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

Nothing wrong with formula if it helps, which it probably would, to get even more goodness in him.

@OldFan nor much goodness if they are allergic to it!

You’re not failing at all the paediatrician checked your baby over and thinks they are fine. Not all babies grow according to charts. However, I’d take their advice and go dairy free as a trial. It’s also common for babies to be intolerant to cows milk as well as true allergy and your baby is pooping and windy quite a lot. It’s so easy to switch to calcium enriched oat milk and other dairy free products these days that it’s got to be worth a try

Because @NicolaSixSix suggesting formula for a baby with a suspected cows milk allergy is beyond stupid. And there are so many stupid people suggesting it.

Because suggesting formula feeding to a new mother who is trying to BF and is still in the period of stabilising her supply is beyond ignorant. And there are so many ignorant people suggesting it.

It doesn’t matter what my qualifications or my background is. You don’t need to be particularly sharp to understand that a baby with a suspected cows milk allergy shouldn’t be given formula which is processed cows milk.

HTH

@toomuchlaundry I suppose not although OP doesn't know that yet. There are a lot of different formulas nowadays to meet people's needs.

@aimeeeleanor It sounds like they've given you a lot of good tips. If it doesn't get the results they want when they want them, then they might suggest some sort of formula/supplement of some kind.

Hello. I haven't read the full thread but I was a baby who failed to thrive because of a rare condition so I wanted to give some input from observing other mothers who have babies with my condition as they went through the diagnosis process. So first of all, Failure to Thrive can have many causes, from babies who are just naturally small, to parents who neglect to feed the baby, all the way to various genetic or developmental conditions that need specific treatments. So when the doctor starts by giving you advice about changing your own behavior regarding baby feeds, it's important to separate that feeling of "I'm not doing a good enough job" from the reality which is that the doctor is working through a process of trying to figure out what's going on. I know it's very stressful for the mother!

So the doctor has to eliminate the possibility that the low weight gain is a result of something that's simple to fix through behavior. Your part in this, is to follow the doctor's instructions, ask questions, (as needed, to ensure that you understand the instructions), and to give information back to the doctor to ensure he/she has enough info to keep making the correct decisions to manage your child's medical treatment. So if the doctor says that while breastfeeding you should remove milk and soy from your own diet, then you would be well advised to do so, even if you're not sure that's what's going on. If you are unable to eliminate milk and soy from your own diet for some reason (whether cost, your own allergies or whatever) then let the doctor know that so they can modify their instructions as appropriate.

One way to help this stage of the process to move along is to start a feeding/medical diary. You can put in when you fed the baby, how much (or you can just say how long the baby nursed for), how many wet diapers, how many poopy diapers, and discomfort the baby showed, when the baby slept, etc. In the same diary, record any communication with the doctor, nurse, health visitor. Everything should be dated. If you make a doctor visit, take the diary with you and make notes in it as you discuss. If you observe any reactions by the baby, like vomiting or diarrhea, that also should go into the diary in language as specific and objective as possible. Don't say the baby "had a reaction," instead say, "the baby projectile vomited twice and cried for two hours after trying formula A." Be specific. If the doctor issued an instruction and you followed it, note that in the diary ("switched feeds to every 2 hours round the clock, as per Doctor Smith's advice of August 31"). You want to show the doctor that you are following instructions and you want the doctor to have enough information to know what to try next.

Try Aldi formula milk (mamia) my daughter has similar issues with gas and burping I found out later in on she lactose intolerance

My daughter (BF) was small, had very mild symptoms for cows milk allergy (happy and alert baby, slept well, frothy green poop with small amount of blood streaks in it etc) but cutting out dairy/soy did make a difference to her. The symptoms don't have to be really obvious for it to be effecting baby.

It does take a couple of weeks for it to clear out of your system though.

For the record, my second baby (also BF) showed similar symptoms but was a fatty who gained weight like crazy, I still cut out dairy and soy to clear up his symptoms though. Different babies do grow differently.

Hi OP, my exclusively breastfed daughter was FTT for a while, and what helped in the end was:
-Hand compressions at every feed (see link on how to do this)
www.laleche.org.uk/my-baby-needs-more-milk/

• Switching sides frequently at every feed.
• Getting the hang of feeding lying down (we co-slept) so she could just snack in the night without either of us properly waking.
• Accepting in my head that she was always going to be a petite baby. Even now aged 8 she is only 3.5 stone, but perfectly physically healthy.

Good luck.

Oh, just wanted to say that while DD did not love her exercises (extra tummy time, etc), it resolved very quickly, but she was 15 months old at the time. She was an early talker… (said “I feel sad” to the GP when she had shots at 12month) Her twin brother had been an early walker (and climber) and looked like he had been beaten up until his body caught up with his head size. He was on top of the dining table at 9.5 months, but had no interest in conversation until he was nearly 3.

Sorry! Wrong thread! Ignore above!!!

Definitely do the every two hourly feedings.

If necessary wake him up to feed him.

Eliminate dairy and soy because that squirming, gassiness, and green stool etc can be caused by intolerance.

