Help exclusive breastfeed baby not gaining weight - being advised to wean early...

[Dall]

Jake is now 5 months old has been a fussy eater since about 8 weeks old - doesnt like feeding if there is anything else more interesting to look at but feeds well before bed and during night.

I've been to my GP a couple of times as he hasnt eaten for say 7 hours during the day. Have had a couple of diagnosis - colic then reflux - however I dont now think its either of those as he will lie down fine after nursing. Sometimes he will cry when I try to lie him down to feed and then perfectly happy if I stop trying to nurse him. I have also had his ears checked. He does at the moment have a bit of a cold and has actually been feeding much better.

Anyway at first the general opinion from my HV was that they he was happy and health and putting on weight (albeit dropping slightly on the graph) so not to worry as he was getting what he needed. But in the last 24 days he has only put on 180g - only 30 in the last 10 days. 2 weeks ago a new health visitor said we shoudl keep an eye on him as he has gone from 91st to nearly 25 percentile. She was very pro breastfeeding and told me to eat more and to try to take it easy which I have over the last two weeks. However I have just got him weighed he is now on 25th percentil line. I am really worried about it.

I have been going to the breastfeeding support group and last week they said it is common for babies to become fussy during the day and the 5th month berastfed babies often dont put on weight. Today I spoke to someone else when I got him weighed who said he obviously wasnt gettin enough so to start him on solids. However only the previous week they had a talk about weaning which was excellent and suggested that there was very little reason ever to wean early and that included low weight gain as breast milk was the highest calorie food going.

I feel very confused - my GP has refered me to pediatric but we dont have an appointment til 25 May. I am tempted to go for a private consulation but I am worried all the medical profession will say is to start supplementing with formula which is very difficult as wont take bottle and also cant be as good as breastmilk.

Can you give me any advice where to go next?

Sorry in advance for all the questions

Firstly, Is he actually losing weight, or is he just dropping centiles. ie if you plotted it on a chart without the centile lines on, would it still be going upwards?

Secondly, do you know if you are using the new charts for breastfed babies, or the older charts (1991 I think) which are based on breast and bottle fed babies and may show a faster weight gain around this age than is normally expected for breastfed babies. You can download the new charts from the Kellymom website.

Is he producing around 5-7 wet and/or dirty nappies in a day? Is he alert, or lethargic, and does he look a healthy weight (look for "bracelets" around the wrists, or hands that look like they could have been screwed on ) - ribs being visible is ok.

You are right that breast milk contains more calories than any weaning foods. I don't know why your HV has advised you to eat more yourself, as what you eat has little to no effect on your milk, ditto tiredness. I don't see that giving formula will have any particular benefit over just feeding more often with breastmilk, and depending on how he is otherwise, that may not even be necessary. Not all babies do follow exactly the same curve, he might just be plateauing around now which is quite normal.

Whether you do decide to wean early or wait until 6 months, have you considered going the baby led weaning route? I found it really helpful to help me relax over how much DS ate and his weight gain, as he did a similar thing but at 4 months!

Thanks. Sorry my post is very baby written - one handed typing not my speciality

He hasn't lost weight but every month he is further down the centile line. Was 91st at birth now 25th. I have the new charts. In the last month only 180g gained.

I do want to follow BLW route but now worried I'll need to feed him because he's not gaining weight.

He looks healthy couple of folds at the wrist - 5 wet nappies daily - 1 dirty every couple days. He seems vert alert and most people mention that.

In case you cant tell I'm a first time mum - not much experience of babies - being advised by all sides to wean (not BLW) and it just doesnt feel right but I dont want to prevent him growing.

When you say plateauing is normal how long does it normally last?

Normal normal normal

don't let anyone panic you

I did blw with micro dd (2ndcentile) it worked a treat
weaned ds with purees, also ok

you are doing great!!

Thanks Chibi

LOL just noticed I'd written baby written I meant badly written - freudian!

Well DS slowed weight gain considerably at 4 months. I actually stopped getting him weighed, we started BLW at 5 months I think, and he didn't eat much at all for ages. At 9 months I got him weighed again, and he was fine - he continued to breastfeed on demand and eat very little for ages, he still doesn't eat much at 18 months and he is still on track weight wise last time he was weighed. They don't need to follow the curve exactly, as long as they are generally healthy. If they drop off the bottom of the curve entirely then that is a worry, I believe, but someone has to be on the bottom, 50% is not a target, it just happens to be the middle point of all the babies weighed when they made the chart.

