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

Also are you drinking and eating enough? Looking back, I was eating OK but not drinking anywhere enough fluids. Keep yourself really topped up and go for calorie dense for a little while.

My Ds was the same he had cows milk protein allergy passed through breast milk

Maybe look at offering some Neocate or Nutramigen formula. The pooping, discomfort, green nappies and going loads suggest CMPA and trying to go totally milk free in your diet is very difficult.

You haven't failed him at all though - he sounds like a happy baby! 😊

@Pinkpeony2, that sounds awful. You really went through the mill.

I don't think it is inevitable mix feeding is bad. We had to tube feed DD when she was tiny because she was quite sick, then she was mix fed. Then when she was just over two months we went on a long weekend holiday (which we'd booked before she was born, like idiots). We forgot to pack the bottles and DP fed her just fine. It really made us aware that we'd only been making DD ill by forcing her to drink her formula top-up. If I had my time again I'd do mix feeding again, because it was so useful to be able to share the load, but I wouldn't follow advice quite so unquestioningly.

I think what's needed is just better, more thorough support for new parents. The OP should be booked in for support from a lactation consultant. It'd save so much NHS money in the long run.

Baffled why a post about FTT would attract so many replies. Until I saw it had turned into a BF versus FF debate. So I’m glad someone pointed this out. Formula could be more harmful.

My DT used to writhe around loads to fart and poo. I assumed something terrible was up. Turns out apparently some babies just can’t coordinate their stomach and butt muscles at first. The grunting and wiggling is them working it out. Not necessarily a sign of an allergy.

I love BF (because it works for me) so was adamant I’d keep going when DT were struggling to put on weight. I went back to basics making sure they were fed at regular intervals, lots of skin to skin, no distracting visitors, and voila, less than a week later they’d put on shed loads more weight.

Good luck OP.

Echoing others. Definite signs of CMPA / milk allergy.

I just joined Mumsnet to reply to your thread OP.

You're clearly a responsible, loving, attentive mother. You're doing the right thing in getting help from medics so well done you.

I had a very sleepy baby first time around. First couple of days incredibly hard to wake her for feeds (even the midwife's usual tricks of undressing and flicking her foot wouldn't work). When she was awake she fed all the time. But I was readmitted at the end of the week as she had dropped 11%. I just didn't know she wasn't getting enough - she had all the wet/dirty nappies, healthy otherwise, etc. I felt like I had failed too - this stuff is just meant to work isn't it?!?

It was a hard bf journey. But she is now nearly 5, strong and has a great appetite.

I am not pro bf or formula, whatever works for you as recommended by your doctor. But if you ARE bfing The Food of Love by Kate Evans (midwife) was a godsend vs all the late night Googling.

I have no experience with allergies but I second getting tongue tie checked again to be on safe side, it can reattach.

All the very best

My son who is now a 22 year old and happy ,is a fully functioning adult after getting degree from a top Uni ….he was diagnosed with reflux plus failure to thrive and was admitted to the Brompton . He was prescribed domperidone …it really helped . Good luck op💐

You are doing an amazing job.

The medical professionals are doing their job - just checking everything over!

Similar story here. We had a lovely Paediatrician who after we had been referred to following on from health visitors concerned - completely happy with our baby and all tests clear. The only thing they did was recommended we weaned earlier than 6 months.

13 years on still traumatised by what that baby could poo out!! She was breastfeed on demand till she was 10 month old. Weaned early at four months as recommended by the doctor. She was a tiny dot now a hormonal 13 year old - average build and height.

This child is starting Reception so will be nearly 5! Age 2-3 clothes are incredibly small

Or this child is starting reception and is a august birthday who only just turned 4.

Bear in mind british childrens clothes are made for our ever fatter overweight population.

It's really not a sign of malnourishment for a more petite healthy just turned 4 year old to still fit 2-3 clothes.

Friends had this with their first including the instruction to wake him up to feed even if he didn’t wake during the night. He is now 19 and 6’3. Don’t panic, but do make some changes.

Dc (now 13!!) dropped from the 60th to the 9th centile!!!…they are now average height & weight, bright, extremely sporty and eat for Britain (like 3 bowls of cereal + cooked breakfast and still says they’re starving!!) - they were small for age till about 11 and then gained a good share. The charts aren’t always right, they’re there as a vague guide - if your baby is feeding, pooing & urinating regularly and the gp isn’t worried then please ignore that hideous term and continue as you are. So many friends also distressed by similar issues at the time, it all seems absurd now I look back on it!!

