Going against medical advice re giving formula - am I doing the right thing?

[willowstar]

My little girl was 3.47kg when she was born. She dropped 10% of her body weight and only regained it when she was a month old. At 2 weeks the HV referred us to a paediatrician because she was very unsettled and wanted her to be assessed for reflux and milk intolerance. Anyway...the Dr. only saw her slow weight gain and immediately said to top her up with formula. I had read a lot about BF and was adamant that I wasn't going to top up unless I felt it was absolutely necessary so I didn't. Anyway...she went on to develop reflux, she vomits anywhere from 1-5 times a day, usually 2-3. We gave gaviscon and domperidone with no effect so I stopped them after 2 weeks or so.

Anyway...she has now dropped centiles...from 25 at birth to 0.4 now, she only weighs 4kg. So, I had to go back to hospital today and was told to give her formula after every feed because she does not weigh enough. Absolutely no part of me wants to do this.

Here is my take on the situation. She is very tall...91st centile at 6 week assessment, her body type looks just like her dad at this point. She is alert, very very active, and except for the evenings when she can be pretty unsettled, she seems generally quite happy. The reflux won't be helped by giving forumla (from what I have read) and she is going to grow out of it at some point.

I was told to give formula for 2 weeks and if no improvement they would do 'tests'. when I asked what for they wouldn't say.

I honestly don't know what to do. I want to breast feed her, I don't feel that there is anything majorly wrong with her and i don't want to give formula. But, am I doing the right thing? I know only I can answer that, but does anyone else have experiences that might help me?

I have asked them repeatedly what the implications are of her gaining weight slowly but so far I haven't really had an answer. I am trying my best to look after myself, but with no family anywhere near me and my husband out of the house for 12 hrs a day I am struggling to cook decent meals. This is about the only thing I think that could be improved. I am vegetarian too, not sure if that has any relevance!

sorry this is long and rambling but I am worried and just don't know where to turn.

thanks.

just to update...I saw a consultant today and she said it clearly isn't a breastfeeding issue, my daughter has reflux and giving formula wouldn't make any sense. She has started her on triple therapy - gaviscon, ranitidine and domperidone and we will see how it goes for a couple of weeks. So, I was right :-) She is going to speak to the three, yes three, registrars who all told me to give formula and didn't think to treat the reflux. fingers crossed this works because if not they are going to stick a naso-gastric tube down and monitor her secretions for 24 hours which sounds pretty grim.

thanks for all your input and advice

Can I just say that it really bugs me when the first advice given is 'try formula' rather than 'here's a referral to a breastfeeding counsellor / lactation consultant'.

Hope the triple therapy works. Have you noticed any improvement so far?

My DS had silent reflux and after 10 days on ranitadine and domperdione it was like having a different baby

good luck with it all

and by different i mean he was much more settled and in a lot less pain!

When DS2 came out of SCBU he weighed 4lb 8oz, a month later he still weighed 4lb 8oz. We were referred and told to top up with high energy formula, and if he didn't gain weigh within two weeks I was to stop BF. I refused and expressed milk for the topups, as BM contains more calories. He dropped fromthe 50th precentile to the 0.4th. We did give in after 4 months of slow weigh gain, but after seeing a breast feeding councellor who said that babies weight should be looked at when they are 6 weeks old, not birth weigh andthat DS2 was gaining weight, just very slowly, but he was following a line.

There is lots of threads on here about the time by myself, and I got great advice. I carried on feeding DS2 until recently, when he has finally dropped his early morning feed and he is 27 months.

Another helpful thing is Carobel. Gaviscon constipated DD2, so the GP prescribed Carobel (MN info - he'd never heard of it) which is a carob gum powder. Mix with cooled boiled water, spoon feed before BF. DD2 took it from 6 weeks, and it just helped to thicken the milk in her tummy to stop (some of) it coming back up.

well...we are only two days into the new triple therapy regime but WHAT a difference to the vomiting, only one big vomit today so far and usually she would have had 4-5 big volumes and some little ones too. it hasn't made a difference to her discomfort though but to be honest I am not sure how much of the ranitidine she is actually getting...I am giving 0.26ml which is just a tiny dribble.

she is fussing around a lot though and having 10 - 15 minute feeds here and there rather than longer ones, I think she does that mainly when she has wind trapped somewhere and we just have to wait until it comes out before we carry on so it amounts to cluster feeding. Thank god she is my first, I have no idea how I would cope if I had another little one to look after just now.

I'll post again to let you know how we are getting on. Oh and thanks for the advice on Carobel, might be worth a try if the gaviscon doesn't work.

cheers :-)

No Advice really but just wanted to offer support and say I hope you work things out soon.

A friend of mine wouldn't wait until after a feed to wind her baby, and this seemed to help. She would wind mid way through a feed.

I second both ilovemydog and lenin's advice. I feel for you, DD had acid reflux. Gaviscon worked for us but it did take a while to kick in. Just wanted to sympathise really - know how frustrating it is when you give them a nice big feed then they throw it all back up

hello, thanks for the advice everyone. we do most of the things you suggest Lenin though she is starting to dislike going into her sling so will have to find another upright position to try her in. She is fed on demand too and I have found a sort of upright position to feed her in with her legs straddling one of mine.

I was so happy because the first 3 days of the triple therapy she was much better but today she seems to have regressed a bit, no idea why as we aren't doing anything different. she had quite a few vomits but was no-where near as bad as she was. here's hoping tomorrow will be better.

thanks again, great to get support on here.