I wouldn't worry too much, if you look at him and he looks fine, plenty of wet/dirty nappies, then I would carry on as you are.

Sorry will come back to you about plateauing because I need to look at the book

Don't forget that if these graphs were drawn showing percentiles for solely BF babies the weights would be significantly lower and your baby would be a lot closer to the 50th. Formula fed babies are heavier and, because there are so many of them, it makes BF babies appear to be under nourished.

BF babies are the weight nature intended them to be. If your baby is healthy and still putting weight on I wouldn't worry about it.

Hi
If you have the new chart it also says how regularly you should be getting baby weighed. Frequent weighing doesn't give a fair overall view on baby's weight gain. I from experience strongly feel you should trust your instincts. He sounds like he's a healthy thriving baby and that you're doing everything right. I have 3 boys the first 2 had continual weight loss to the point that they were in hospital more than home and my 2nd son was tube fed after 4months of breastfeeding as the hospital decided losing weight was a major concern(tube finally came out just before his 2nd birthday!) My 3rd son who's just turned 2 was exclusively breastfed and I think he's only been weighed a handful of times since he was born!We also did BLW with him and he is the most tidiest eater out of all of them!
I know this proably hasn't helped much but I do feel that staying strong and believing in yourself that you are doing the best for your child is the most imporant thing! And what a great start you're giving him by him having yummy mummy milk!!
All the best xx

OK, I am not sure exactly, but what I was trying to say is that the weight gain slows down slightly at one point, and then picks up again, but this point isn't going to be the same for all babies. The centile lines are weight measurements from a large group of healthy babies and all weights are plotted on the chart, so you get an "average" which is the 50th centile and then the 99.6th is the top end, and the 0.4th is the lower end. That is why there isn't a dip in the line at the beginning to indicate the drop that most babies do from their birth weight.

If you plot any one particular baby they probably won't follow the curve exactly but should catch themselves up again on it later, if you plotted more than one baby on the same chart the lines would probably overlap at points. Hope that makes sense! I have got a dip on DS' chart from the 25th centile to the 9th at 4 months, but it looks like a bigger dip, because before this he was gaining weight faster than the line in the chart, hovering between the 25th and 50th. Then I have a gap until 9 months where he is back between the 25th and 50th and has been there every time he has been weighed since.

If you weren't getting him weighed would you be worried?

No?

There's your answer

I don't know if ds plateaued at 5 months or not - that's 'cos I went back to work when he was 4 months old (that's all the mat.leave you got 9 years ago). But he was happy and healthy and alert - as he had been all along, even when he was a "non-failure-to-thrive" baby who didn't follow the growth charts in the frist few weeks/months - and about which the midwives/breast feeding counsellors and the paediatrician (who they referred me to just to cover themselves) all advised "relax and enjoy your baby". Noooo pressure to give formual or anything.

Thanks everyone.

Prettybird I think you hit the nail on the head - looking at him I wouldnt be worried he is a happy laughing little thing -but I have been worried about his refusal to bfeed. But I put that mostly down to not wanting to miss out on anything.

I think I've been worried about the HV telling me I have to go back to get him weighed again in 2 weeks and the GP not being able to reassurance that his weight is normal.

I'm just going to bfeed him as much as I can for the next few weeks. If he happens to pick up a piece of banana in the meantime so be it!

You don't have to get him weighed at all you know - you can go back in a month if you want or not at all until your 9 month check. Or you can go in 2 weeks if you want to, but it is up to you, whatever they have said. I was a bit scared not to, but it was fine, they didn't even seem to notice!

mine the same - useless during the day not interested catches up at night when is he going to get tired of it he is 7mo now!

Mine did this - plopped downward through the centiles for a bit... It's a very sensible tip to say if you didn't weigh him would you worry - wish I'd thought of that!

DS also refuses to feed sometimes now we're weaning, so actually gets LESS milk now, so I don't think that's the answer to weight gain necessarily

hi mistressploppy

Agree that you don't have to get him weighed if you don't want to. I've only taken DS to be weighed twice in 2 months, and that was only because I wanted to check which size nappies to buy!