Baby lost 22% of birthweight - possible wrongly weighed?

[rsdl]

Am extremely worried about our little one and was wondering if anyone has had any similar experience?

Our DS is 20 days old today and was weighed at 10lbs exactly at birth (we have a photo of him on the scales with the weight clearly visible). The community midwives didn't weigh him until Day 8 when he weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz so we were immediately whisked off to the hospital where they did dehydration tests/ jaundice tests etc, all of which we were told came back normal - albeit his jaundice levels were high (159 bilrubin) but not high enough to treat. 10 days later, he is now 8lbs 8oz and having 800ml FF every day, but the doctor is concerned hes not back at 10lbs and has now done further blood tests for metabolic disorders. He is still a little jaundiced but very noticeably less so than a week ago - and I don't think most people would notice any jaundice as hes just a little yellow round the cheeks. He seems very well - very alert and focused and happy but we are obviously worried. One of the suggestions from the doctor was that there was something wrong with the scales at birth and that perhaps he never was 10lbs to start with. I did have GD so he was predicted to be 8 1/2 pounds/ 9 lbs two weeks before the birth by scan. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of the midwives weighing their baby wrongly at birth - is this possible that the scales were wrong and that his birthweight was wrong all the time? I keep thinking we should have noticed if he had lost 2lbs 2 oz but we didn't...

Haven't got any experience but didn't want you to go unanswered. Two pounds is a significant amount and the baby would look very different from how he looked when he was born if he had lost that much.

Have they mentioned if any other babies born on the same day have been weighed incorrectly?

It does happen though, I used to take DD to be weighed at the HVs and once they marked her down as having lost weight. I knew there was no way she could have from the amount of wet and dirty nappies and the amount she fed. Next time I had her weighed she had put on about 1lb and they admtted rather reluctantly that they had made a mistake. When they are first born though you don't have the same confidence.

Hope it is a simple mistake and everything is back on track soon .

When dd2 was born I was told that she weighed around 8.5lbs. It was only after I got home that I thought it seemed odd. I'd already had 2 babies of 9lbs+ and one who was around 8llbs, and dd2 seemed tiny in comparison.

Dd2 dropped down to around 7lbs and the HV was talking about sending her too the hospital for tests if things didn't improve quickly. It was only when I spoke to a nurse and mentioned that dd2 had always seemed much smaller than 8lbs+ that she suggested it might have been a problem with the scales at birth.

She advised bringing dd in for weighing on the days when she (the nurse) was working at the baby clinic. It soon became fairly obvious that dd2 was actually just following a much smaller centile line, and that it actually fit in with her having weighed around 7lbs at birth.

I don't know how rare/common it is but I think errors with weighing can happen.

Thanks both - I think if we hadn't had the photo with the birthweight clearly visible on the scales, the community midwives (who have been worse than useless) would certainly have dismissed it as a wrong weighing whereas the doctor at the hospital is taking it much more seriously but is puzzled by the whole thing. A few days ago, he definitely looked a lot skinnier than he was when he was born - it was obvious he'd lost weight in his face and legs but he is starting to fill out there again - but if hed lost 22% of his birthweight, I should have easily noticed shouldn't I whereas he definitely was a bit skinnier?.

I guess its also possible that hes just dropping down to the right centile - 10lbs is 98th centile and I am a petite 5ft 3 and my husband is tall but not heavy built. Our other DS was also 90th centile plus but dropped down to 75th centile - albeit over 3 months so not as quickly. Am hoping its a wrong birth weight - and that we will look back on it as just one of those things but very worried until these metabolic tests come back...

I was told that my dd2 was 6lb 1oz when in fact she was 6lb 10oz (discovered a couple of hours later). It does happen.
Although i'm sure you would have noticed yourself if your ds had in fact lost 22% - thats quite a lot!

Try not to worry too much, and be glad that the hospital are being thorough
good luck

My Dd wad almost certainly wrongly weighed - but underweighed.

I know that the scales were not flat on the surface, and she had put a lot on at 3 days despite not feeding well.

At the time the mw did comment that she looked bigger than her weight.