Has anyone suggested oral thrush too?

@ChiefFinderOuter and others - there are non dairy formulas.

My youngest had dropped just under 10% of her birth weight at two weeks.

The pediatrician emphasised waking her around the clock to feed and to top up with non dairy formula. She used to fall asleep while feeding and slept far 'better' at night than her older siblings. Her late afternoon feed was only formula. This gave me a break.

She gained the weight back and started gaining well after a couple of weeks. She returned to EBF after a month.

She dropped just over 10% of her birth weight. Closer to 11 % than 10% in fact.

This.
These are symptoms of allergies! If he's pooing ten times a day and barely gaining weight he's not getting enough nutrition from the milk because it's running straight through him. If you want to carry on BF you need to try tweaking your diet to remove allergens.

my DS barely gained back his birth weight by 7 weeks because unbeknownst to me I was not producing enough milk due to a genuine medical condition. Honestly at the time I thought he was just slim but looking back at pictures is scary. He was sickly and tiny and it was not ok. I went onto formula which I'm not recommending but you do need to do something.

I have EBF two very large (90+ percentile) babies (the second is now 3 months old). Both were very windy, with lots of writhing around and lots and lots of poos. My first baby spit up with every feed and easily poo’ed ten times a day. So these symptoms are not necessarily indicative of a dairy allergy.

Even so I think you should follow the Dr’s advice and try to rule it out.

@Derbee Because suggesting formula feeding to a new mother who is trying to BF and is still in the period of stabilising her supply is beyond ignorant. And there are so many ignorant people suggesting it

nonsense! My baby was similar to @aimeeeleanor and at one week old was on verge of failure to thrive (weight loss of exactly 10% of birthweight). I didn’t have enough supply. We introduced formula top ups. We got a great lactation consultant who told me about supplements to take and medication to get my gp to prescribe to up my supply. We had a strict feeding schedule - every 3 hours and waking slepping baby to feed and re waking baby too if she fell asleep mid feed. We got a scales on lactation consultants recommendation and we would weigh baby, breastfeed, weigh, top up with formula. As my supply increased the amount of breastmilk went up and formula top up went down. At 6 week check O was told my babies weight gain was excellent by the paediatrician consultant. Baby is now exclusively breastfed and also takes a bottle too which is very handy. Baby is doing great.

so you’re putting the OP off the potential right course for them by saying people are ignorant to suggest introducing formula for a baby who has been diagnosed as failing to thrive - the only ignorant one here is you!

And @Derbee I see @mathanxiety did the same as me so again more evidence you don’t know what you’re talking about. People like you who see formula as the bad are a big problem.

We had something similar but we started a dream feed at night at about 11 and one in the night. I was really sceptical but it did work albeit slowly. Good luck 🤞

Could you dream feed a bottle as you go to bed? If you could add in one bottle a day this week & then next week add a bottle during the day as well as bf. Two bottles a day may make all the difference, your baby is 10 weeks, that means in just over 3 months you can start on solids & by then you might not need the extra formula feeds.

OP try not to get over anxious.
You don't mention much regarding your current lifestyle - diet/sleep/exercise
It's very important to look after yourself. You need plenty of rest, fluids and good food, it's still very early days establishing lactation. Try taking to your bed for a couple of days, have lots to drink and let your partner do the meals. Have lots of long relaxed feeds and cuddle time with baby. All of these things can help boost your lactation and ensure baby is getting the good fatty after milk.

So seconding this advice:

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!

I used to have hot chocolate and a banana in the middle of the night.

Nonsense yourself!

If you could read, you’d see that I recommended a lactation consultant to the OP. Blindly formula feeding WILL affect and potentially damage supply.

You’ve stated yourself, you did it under the guidance of a lactation consultant. So I don’t know what point you’re trying to make, stating that formula feeding won’t affect supply. There’s a big difference between top ups and formula feeding.

Presumably you weren’t doing formula top ups for a baby with suspected cows milk allergy, with Aptimil/ALDI formula, which has been suggested multiple times. A lot of ignorance on this thread, but not from me!

But you carry on. 👍🏻

@Floomobal I’m making the point that feeding a baby formula won’t necessarily impact supply and that it is a good suggestion to introduce formula in this situation. Maybe take a look at your own reading comprehension. Blanket telling the op to avoid formula isn’t helpful.

also - name change fail? or is your rant randomly as you think I’m addressing your posts! 🙄

Obviously an allergy is a different issue but again doesn’t negate the advice to offer formula given there are special ones to account for a milk allergy.

Name change fail. It’s not all about you, @Alwayswithhope22. Users name change on here often, as you probably know.

Not engaging with you further, as I’m sure the OP has enough to read through without repeated arguments from random users

Ignore the formula cheerleaders.

You're doing an amazing job. Well done for sticking to breastfeeding.

My dc had a lot of the symptoms you describe. I'd follow their advice Re dairy, it can't do any harm. Also just feeding more frequently. They will know better than us.

Just to repeat again, you are not failing him. Keep going.