Well done for sticking with breast feeding. It really is worth it if you can get through these early problems. At 7 weeks, my daughter had also dropped from 75th to 9th centile. She had reflux (though the normal one, not the really painful one) and the health visitor advised me to offer her a feed if she cries, even if I had only just fed her. After that, she started cluster feeding, where she just fed and fed, stuck to me all day. But that was to get my milk going and I don’t think I had been responding to her enough. Once she had cluster fed for a few days, she left it more to the evening, where she would be glued to my boobs from 7pm to 10pm but would then sleep through. Her weight went back up, at least to the 25th and then she maintained that lime. I too felt guilty but she’s now a healthy 11 year old and she breastfed for 18 months, so it was worth sticking with it. So, possibly, if it’s right for you, offer your baby more feeds and see what happens. We also were given infant gaviscon and we used to give her gripe water and Infacol. You sound like an amazing mum, so give your self a break and say you’ve done a great job producing this amazing human being! 😁

My last baby took quite a while to gain weight when usually my babies don’t lose any at all.
My let down was very strong this time & overwhelming for baby. She would become fatigued after a couple of minutes and never got to the hind milk. She was gassy & had green nappies which is consistent with foremilk.
She also had quite a shallow latch so didn’t transfer milk well. I was surprised to learn that a good latch for one baby doesn’t necessarily work for another. My midwife, who I saw until 8 weeks, showed me how to get a really deep latch.

The above got us back on track but it was astonishing how many people were desperate for me to try formula. In fact any time I’ve ever struggled with breastfeeding there has been someone waving a tin of formula in my face. It’s an odd phenomenon.
I agree that the ‘guzzling’ & ‘glugging’ is all emotive, melodramatic language to further drive home the misconception that breastfed babies are hungry, starving even. Milk from a bottle is not a controlled flow. Babies glug it because otherwise they will choke on it. A FF baby, who is not starved with BM 🙄,will still glug because that’s just the way a bottle has to be drank.

Yes to looking after yourself OP. Best advice I had was it was partner's job to feed me and my job to feed baby, ignore everything else (within reason...a loo stop squeezed in is always nice! 🙄😀

My DD (now 17) was also diagnosed with FTT, and I felt awful that I was letting her down.

I paid for a lactation consultant and used an electric breast pump to give her extra feeds with a special bottle that was easier for her to feed with. Apparently DD had a weak suck and wasn't getting enough milk. She was also a good sleeper, which added to the problem.

Your DS sounds as if he BF much better than her, but perhaps he does need some extra feeds? I did sometimes use formula when I wasn't able to produce enough milk (the electric pump was great, though).

Now my DD is a tall, healthy athlete so don't worry, take advice and your DS will be fine.

My son had wind that gave him discomfort and it was because of diary - not so much an allergy but hard to digest as stomach underdeveloped. He was put on diary-free nutragin and symptoms went same day. So I do recommend you take the advice and give up diary to see if that helps

This happened to me 17 years ago at the 6 week check, I was devastated. Also tongue tie, also ebf plus very difficult birth. I took him to a private paed through work who said there was nothing wrong, he was just little (like me). He's now a hulking (but not particularly tall) 17y old doing A levels. Just check it out and then if nothing amiss, ignore. It's a horrible phrase that just makes new mums feel like shit, unecessariily in most cases, and I don't know why they still use it.

Conversely with my third when they said the same due to lack of weight gain I could tell there was something wrong as he was really, really skinny by 3m and had silent reflux. Even then, once we realised and did some investigation turned out he was dairy intolerant and all was well once I swapped from ebf to dairy free formula. Grew out of it by 5/6 and now taller than his peers and just started secondary school.

Middle one was always high up the percentiles and nothing was ever mentioned about failure to thrive and I did exactly the same with all of them! That one just didn't have a difficult birth, wasn't diary intolerant and is genetically different, v tall and slim rather than short and stocky like the other two.

Get it checked out for sure but try not to worry, most likely he will be fine and will settle into himself and will just be naturallu small or slim.

My first baby was like this. She wasn’t diagnosed with failure to thrive but had all the other symptoms you described and dropped several centIkea, and she also developed eczema. After she passed blood in her stool she was seen by paediatrician who diagnosed dairy intolerance. I had to cut out all dairy myself due to exclusively breastfeeding. Within a few weeks she was a transformed baby. It took her a few years but she now seems to be more tolerant of dairy. Hope you get some answers soon.

I think the diagnosis was CMPA - cows milk protein allergy.

The poo does sound alarming to me. Why don’t you try what the Dr said and see? My twins were like this. DST has Anaphylaxis to all nuts and kiwi. He has grown out of his egg allergy. DDT was allergic to soy and dairy. She can now eat cheese. (She is no longer allergic to soy and dairy but intolerant. It won’t kill her, but will give her an upset tummy.) They’re 16 now and have always been really great with their allergies/intolerances.

*btw my kids were officially diagnosed by an allergist, with skin prick tests and hospital trials. There are a lot of people who believe they have allergies unnecessarily.

@Derbee what are your qualifications and why do you feel the need to disparage the formula advice?

It's a horrible phrase that just makes new mums feel like shit, unnecessarily in most cases, and I don't know why they still use it.

I agree, @Sonnex, I abbreviated to "FTT" in my post, because the phrase still upsets me 17 years on. It made me feel like a shit first-time Mum, even though all we needed was some support with feeding.

I'm sure they all do fine nowadays @aimeeeleanor unless there's some underlying serious issue which it doesn't sound like there is. xx

How about the formula fanatics suggesting bottled, processed cows milk when a paediatrician has suggested there is likely to be a cows milk allergy?! FFS