I'm SOOO upset, after thinking DD2 was going through a growth spurt, I've have her weighed..

[HeinzSight]

... and she's only put on 300g in 22 days

She's dropped from the 70th centile down to the 40th.

She's been v unsettled and not wanting to feed much in the evenings, but has been feeding like mad in the night, so I thought she would have gained loads.

I took her to the docs to have her ears checked and she has an ear infection. This will be the second time she's been on antibiotics

She's 15 weeks old.

Her poor older sister has been riddled wiht ear infections too, she's going to the ENT tomorrow.

Please reassure me this isn't horrendous etc etc.

I SOOOO don't want to supplement her with formula.

sorry, title should have said, I've HAD her weighed..

bump

tiktok anyone?

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaail

Don't let one weigh-in get you down, and don't stress about formula top-ups just yet. Did your HV suggest you come back in a week or two for another weigh?
More knowledgeable folk will say more, but I think dips off the chart at around the 4 month mark are quite typical for BF babies?

First of all don't panic . I'm afraid I'm not a bfing expert, but I did ebf my DD for 6 months and am still bfing (no formula) at nearly 12 months.

My DD dropped from the 25th centile to the second at around this age, but since then has been tracking nicely along the second centile (12 months now).

My HV said that she looked perfectly healthy and happy and her weight was probably just 'catching down' to where she should be (I was a small baby as well). Does she settle well between feeds? Is she generally happy and alert? If so it is likely that she getting as much milk as she needs.

Are you using the bf charts or the red book ones, which are often still based on formula fed babies, who tend to be bigger. A link to the WHO bf babies chart is here

It is very unlikely that you would have to supplement with formula if you don't want to and I'm sure one of the bf experts will be along shortly with good advice on increasing your supply etc if this is worrying you, but please try not to panic at this stage and 'look at the baby not at the charts'. If she is happy and healthy and doesn't look visibly skinny, the chances are that everything is fine.

I'm still getting lots of wet nappies and usual amount of poop, she's not dehydrated. She has a nice round tum, chunky arms and legs and a nice 'full' unscrawny face.

It's reassuring to hear others have experienced this. My other 3 DC were all FF and were big babies at birth (over 10lb) and stayed way up there on the growth chart. My DH is 6ft 2 and I'm quite tall to which is why I guess I'm so worried, we're used to our children being well above average in height/weight etc.

I've also been expressing this past wk to try and build up a supply in the freezer for two nights out over the coming wks, I've been expressing 5oz a day. Would this affect DD2's intake?

AARRGGHH! Bloody red books. I am amazed they still haven't adjusted the charts for BF babies. When DD2 was a baby the HV was saying they were imminently due to adjust the growth charts to include BF babies. Can't believe that was 4 years ago and I pressume they still haven't changed anything. DD2 was my 2nd BF baby so the HV knew less than I did and would never pressume to tell me anything. My 2 DDs were both on the 2nd centile all the way through and are now both 4 & 8 and very tall and skinny so they were never going to fit well into the red book weight and height charts anyway.

My HV gave me a copy of the bf growth chart to slip into my red book.

Can a baby have a dip when they're going through a leap in cognitive development? I know the brain does use a lot of calories.

Heinzsight - the standard charts arent really appropriate for a baby of about four mths as the charts start to differ then.

In any case, one weighing can never be significant in an apparently healthy baby.

And again in any case, a move from 70th to 40th is perfectly well on the normal spectrum.

She's being weighed unnecessarily often, too, according to currently recognised good practice which is not to weigh more often than once a month, tops, in a baby under six months, once birthweight has been reached.

From what you say here, there is nothing at all significant in her weight. She sounds fine

THANK YOU tiktok.....

.... I love you

......................no, I mean it, I really do!

My little girl is breastfed and also 15 weeks and she's slowed down a lot recently too and is gaining at a very similar rate to yours if that helps at all.

It does Apple, it helps a lot x

if you are feeding at night lots that is good as it will increase your milk supply. Don't worry She sounds fine. Flipping charts, weighing can cause much unecessary worry.

arghh, the charts!

caused much angst, tears, formula top-ups then quickly breast refusal in my ds1. with ds2 i was devastated when i once took him to be weighed and he hadn't gained much in 2 weeks, but he had been ill with a URTI and laryngitis so i figured he was using his energy/calories for fighting that rather than laying down weight (no idea if any science behind this!). didn't take him to be weighed much after that, but when i did he was always fine.

your baby sounds fine, look at baby not chart. and i'm sure you know formula increases chances of ear infections now and in future so hopefully your hv won't pressure you to do top up.

also like to say well done for bf your dc4, hope it doesn't sound patronising, but it must be difficult to change from what you did before.

