Starting to worry about weight gain - should I be, and what should I do now? Sorry, long!

[alana39]

Typing with 1 hand while feeding so apologies if lots of typos.

7 week old DS3 was 9lb6oz at birth. That was probably on the 91st centile, but he was 2 weeks past EDD.

Just been weighed today and he's clinging to the underside of the 50th centile, having been on the 75th a couple of weeks ago.

I might have been less bothered if he hadn't spent the week from Christmas day having what felt like a big 6 week growth spurt with near constant feeding at times, but now it seems like it hasn't achieved much.

He feeds calmly and frequently and seems satisfied after (norm is every 3 hrs in day, cluster in evening, thenvariable at night - 2 to 6 hours). He is long and has a biggish head (both on 91st centile) and his 2 brothers were/are tall slim boys with bigger than average bonces BUT his slow weight gain is not something I've had to deal with before.

I'm not usually obsessed with centiles - just thought it might help to be specific.

Any advice? Don't want to stop bf but I'm now wondering if that's the problem and whether I should try at least some formula (I don't see that as inevitably leading to stopping bf altogether as with ds2 introduced 1 bottle of formula at a couple of months and still bf the rest of the time for 7 months). My GP isn't worried and perhaps it's too early for me to be but I am . Haven't discussed with HV yet (will go to clinic next Tues as GP weighed today) but have struggled to get specific advice from them in the past so wondered what the collective wisdom here was?

what about him - you say he seems satisfied - there's nothing else to make you think there's anything wrong?

I don't think there is any reason to worry...my dd2 slipped from the 50th centile to the 25th but because I never got her weighed I didn't know.

The frequency of feeding sounds about right.

However, a little test to see if he is getting enough...if he will take a bottle, that suggests your latch isn't good enough and he isn't getting enough Breast Milk.

If he refuses a bottle (like most happily BF babies) then, you are giving him enough.

My two always looked a bottle as a puzzling, alien thing before nuzzling back in, and therefore I always assumed that they were getting plenty of BM, despite their different sizes and growth rates. Unsettled BF babies who don't have a good latch often agree to take a bottle.

TikTok may have better advice, and you do need to make your own decision based on GP advice. Of course, you could just BF more frequently.

However, a little test to see if he is getting enough...if he will take a bottle, that suggests your latch isn't good enough and he isn't getting enough Breast Milk.

this isn't a good test, sorry. babies will often take a bottle on top of a bf, it doesn't mean they are not getting enough.

you need to look at the whole picture, not just the centiles. have a look at this - signs your baby is getting enough

Agree with chibi - 'testing' with a bottle tells you nothing.

All sounds normal to me, alana - though most babies of this age are feeding slightly more frequently than yours, so an easy thing to do would be to offer more bf and to feed with at least 2 breasts each time.

This is easier and will improve things, rather than undermine things

Yes we have plenty of wet and dirty nappies - and in terms of him he had some odd eye movements for which he has been referred but there is nothing to suggest that these are anything more than an eye thing, IYSWIM.

Having had a look on kellymom I have seen the average weight gain at this age is 5-7lb pw and he has only gained 3lb pw for the last month - obviously someone has to be below average but I think it's the fact that he started off quite big that worries me.

Also a few weeks back I read someone on MN (might have been Tiktok but apologies if I've got that wrong) that babies aren't supposed to just grow lengthwise which is what seems to be happening.

Sorry thinking out loud really, just need to offload to try to sort out my thoughts I think.

tiktok sorry X posted with you. Thanks for replies eveyone. I think maybe I should stop worrying just for now . And feed even more!

Sounds a good plan, alana

BTW, not me who said anything about lengthwise growing (I don't think)....but it is true that babies do need to gain weight, and taking length only as an assessment is not good.

Sorry about incorrect advice about 'taking a bottle' being a test.

It's just that all of my ante-natal group BF and non of us could persuade our babies to take a bottle...I always assumed that because they had been so happy and well fed on BM that they really couldn't work out what a teat was for.

Tiktok, I too thought you said something along the lines of babies should be putting weight on widthways as well as lengthways (in a thread that kind of blew up so I stopped looking at it), but it stuck in my mind because my DD is long and stringy, too.

I've just started a thread asking for advice 'cos my 13 wo's DD's lack of weight gain is pretty dramatic, and I'm having to give formula top-ups. Not trying to worry you, alana - hope that things pan out better for you DD and I had both been poorly around the time things started to go wrong.

Might have been me, Minshu....it's true enough that there's no logic in accepting growth that doesn't show on the scales, and which just shows in the need for a larger baby grow! Babies who get longer should weigh more too