Failure to thrive

[worriedaboutskinnybaby]

Hi all
Hoping for some help, a friend told me this was a good place to get it!

My baby is nearly 6 months old and is dropping through the centiles for weight. He was at the 50th centile for weight when born but lost 15% very quickly. We had a lot of trouble with getting breastfeeding going in the early days. I was told to supplement with formula and then he started to gain. He got back to his birthweight at about six weeks old. He was 25th centile then but GP said he thought he would 'end up' at 50th.

He was 9th centile six weeks ago and has just been weighed again, he is now 2nd centile. He is 75th for length and head circumference. The HV says he is 'wasted but not stunted'. Wasted...

She asked me a lot about his intake. He feeds on demand and it works out as a feed at (roughly) 6, 9, 11.30, 3.30, formula at 6, breast again at 10, 12/1, 3/4. Somedays there's more. Sometimes in the afternoon he can fuss/talk at the boob for a while but he seems happy and contented at the end of a feed and I can see milk in his mouth and hear him drinking. He's not on solids yet but the HV said he should start now.

I am confused about failure to thrive. He seems healthy and is doing what he's supposed to do in all the books - rolling, just about sitting without support etc - and he looks healthy and well and has chubby little cheeks, just small chubby little cheeks! His belly is very scrawny though but I don't get where all the milk is going? And he is following the centile for length and head circ so I guess he must be getting something? I have to cut his nails every other day.. so why is he so scrawny?

Oh I totally understand I too was worried about a skinnybaby - my baby seemed healthy and happy but would not put on weight. When I managed to get supportive professional advice it made a world of difference to me and it helped me turn a corner.

Is there anything more important that feeding a baby?

You are doing a fab job for your baby - you have sought advice, good on you, keep it up.

ziptoes, yes, you're right. Some babies below the 2nd centile are fine. Being below 2nd centile is not diagnostic of anything. But it makes sense to be alert that being very light might be an indication of something that needs investigating, and a lot of PCTs have the 2nd centile as a trigger for this.

My Ds2 was severe FTT and dropped from the 50th percentile to below the 0.4th percentile. He was following a line just below the 0.4th, but the HV, SCBU nurse and pead all thought something was wrong, pushing me to formula feed and give up BF. I was tubefeeding him EBM and managed to hold of the formula for 4 months, when I broke down and DH said that we should top up with the formula a small amount (20mls) just to get the professionals off my back.
It worked, and he went back up to the 0.2th percentile. He was weaned at 7 months and now is back on the 50th percentile at 2.5 years. He is a lively boy who is into everything, he devolped normally and was walking by 12 months.

I do wish I hadn't given in to the pressure to FF but cant change the past

SparklyGK - too true! I keep stressing about the formula I gave ds but at the time I couldn't express more than about 2oz a day and refeeding him this wasn't making the difference, but the formula did. It means I always, always feel sad when I see something about exclusive bfing but I am beginning to cope better with my feelings of failure about it. It's easy to secondguess yourself.. I read your post and think: now why didn't I tubefeed or use one of those supplemental systems.. but hey, hindsight is 20:20 vision.

Actually when HV came on Tues she told me that ds's birthweight was 91st centile but his lowest weight after (which they measure gain from) was 50th so I guess from 91st to 2nd from her POV is similar to yours.. though he's not a bad weight to be fair and it must be SO much more stressful if they are lower weight at birth and lose. Good to hear he is back at birthweight centile now though!

Mike Wooldridge is a bit of a God in the bf world - google him.

I think worriedaboutskinnybaby has lucky-girlitis !

@FionaSH: ahh, but (being pedantic) it's the booby juice that holds the nutritional value in that case ;)

Is rice not calorific? Or is it just baby rice? Sorry, genuine question.

I have a good page on it saved, will see if I can find it.

OK, it's not in my delicious account so I don't know what I've done with it.. basically can be summarised as rice (brown rice) is very nutritious but by the time it's processed down to commercial 'baby rice' there's bugger all good left in it (hence why some are so strongly artificially fortified).

My boobmonster has woke up so will have to have another look in a bit.

jemjabella - true but he wouldn't have it if it wasn't mixed with the rice, so therefore it's the babyrice that gets the nutritious boobyjuice in him...

your turn...

Hahaha, I can't offer anything to counter that, except maybe some duct tape to help you keep LO still ;)

Anyone still there? I've been playing on the internet and found these videos nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=13 by Dr Jack Newman showing feeding with a good latch and a poor one.

He talks about some babies "nibbling" at the breast and I think this is what my children do. Has anyone else seen this? Would it make sense? I have a very strong sensation when I get a letdown and my dd's suck certainly lengthens when I do which kind of fits with what he says.

Anyway it just made me think about you being told about your baby hanging around for the next let down, worriedaboutskinnybaby ,and wondering if that's what's happening to me too.

Makes me think I need to get some advice re the latch!