Aww Heinz, don't be sad
The 40th centile is amazing. DS2 is having 10 bottles of formula a day and gaining at a rate of knots and is still on the 9th centile.

You are doing so well, keep going x

Heinz the charts are a total headfuck, each time I got dd weighed I would come out worrying. Don't stress about it the charts are mostly based on ff babies. Also my bf councillor said that bf babies often start sliding down centimes at around 4 months at babies were tradionally weaned around this point.
I stopped getting dd weighed in the end & rarely get ds weighed now. They have both followed roughly the same pattern of slow weight gain but are healthy & bright!

Well I could have posted this message! DD ex BF since birth, now 13 weeks. Been hopping along on the 50th centile, gaining an average of 4oz each week.

Thought she had put on loads of weight since last weigh-in 4 weeks ago and was very disappointed when I had her weighed yesterday and she's dropped off the 50th. I felt immediately disappointed - but reading these posts helps me to keep a perspective.

I just need to look at my beautiful smiling, raspberry blowing DD to remember there's nothing wrong with her. I hope you too feel more positive soon!

Charts are a a tool and can only ever be part of a toolbox of assessment strategies - a big thumbs-down to healthcare practitioners and others who make a Big Deal of weighing and weight.

Of course a healthy baby gains weight and of course this is part of an assessment - but the majority of babies who don't follow the same line, or who drop down lines, are absolutely fine. And by the same token, 'putting on loads of weight' means ZIP - it is only significant either way (slow weight gain or big weight gain) in the context of the whole baby.

Most parents are perfectly capable of understanding all this but it's one thing to understand it, and another thing to avoid feeling disappointed or judged or anxious in accordance with what the scales say

We have to fight it - look at the baby, not the chart

thank you again tiktok, once again a brilliant post x

Hear hear tiktok. Any HV (or whoever) should ALWAYS look at the baby before the chart - personally I'd like to hold a public burning of the bloody things. They cause much angst and anguish and are the basis for some bloody awful advice.

FWIW as a HV I would not be anxious about a baby whose centile growth has dropped in the way you described. She has an ear infection and more likely her calories are going towards fighting the infection as they should be - if she's meant to go back up towards the 75th she will but don't count on it - this may just be her way of adjusting to the growth line she will follow.

As tiktok says growth measurement is only one way of assessing a baby and the measurement means nothing on its own.

JollyPirate - what do you think needs to be done to improve health professional practice around weighing, assessment and charts?

I think charts are a good thing, in fact, and don't deserve to be burnt It's the way they are used that causes all the trouble!

I would say that every day there is an example of this on mumsnet.

I am very cynical about them tiktok - have lost count of the number of times a parent has worried about their baby falling off a centile line. That plus the bloody awful advice.

Personally I would like to see much, much more education about them. When to worry and when not to worry. I have seen two babies over the past year who fell right off the centile lines - one who is absolutely fine Mum and Dad are both petite and their son is going to be as well. They went to a GP in the end who told them to add cream, butter etc to foods when weaning but tbh I think they felt (as did I if I am honest) why give cream, butter etc just to get a baby back onto a chart when he evidently does not want to be there - he eats like a horse and is active ++

The other baby was unwell from birth and raised real alarm bells in me 0 the fact she fell through the centiles was the least of my concerns (and the least of her mother's concerns too). It was in fact symptomatic of a much bigger heart problem (now corrected). My point is that I did not need a chart to tell me this baby was unwell and neither did this baby's Mum.

It's when babies fall a tiny fraction off a centile line and you get HVs (or whoever) starting to suggest weaning that I get wound up - and then I want to start lighting that bonfire....

Thanks, JP - but my question was, 'what needs to be done to ensure practice improves'?

To coin a phrase "education, education, education". Trouble is there is very little in the way of this during training or on the job afterwards - either for doctors or nurses (and I includer HV's in that". Also some practitioners do not keep themselves updated and end up trotting out the same rubbish they have heard others doing. I think for those HCPs working with new parents there needs to be comprehensive training and annual updates.

I also think the DOH do not help with their "don't wean before six months and definitely not before the end of the 17th week". C'mon DOH - what's it to be?

I think breastfeeding needs a much higher profile ( both in training AND afterwards)with definite guidelines for practitioners regarding what is normal with growth charts.

Trouble is that all this costs a lot of money and at present there is not much of that around.