7 week old diagnosed with Failure To Thrive. What the hell!

[aimeeeleanor]

I’m so deflated right now & need to know if anybody has been in a similar situation

My son is 7+1 weeks old. He was born on 13th July weighing 7lbs3oz. Born on Dropped down to 6lbs9oz at first weigh in. Then has verrrrry slowly been gaining weight since. Approx 10g per day. He now weighs 8lbs2oz & is small

• He is EBF
• Had a tongue tie cut at 2 weeks old

He seems otherwise healthy - Alert, has started to smile, seems strong (can lift head for short periods etc), tracks objects in front of him, makes cooing noises

The only issue we seem to have with him is wind. He burps a lot after a breastfeed (despite having s good latch) & seems to struggle some of the time when passing gas from his bottom or pooping. He writhes around when on the breast & also when trying to poop on his changing mat. Plus he goes A LOT. Like 10+ dirty nappies a day. Mostly yellow runny poops with one green one on an evening every other evening or so

Health visitor said he has dropped 3 centiles from birth yesterday on weigh in, he’s now on the 0.4th centile

She sent us to the GP who sent us straight to the Paediatrician at the hospital for peace of mind. Paed commented on him being a long but skinny baby who didn’t seem unwell in the slightest. She said he seemed ok & it wasn’t uncommon. Have suggested I cut out dairy & soy, though i’m not convinced as he doesn’t seem to have any symptoms of an intolerance or an allergy

Also said to stop letting him sleep through 5-6 hours on a night & to feed him every 2 hours during the day, 3 hours on a night

I was feeding on demand before but didn’t realise timings were from start to start, so he was definitely going longer than 2 hours between feeds (sometimes napping for 3-4 hours during day). I was also taking him off the breast whenever he pooped & seemed to have gas, which i have now been advised not to do.

Blood tests & pee / poo samples have also been taken to rule out anything related to that

Has anybody else had their child be diagnosed with FTT & they’ve turned out ok? I’m devastated thinking I have failed him. Unfortunately babies don’t come with a hand book & I thought we were doing a really good job. Obviously not :(

thank you x

What agenda?

Wow! This is a very long thread. It must be overwhelming to read it all.

I must admit I only managed the first page so apologies if this is not based on the full information.

Both of my children had similar. They also both had tongue ties- tongue ties reattach. They were both snipped three times. A lot of the time, doctors and health visitors and midwives are not experienced enough with tongue ties to spot them- there are many different grades of tongue tie and the posterior ones can be invisible to the less knowledgeable eye. This happened to me countless times and was hugely distressing and sent me somewhat crazy feeling like it was all my fault and I wasn't producing enough milk and I was doing something wrong but I wasn't.
Eventually a year after my eldests birth, when I was still disturbed by my experiences, I submitted a complaint to our local health visitors service and they put in some extra training.

Back to you. I would strongly urge you to see a private lactation consultant. The ones I saw were never more than £50 an appointment , same within a couple of days and the issues were cleared up immediately with a kind, knowledgeable professional who had plenty of time to spend with me.

If you need to top up with formula it's ok. It's not the end of the world. It can get your child over the hump and gaining again and thus get the health visitors off your back So you can relax a little. Despite what you might read, the lactation consultants told me that as breastfeeding is an on demand service, you can even stop breastfeeding and then restart it again without too much trouble. If adoptive parents can breastfeed without any of the pregnancy, hormones or whatever, So can you after you've had a period of bottle feeding.

I completely empathise with your experience. It's awful. You will get through it. Your child will be ok and no doubt you're doing everything that you can do. Keep going mum

I hope your 'background' doesn't involve actually giving advice to people

He was below all the lines at 6 months. He was breastfeed, then mixed fed (I went to work) and then formula. I don’t remember it changing his growth pattern to a noticeable point. He didn’t have feeding problems as such, he wasn’t a sickly baby. I can’t remember exactly now

If the baby has a potential dairy allergy then formula will quite likely WORSEN this!

OP, you're doing great, paediatrician has checked out your baby and he's fine. Advice re potential allergy is worth a shot. Also - has someone explained foremilk and hindmilk to you, checked your baby's latch?

www.llli.org/breastfeeding-info/foremilk-and-hindmilk/

Expressing a bit of your milk before you start feeding can encourage more of the fatty hindmilk.

My DD was checked out for FTT, she was EBF, and always slight and slim - she still is! Although has caught up in height with her peers. Take heart, you're doing fine.

My youngest was slow to gain weight. I tried formula, it didn't make a blind bit of difference. Its rarely a magic answer and if cmpa is suspected will make things worse.

Good for you but many women have not established their supply by then.
In fact the huge growth spurts during the first 3 months mean that baby should spend increasing time on the breast to increase supply.
Giving a bottle fillls the baby up for hours. It’s NOT the same as light breast milk which is digested quickly and baby it back for more.
For 3 hours after a bottle of formula baby will likely be asleep and digesting food. Not sucking on the breast.
On top of this, the feeling of fullness a formula gives isn’t recreated when baby drinks breast milk so baby may appear restless and still hungry.
Its a vicious cycle that is a downhill slope for many many women who want to breastfeed.

