

Having said that, the paed has done blood tests and taken stool samples and there is nothing wrong with him so that has reassured me. The dietician has changed him milk to high calorie milk which has made a bit of a difference but he is still off the chart.

The main problem is that he is a little eater, doesn't eat huge amounds, never has. He is a good length and very energertic.

I wish the HCP's would just accept he is this way now and leave me alone a bit. I have has a bout of PND which I think has been to do with the stress of all this and I know with the next one if this happens again i'm just going to tell them all to naff off!

There's pics of him on my profile, you can see he is small but perfectly formed!

Dear Dalrymps, I have had a nose at your pictures and your ds looks absolutely gorgeous. To a small extent I can emphasise with you. My ds1 did a large drop then slowly gained and it is really hard when its your first, and in many ways, when its a boy. Boys are supposed to be the bigger and stronger ones. My son started life on the 75 centile and during his first year dropped to the 9th at one point. He is now on the 25th line where he has been for most of his life. He is 6, nearly 7 and certainly within the norm for the boys in his class. He is of average height, and yes, he is slight, but it is his build. He has been a fussy eater- a food seperatist and naturally prefers all things non fatty like vegetables and salad! It is partly my fault he is a fussy eater because I was always desperate for him to eat so I would pamper to his food fads. (He is a lot less fussy now but even so he is not nearly as interested in food as dd2). The whole HV/ bottle feeding thing sent me into a bit of PND too. I am just glad that dd is my 3rd, and that I have a different HV this time who (rarely for the breed), is actually supportive of me continuing exclusive b/f if that is what I want to do. However, even with my history, when dd3 went off the charts it made made me cry and feel desperate hence my reason for starting this thread... so my heart goes out to you. It's a roller coster of a ride this baby business !

Aw, thanks Grapes2, it means so much just to know other people understand. I truly is a roller coaster and I find food/nurishment to be a highly emotive subject. It is so so worrying at times. I think it seems to just be in the genes with cases like this, if they're getting food and are happy and healthy then it must just be the way they are made. It really doesn't stop me worrying though!

As I said, I don't like my HV. She tends to always look at the negative in a situation, micro analysing everything he and I do! I have felt like many times she has suggested that the problems he has had are of my doing. She has spoken to the breast feeding counsellor I saw beind my back and even said after he was on formula, 'well we just thought he wasn't gaining as you were having trouble with bf but he's the same on formula' . Yes I did have bf probs but if he was fussy and refused a feed I would just give him a bottle so it's not like he was going without even then.

Thankfully that stage is long gone. We are ttc DC2 at the moment, I can't help but worry at the back of my mind whether we'll have the same probs with the next one. In one way it will reassure me if we do as i'll know it's just the way I make em but I don't want to go through all this again. I know i'd do a few things different 2nd time round though!

To answer your original question, no, I don't think it'll make a difference using bottles as breast milk has more calories, made no difference with ds anyway. However you might want to bottle feed for other reasons which is entirely up to you. All I will say is do what you think is best . Hope it all works itself out (i'm sure it will) take care x