8 week old barely putting on weight

[lyssie29]

Hi, my dd is 8 weeks old today. When she was born she was on the 50th centile and now she is heading down to the 2nd. She is also putting on weight slower. She has only put on 4oz in 2 weeks since she was last weighed and I have been advised by gp to stop giving her breast milk (which was expressed and bottle fed) and to give her formula now. She is feeding every 3-4 hours and generally will take about 3oz any more and she refuses and is sick. What can I do to help her gain more weight? I'm scared she will eventually start to lose weight as time goes on. What will happen if she does? Would she have to go to hospital?

That sounds scary for you, but since it's been picked up you can start fixing it.

Babies tummies are tiny, so I'd imagine she probably can't handle more than the 3oz at a feed. What happens if you try offering her bottle a little earlier, say after two hours. 4 hours seems quite a long time between feeds for such a young baby.

You may have to wake her, but it sounds like right now she needs that extra bit of milk in the day. Babies who are not getting enough milk are often that bit more sleepy, so it's easy to think they are settled and no want to wake them to feed.

My daughter was born quite early and for the first couple of months we really had to keep an eye on the clock, she was too sleepy to wake for feeds on her own.

You're doing amazingly to keep exclusively expressing, it's hard work just fitting everything into the day. I found the kellymom website really useful in the early days. kellymom.com/mother2mother/exclusive-pumping/

My DD was a little early and was initially on feeds every 3 hours and we had to wake her up to feed her as she was a sleepy baby. I would try and up how regularly you feed rather than trying to increase the volume per feed. Good luck!

I would put her onto 3-hourly feeds. If she continues dropping weight then your GP can suggest prescription supplements so see your GP