You can do mixed feeding I did with my son 4 months. I just couldn't produce enough milk for him but breastfed until 7 months.

I have a background in this area Just not a medical one? Or one covering the last twenty years?

You really need to see a lactation consultant (I would say that as I am one!). There's no urgency as he is clearly well, but 10g gain per day is well below expected, so he very likely isn't getting enough at the breast. You need help to figure out why and to boost your supply if needed.

You might have slightly low supply, he might have an allergy, he might not be transferring milk effectively, he might not be going to the breast enough. But you need someone to observe a feed, go through your history, and help you get to the bottom of things.

If bny has an allergy it is probably a CMA and you think putting him on own dairy formula is th answer? Even when paeds say try dairy free.

This is what I mean by an agenda, no idea what it is exactly but why else would such batshit nonsense get posted.

This is very good advice if you can afford one. Wish I had had this advice years ago.

Sounds like my nephew. He had the same symptoms, was diagnosed FTT and my sister went dairy free as the first step and squeezed in an extra feed per day as the second step. Within days he was putting on weight and his nappies returned to normal.

In my a experience a breastfed 7 week old should be feeding every 3-4 hours. This baby isn’t - he’s sleeping for a 6 hour stretch while also not gaining weight properly. Together, they point to the fact he either isn’t getting enough breastmilk, or for whatever reason isn’t putting on enough weight through breastfeeding alone. I definitely think the allergy thing is worth trying first, but all I’m saying is that formula isn’t the devil nor does it have to be the end of bfing. In fact countries with the highest bfing rates are often more relaxed about giving the odd bottle.

"Push for Neocate formula", God this drives my pharmacist sister mad.
Aside from being £37 for a tiny cannister, there is a huge shortage (for babies that really really need it and would probably die without it). If the health care professionals felt your child needed it they'd be providing it. They don't need you to start "pushing". The amount of times she's been shouted at by parents demanding this stuff.

Maybe try cutting out all dairy in your own diet as a starting point.

Can’t comment on the weight gain etc but the amount of nappies could well be he is sensitive to dairy in your diet so I wouldn’t rule that out. And the wind also is a symptom.

If you think he is hungry, offer a bottle of formula and see how he takes it. It doesn’t mean the end of breastfeeding- I combi fed from 6 weeks and it worked well. I started because I was so worried baby was hungry. If you think he is give it a try. You aren’t failing by any stretchbxoxo

Yes, me when DS1 was five weeks old. He walked at 9 months, started talking not long after. By 2 and 1/2 he was talking like a little adult - he actually interrogated the health visitor at his 2 and 1/2 year assessment rather than her asking the questions! He read fluently by four. He’s now in a super selective state grammar that’s one of the hardest to get into in the country. He’s also fantastic at sport. He is skinny (although he eats loads) but he’s tall. I always think
back to when I sat in the hospital when he was five weeks old and wished I could have seen into the future. It would have saved me a lot of anxiety at the time.

His failure to thrive was caused by severe reflex and once he was treated for that, he quickly put on weight. By three months he was a little dumpling. Once of the things that really turned it around was giving him on thickened formula, which we also added Gaviscon to (prescribed by GP). I gradually weened him off breast milk and he flourished.

Yes this happened to us. When I started to feed more regularly during the day (2hrs) he started to gain lots more weight. He was just not that bothered by food and still isn’t as a 7 year old. Still tall and skinny but around the 50th for weight and 99th height. Had to buy 8 year old clothing for the new school year.

We did more regular feeding, lots of bicycle legs and I tried dairy free but it didn’t make any difference. Breastfed here too, eat lots of oats etc and high fatty foods to increase your milk, I also found getting them to feed longer helped to get the fatty milk rather than just the watery first milk.

We had an awful start.
After a long labour DS1 heart started to falter and we were run down to theatre. Apparently Score 0,2,4. I was very ill for three days, didn’t see DS1 until I was allowed out of bed in a wheelchair and taken down to SCUBA at 6 days.We were in hospital for a few weeks. At home EBF he hardly slept, projectile vomited regularity and I still had an infection. We were in rented beach chalet which wasn’t warm except the bedroom. Large open plan and insufficient heating. He cried a lot and so did I some days.
Please take the advice re dairy and soya. I wish I had been told that. DS3 had a soya and dairy intolerance and I think that was what was wrong with DS1. I have intolerance now, developed much later on.
HV made me take him to be weigh every week. Progress was very slow. 7:7 at birth but he lost a lot of weight in Scuba. I think he was 5lb when I brought him home.19”.He was always falling asleep on the breast but try putting him down and he’d wake and cry. He caught colds easily and ‘snuffles’ and no real support.
Weighed 14lb 6oz at 1. Hospital failed to tell me that the reason they wanted me to return at 6 mths, 12mths and 18mths was that they suspected brain damage. GP broke that to me a week before his first appointment. I fed him for 4 mths but lost my milk when I got news a friend had been killed in a RTA. We had to change formula and he was often sick.

