New born not peeing

[Tornado18]

Hi , niece gave birth to her baby yesterday after a 23 hour labour , she has been breast feeding him however he hasn’t done a pee in 24 hours they are still in hospital
we are worried sick as to why he hasn’t urinated the paediatric team have been called
Has anyone been through this ? I’m thinking that maybe my niece isn’t producing enough milk or worst case there’s a blockage

My son didn't pee for the first 24hrs. I was panicking a bit but midwives assured me that one pee in first 24hrs, two in second 24hrs was perfectly normal. He was born at home at 10am and hadn't peed when the midwives came back the next morning to check. They were not the slightest bit concerned. I think he'd done one small one by the following morning/check so 48hrs after birth.

By 1 week old he was out peeing the size 1 nappies!

With my eldest I thought I was breastfeeding but he was just sucking away and nothing was coming out. It wasn't picked up until he was 3 days old, and he was absolutely fine. I hope it's nothing serious, OP. They're in the right place.

Hi Biggreenboat Thankyou so much for your reply it’s reassuring . The baby did poo the moment he was born & my niece has been constantly feeding him but he can’t urinate she said he’s content & isn’t in discomfort .
We’re hoping that he’ll urinate soon 24 hours seems a long time

Thankyou for your reply I was thinking the same he’s not getting the milk . I suggested that my niece express some milk that way she can see how much he’s getting

It happens from time to time OP, and is very rarely anything of concern. At this stage the baby will only be getting colostrum which is very concentrated as their organs are not mature yet. I'm sure baby will be peeing as expected soon enough.

Unless the medics suggest it, I wouldn't bother expressing to try to work out how much milk is being made - babies are almost always much more effective than pumps (if there are no other issues). The more the baby feeds, the better the supply.

You don’t seem informed about breastfeeding so i really wouldn’t advise your niece on anything to do with this.

You can’t pump to see how much milk baby is getting. It doesn’t work like that. A baby is not a pump. A pump is not a good measure of how much milk. I have a healthy, 98 centiler for height and weight. Feeding at 20 months. I could only ever pump about 20ml.

Thankyou for your replies and reassurance

Your milk doesn’t come in for a few days so it’s just colostrum at this stage. Why would you express in day 1? Much better to feed the mum and keep her well hydrated and STOP suggesting she has poor supply or isn’t doing it right.

If you're judging by the nappy then don't worry. I feared the same but it was just because the amount was so little it always seemed the nappy was dry. Midwife told me that if you weighed it there would be a slight difference to an unworn one.

Please don't make any comments about her supply or breastfeeding in general unless she asks for it.

Exactly.

Tbh, this post reads like my sister who was desperate to play dollies and give my baby a bottle of formula. Loads of questions querying my supply and baby’s ‘output’.

I hope I’m wrong OP, and sorry if I am- you just are overly concerned about something that isn’t an issue right now (newborn baby nappies aren’t overtly wet and much will be absorbed by the nappy at first) and you are worried about her breastfeeding when you don’t really understand how it works. You aren’t really supporting your niece by flapping.

get her a lactation consultant voucher (about £80 for an hour where I am) if you are able or reach out to your nhs trusts infant feeding team.

Exactly this.

Also agree with the post advising you to avoid commenting on her supply, please leave the advice giving to the professionals in the hospital. Pumping would not be recommended at this stage and as others have said, would give no indication of what the baby is receiving.

I wouldn’t say that I’m flapping I’m just asking if anyone has experienced this with their new born babies
I wouldn’t dream of directly commenting on her feeding or expressing it’s not my place & as rightly said it’s down to the medical professionals .

I do appreciate all your replies and advice Thankyou

No medical professional would be at all surprised that a woman isn’t lactating huge amounts a day after giving birth. No woman who has bf and most women who haven’t would know that would be unusual.

My DS didnt do a wee for 3 days! Paediatric team were v concerned and had me doing combifeeding. On the 3rd day they were going to scan his kidneys and of course wouldn’t let us go home. Then he did a massive wee! Cue much celebration! Had to stay in another 2 days until he was consistently wetting nappies. No problems since and no explanation as to why it happened. He’s 2.4 now and no problems since. I wouldn’t worry too much at this stage, baby is in good hands.

Thankyou so much piece of sunshine for your reply

There's probably only colostrum right now. It takes a while for milk to be produced after birth. As long as the baby nurses frequently, he will be fine - colostrum is the perfect food for a newborn - and the frequent nursing will stimulate the production of actual milk.

To conclude - once she starts producing actual milk the baby will be taking in lots more liquid and will start peeing.

If not already try leaving his nappy off for a couple of minutes when changing. We were concerned about this but then accidentally realised this worked so gave him a couple of minutes without a nappy at changes the first couple of days til things were more regular, maybe the cool air helped.

My third baby was extremely sleepy and wasn't feeding much even though he was almost 10 lbs born. He hadn't had a wet nappy yet when the midwife called to the house on day2. We were readmitted to hospital where he was put on a drip incase of infection. I needed to express every 3 hours to see what he was getting and he was woken up and had to finish each bottle before they let us home. I think we were in for about 3 days. Thankfully he didn't have an infection but they didn't take any risks and I was so glad for their great care. Your niece and baby are in the best place 🤗

I imagine the suggestion of pumping was to give the baby a bottle of the expressed milk (not just use it to gauge supply) and therefore be able to tell the baby has had [x] ml of milk.

My DD didn't wee for over 24 hours after birth. We stayed in an extra night and then she did a wee and was entirely normal after that.

They did suggest giving her a bottle of milk just so they could see how much went in, I think. Didn't seem to affect my supply.

How is your niece doing @Tornado18?

Will echo what others said about feeding. It can be so hard in the beginning and anything perceived even the slightest bit negatively can make you feel terrible so just keep telling her she's doing a brilliant job and support her.

I'm surprised by other responses about not being allowed to leave the hospital without consistent peeing. So different from my experience of a homebirth (twice) and I do wonder which set up benefits the mother more.

I didn’t even know if baby was peeing, as they were pooping so that’s when nappy was changed!