10 day old Baby not feeding enough at boob

[Hekabe]

... 10 day old DS is starting to lose weight, despite constantly feeding.

After a natter with the MW, it appears he's being 'lazy' and falling asleep at the boob and merely suckling and not feeding.

I feel awful. How did I not realise? No wonder he's been crying. He's probably starving.

More importantly how to I keep him awake latched on to properly feed? He'll furiously suck for a few minutes then go in to a slow pattern.

I tickle feet and tap him which stirs him For a few seconds.

Any advice on how I keep him awake to feed properly?

I say this on all threads that start like this but has he been checked for a tongue tie?
Dr was just like that and it went unnoticed for ages.

Dd not Dr.

Yes, MW said all fine for tongue tie.. but do the miss it often?

Swap sides every time he stops actively sucking/swallowing - keep swapping back and forth until he won't take any more.

Dds was missed a few times and by a few different people and it took two attempts for the hospital to cut it properly. It might be worth having it checked.
Dd sometimes spent hours feeding but lost 14 percent of her body weight. Cried constantly for 4 weeks until we realised. Latched well but fell asleep on the boob almost immediately.
You can probably feel it if there is anything. Also, dds tongue turned into a v when she cried.

We were told to tickle her behind the ear to get her moving again which sometimes worked.

Thank you Elizabethshaw I shall give that a go!

Sadly milk production has slowed because of not feeding properly so trying to pump to build up.

Bit nervous about this tongue tie now.

Midwives aren't trained to spot tongue ties. Can you Google tongue tie practitioners and see if you have one local to you? Posterior tongue tie is hard to spot without a proper physical examination of the mouth.

My DD was the same, losing weight so was referred to infant feeding team (I'm in Oxfordshire), maybe finding out if you have one in your area?
I was put on feeding plan of feeding on demand, going no longer than 3 hours (so waking her if need be), compressing boob as she sucks (be careful of this as can lead to blocked ducts), and switching sides every time she stopped actively sucking/falling asleep.
Also stripping clothes off, tickling feet and wet cotton wool on neck.

However I suppose it's important to realise there's probably a reason for needing to do this. Babies are not 'lazy', she may be exhausting herself nursing because it's hard for her.

That was the reason for my DD struggling and she had tongue tie. Midwives are not qualified to check for these especially if submucosal/posterior as they are not obvious at all.

We pushed through with feeding plan and DD piled on more than 20gms a day after that...however it wasn't sustainable for either of us so had tongue done at private clinic on Thursday.

Now we are trying to relearn to breast feed with a free tongue!!

All the best

Sorry, didn't mean to make you nervous. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Good lord! Why do midwives check for Tongue tie if they don't get trained it it?!

She clearly stated "well that's good, he doesn't have tongue tie" .

All quite overwhelming isn't it?

My midwife told me to undress baby down to her nappy - so she wasn't as comfortable, and it worked.

Also agree with double checking tongue tie.

Before I say this, I have breastfed my two children - but after seeing a midwife still banging on about breastfeeding is best to a lady with severely jaudiced baby in hospital (under UV light and approaching being tube fed), formula is always an option. The lady just could not produce enough milk and was extremely distressed.

We were also placed on a feeding plan in similar circumstances. That involved feeding every 3 hours (so waking for feeds), stripping down to nappy for every feed and topping up with expressed breast milk (and on a couple of occasions formula). It was exhausting and I was worried about nipple confusion with the bottle feeds but we were able to drop the top ups after just a few days. The more milk that he got the more energy he had to feed so it was a virtuous circle. You might not need anything quite so drastic- DS had lost a lot of weight. The stripping down might be helpful though. Helps them stay awake and helps milk production through skin to skin.

My 2 breastfed babies both had jaundice (both needed phototherapy and top up feeds in hospital as a result), one effect of that was that they were too sleepy to feed properly.

When they were still recovering from that and it was time for feeds, I used to change the nappy first to make sure they were properly awake, then leave them in the nappy for feeds so they wouldn't fall asleep too quickly. Plus that means more skin to skin which helps milk production. I also used to wake them for feeds if it'd been more than 3-4 hours since the last feed until they started gaining weight well.

Trying to figure out how to weigh him now

I've been pumping, and topping him up woth forumula, and will up the feeds today to see how that works.

Thank you all for your experiences- I think we're literally at the point where if it gets lower they'll be referring me to the paediatrician. I got so emotional ( emotional... I bawled my eyes out) about that when she said it. Very unlike me!

On we go.

Midwife just came to weigh him... he's put on nearly two ounces since Saturday morning! (He'd lost nearly 10 since the birth weight)

YAAAAAYYYY

Yay! Well done! Keep going and look after yourself too. Make sure you have lots of drink, rest and healthy snacks.

And if you do ever need to give a bottle, DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP!

Congrats on your gorgeous baby!

Just keep going! This happens with nearly everyone, I promise you. It's totally normal at 10 days. They and you are still just learning and getting stronger, neither you nor the baby have done anything wrong!

Don't take the mw's comments to heart, we've (nearly) all been there with lazy babies, failure to thrive, blah blah blah. I'm just on my 4th baby so know to ignore such comments, only worry if weight is seriously dropping beyond 28 days, and to keep snuggling and feeding all day long. You'll get there!

Sucking and not feeding, such bollox.

you guys are great- thank you for the hand hold!!

a feeding plan of 3 hourly?! A 10 day old baby should be fed much more often than that if breastfeeding. Keep the baby near your boob all the time, clothes off skin to skin and just let her feed in small/ frequent amounts. It's normal for them to lose birthweight - your baby is not doing anything wrong.

After 2 weeks babies tend to wake up a bit and be awake more and asleep not quite so much - so it really will happen quikcly.

Could he be hypotonic (floppy)? Dd was and it meant she simply did not have the strength to suckle effectively. Top-ups were the way to go.

@waterrat - yes, you're right. What I meant by a 3 hourly plan was that we were told to never to go more than three hours from the beginning of one feeding session to the beginning of the next and of course to feed more often if he would take it. Every time I woke him I held him and had him on and off the breast and getting topped with bm by bottle for about 60-90 mins. If he then showed any sign of wanting to feed 10 mins, 30 mins or whatever thereafter I would absolutely feed him. But if he fell asleep, I'd let him sleep for 90 mins-2 hrs max before waking him. We were advised to do this 24 hours a day as a short term measure to get him going with feeding. It only took a few days for him to be more awake and responsive.

Breast compressions might help and also skin to skin contact to try and pique his interest a little.
Good luck!