At 2 1/2 yrs GP commented that he was looking fine and then said he never expected him to live. That is when I was informed that he was ‘a failure to thrive baby’!
He was sitting up at the right time, never crawled or shuffled but walked at 9 mths. I couldn’t buy shoes for him as his feet were too small - size 2. He was dainty.

He grew to 5’8”. Ran 100m and relay for his county and played football to near professional level at 16. Didn’t get chosen ( later found out size and asthma went against him) but continued playing until knee injuries made him hang up his boots at about 30. He has recently completed Ben Nevis in 5 hrs 40 mins when the average is 7 hrs. DH and DS2 did it in 7hrs and 5 mins( same walk) and walked 25 km last week. He has walked all the Wainwright’s twice and has bagged 15 Munro’s and Ben Nevis. Scarfell Pike several times just Snowdonia to do. Oh and walked Hadrian’s Wall during lockdown, once allowed.

He is a great brother especially to his sister. He was 14 when she was born and he was smitten from the minute he laid eyes on her. Bathed her when she was a few weeks and constantly looked after her and still chats to her regularly even though she is 12,000 miles away. He missed her a lot when she went to Uni.

You sound like you are doing a great job. You seem to be getting much more knowledge and support than I did. GP was lovely I will say. We were in a very rural area. 35 miles from the hospital.

I trust this gives you hope. He is the loveliest, caring son and he will be 45 next month.

Hey OP, hope you're OK. I know it feels rotten and you feel as if you've let your baby down, or you're doing something wrong. You absolutely haven't. Babies can be tricky little things and there's no single thing that suits every baby the same!

Echo others re trying to cut out dairy, soy etc - may as well try to see if it makes a difference?

I had premature twins, and my daughter struggled to put on weight. I was EBF - DS was putting on the weight well enough (despite having terrible reflux!). DD though was barely gaining - and she was a tiny little thing (birth weight 3lb 3, dropped to 2 lb 10).

My DD used to snack on the breast rather than really guzzle it down and fill herself up! What I did in the end was express and then feed her breast milk in a bottle so I could monitor exactly how much she was taking. I won't lie, it was an absolute pain but I'd already been expressing before as they were in SCBU for the first few weeks. So it wasn't too much hassle for me to go back to expressing. It did help though - I discovered that she was snacking and then snoozing!

Just thought I'd mention it in case it helps.

The health visitor was ready to admit my DD back to hospital due to her failure to thrive when suddenly things just picked up. She's now 12 years old and a strapping, healthy girl so clearly it didn't really have much effect in the long term! 😊

I’ve mixed fed 3 children. It was just the hardest thing ever. Didn’t really get the easy part of BF (ie no sterilising or taking bottles out with you) and didn’t get the easy part of formala feeding either (pumping whilst a bottle was being given so my supply didn’t drop)
It was extremely difficult on all occasions to not let my supply drop so much that there wasn’t much breast milk left - in fact the first time was a complete failure as baby just preferred the bottle and refused to latch a couple of weeks after combi feeding. Milk leaking everywhere whilst baby was fast asleep from a formula feed.
A 7 week baby shouldn’t be going 3-4 hours between feeds IMO either, even that is on the too long side which is why I said to the OP to get baby on the breast more often and see a lactation consultant

How distressing for you. You're obviously a super mum, just listen to how you talk about him.

I would follow all the guidance you've been given, just in case. I'm not sure what you're describing sounds fine in the circumstances so no harm in following it to the letter re your diet. It would have been helpful if someone had suggested you keep feeding at three hourly intervals during the night before now, wouldn't it. I think now you know to keep topping up more frequently regardless of whether baby's demanding it, you could well be on the up and up.

Find a local IBCLC, get latch checked and some advice - will be the best £50 you’ll spend! Expect to be pushed towards formula from paed/health visitor. My friend had the same, got the IBCLC privately and never looked back, went from below the 0.4th to a chunky little thing, all with boob power!!

You're doing great. My DD was 6lb when she was born. I breastfed but she lost loads of weight and I feel guilty when I look at pictures as she was so skinny. The HV said not to give her formula so I just carried on with feeding until 5 months.

I had a very good at sleeping baby - but wasn't at putting on weight.

As a PP has said, I really wish I'd known that you have to wake sleepy babies to feed them.

I'd try removing dairy from your diet and waking for feeds for a week. If this works, gradually reintroduce dairy and see if that affects him.

If there isn't much difference after you try that, then there's nothing wrong with formula feeding. I gave my DS a bottle at week 6 on HV advice (this was some time ago). He gulped it down, cue me feeling super guilty I'd not been feeding him enough.