My other dd also dropped right down the centiles but, as you also found with your other ds, it was over the course of several months.

The HV frightened the life out of me by asking at every clinic if dd2 had been given the heel prick tests and was I sure that she'd been given the all-clear.

I think it would have looked obvious if your ds had lost that much weight in such a short time. Fingers crossed for you that you get the all-clear asap.

is there a way you could go back to the hospital and get your DS weighed on the same scales?

my DD apparently lost more than 10% of her birthweight (and i didn't notice she looked any skinnier, i'm ashamed to say), but she was never weighed on the same set of scale twice, so how could anyone be sure?!?!?

Did you have a drip during labour? If so that can make babies swollen with water post birth and it goes down quite quickly after that.

Yes, the scales can be wrong. My dd1 was born, 7lb 12oz, and when she got weighed the 2nd time by the community mw, she dropped to a somewhat 18%. I was really shocked. We went back to the hossy, and got her re weighed, and she'd only lost 7% in the end which was fine for a bf baby. We later found out the mw scales were up the shit creek. So in our case it was wrong x

Thanks all. No, I didn't have a drip in labour - was induced and the whole labour only lasted 1 hour so no time for anything! I did have Gestational Diabetes but was controlling it with insulin and strict diet but was wondering whether that could have inflated his birthweight with water retention...

Scales can be inaccurate and I've seen this happen. Weighed a baby and scales have said baby is "x" weight and I've thought well it doesn't look like an "x" weight baby. Reweighed and got a different number.

IMO if a baby has lost that much weight whether its down to poor feeding or a metabolic disorder you would have a baby that appears unwell. Sleepy, lethagic, uninterested.

I hope you get some answers soon ...Hard enough recovering from a birth ...its really worrying when something like this happens..

My daughter was not having enough wet nappies..lost some weight as well as the lactation nurse pressured me to only breastfeed...
Turns out my breastmilk never came in enough ....
How are you measuring how the milk intake

Never listening to a lactation nurse again ...the peadiatrician said i was starving my baby and ordered formula in to the room as i sat there...
i couldnt stop crying ...

My DS was weighed after birth and came up as 10lbs 5oz and I have always felt that he was weighed wrongly. I felt that he weighed around half a pound less. he lost 13% of his birth weight within 5 days and we were threatened with hospitalisation. This didn't happen in the end as my milk came in and he started to gain weight well.

I had a nephew born 3 weeks before my DS who weighed 10lbs 13oz and he seemed so much bigger than my DS, I would say at least a pound heavier and I've never really been confident that that was his actual birthweight.

I have experience of a baby that lost 20% of its birthweight (genuinely). Neither I nor dh realised, and the MW knew baby had lost weight, but no idea how much. You see them all the time, so it is hard to spot changes.

However, baby was really v poorly, dehydrated, dry nappies, no poos for days, v lethargic and something was obviously up. All instincts pointed towards a problem.

Are you sure the community weighing was correct? Has anyone checked the scales were correctly calibrated?

Poor you rsdl, hope everything is ok now. Pesto how are things?

Sorry that was the wrong way around, meant to ask OP how she and the baby are both doing now although I am of course interested to know how you are both doing too Pesto.

Don't worry jilted, baby is now a bouncing 7 year old with 2 (nearly 3) younger siblings . Breastfeeding did work out in the end, with a lot of support from the voluntary sector.

How are things going rsdl?

That's such good news Pesto .

Thanks all for your messages - its really helpful to know that the wrong weighings can happen. We were back at the hospital yesterday and DS now weighs 9lbs so has put on 18oz in the last 3.5 weeks, which I didn't think was too bad but the doctor is still concerned and says that for the amount of milk he is having (750ml - 800ml per day) he should be a lot heavier. Hes now down on the 25th centile - from the 98th (if the original birth weight was right). They are talking about running tests for CF and we are waiting for amino acid tests to come back to see if he is allergic to the protein in his current formula. All very stressful - just want some answers! Through all this, he still seems well (albiet skinny!) - and is feeding really well, lots of wet and poo-y nappies and is alert - every doctor who has seen him has said that he looks very well - which is why they are mystified...hoping that he stacks on some serious weight soon