Health Visitor putting pressure on to give formula.

[newtonmummy]

Hi all,

I'm new to mumsnet, it was reccomended to me however as a good place to get some help and advice!

My little girl is 18 weeks and has been struggling for the last 5 weeks to gain weight.

She was 7lb 9.5oz born and took to breastfeeding fantastically. When she was weighed at 11 days old she had gained 10oz and she continued to gain approz 6oz a week. she had her 8 week jabs and was 11lb 9 and then for one reason and another i couldn't get her weighed for 3 weeks. when we went she had only gained 10oz in the 3 weeks, HV said not to worry she will slow down now. She went 2 weeks later and had lost 13 oz. Since then she has gained 3oz in 5 weeks and they keep putting the pressure on to give her formula. I've tried expressing but the hand pump is very tiring, i'm on the look out for a good deal on a electric breast pump.

Was just looking for some advice really.
Many thanks

carolyn.

Iamaleafonthewind - All the gains and losses (bar last week) have been on same scales, although you have just reminded me that when she had the 10oz gain, when i first put her on scales, they said she had lost weight, and i said are you sure, she said put her on again, and then they said she had gained 10. So if she had lost then, she still lost (or possibly gained) at 13 weeks and has just been very slow to gain since then.

foxytocin she has gained 3oz since in 5 weeks not in a week (wish she had lol)

hmm, as the proud mummy of a six month old who was weighed a couple of weeks ago at 12lb8, i know a bit about small babies.
my first DC was born at 50th percentile, by six months he was down at 0.2nd. he never really lost weight, except in the first week post birth, but he just gained really really slowly. i flapped and i flapped about it, but now he is nearly 3 i can just see that he is short (like the rest of DH's family) and quite skinny. He was always breastfed. i never gave formula. At four months a friend was having similar problems with her child of similar age. She started to give formula and by six months her milk supply had totally dried up. I weaned a few weeks earlier (although in retrospect i wish i hadn't bothered with this either, it didn't make any difference) at 22 weeks. This coud be an option for you in a few weeks time though. in the end the HV assistant told me NOT to weigh more frequently than 2 weekly as it was pointless in a baby after the first couple of months.
my second DC is starting to do the same thing. but she looks healthy, has little folds of skin in a cute babyfat style, takes a feed, is alert etc.
i think the weight loss, given there are no other signs of ill health, is a bit weird really, and would agree that perhaps the weight could have been overestimated a few weeks ago.
i think the formula could be slippery slope to no more breastfeeding. although tempting in the short term you may regret it in the long term. it could be different though, if you baby looks ill. in which case maybe a doctor may be more appropriate than HV.

DD was last weighed at six weeks, and I don't think I've got down the clinic with her since. She's now a strapping 21 year old so may have some trouble fitting on the scales. How she grew without being weighed all the time will remain a mystery to me, because clearly here weighing babies is supposed to make them grow.

DS1 never went to clinic at all, and just got weighed when he had his jabs. Same for DS2. Funnily enough they seem to have grown as well. I wonder how we managed that??

I didn't really mean "permission" - that was why I put it in inverted commas.

But having your GP say it's ok to do less frequent weighing is at least something to tell the HVs when they call.

Boffinmum - I had my first weighed quite regularly and my third hardly at all. Because their birthdays are two days apart it's easy to compare their red books - dd1 was 8 ozs heavier than dd3 at birth. At the end of their first year their weights were almost identical. Children grow to the size they grow - as you say weighing makes no odds!

newtonmummy - I think there has been a mistake with the 10oz gain weight which has then made it seem you have a big loss. To be honest it sounds like their scales need to be sorted.

If you are concerned then go and see your GP, they will look at the bigger picture and worry far less about the numbers. I suspect they will advise you to weigh less frequently as well.
At least then when the HV's ring you again you can tell them you are seeing your GP about it, thank them for their concern and tell them you won't be going to clinc again for a good while!

If there IS a problem then the GP will pick it up but it sounds like a scales problem.