Breastfed baby lost weight with covid - is it just my baby?!

[MyKidsThrowFood]

My DC2 is 10 weeks. breastfeeding had been going well (he is ebf) but this last week he had covid and now he’s lost 100g in a week and the health visitor has panicked me saying this is ‘very unusual’. I knew the illness was affecting his feeding as he is tired but I didn’t realise it was that bad. The HV made me feel like a terrible mum. Anyone else’s baby lost weight when unwell???! Or is it really just me?

Hmm, did you have covid too?

Both times that I've been ill enough to change my plans (stay home etc) while breastfeeding feeding have resulted in my usually over abundant supply really diminishing. I go from having hard leaky boobs (a problem in itself) to them being soft and baby uses his hands to stimulate more milk or I do compressions etc. So despite a lot of what I've read saying supply shouldn't be effected, for me it really goes down if I'm ill.

Wonder if that happened for you?

Extra hydration for you and breast compressions might help get a bit more milk to him before he falls asleep. Offer breast more often, and offer both sides if you don't already.

It’s really normal for babies to lose weight when unwell. 100g isn’t a huge amount so I’m really surprised that HV hasn’t come across this before.

My baby had covid two weeks ago and she's combined fed (5 months at time) and I didn't weigh her but she was definitely not drinking much as her nappies were pretty dry for 3-4 days and she was refusing the bottle a lot. I breastfed her more and one night she fed lots and lots but clearly didn't drink much as nappy was very dry the next morning. After about 4 days her appetite improved and I'm back to big wet nappies and having to change nappy in night due to how wet it is (front sleeper who leaks if nappy really wet!). My baby a chunky thing so not worried and I'm a paramedic so was never worried about a few days of poor appetite as was ok otherwise.

Thank you @WorkEvent @YesItIsI @sunflowerandivy . Sounds like it is not as scary or abnormal as the HV made it sound!

@sunflowerandivy - I was not too worried either as, although he has a bad cough, I felt he was not too unwell. But the HV made me doubt myself! Maybe because my baby is a little thing (4th centile!) they get more panicked? But I am a 4th centile woman so he doesn’t seem small to me 😅!

I think I will persist with what I’m doing, try to up hydration and use compressions as @YesItIsI suggests and hope his appetite picks up over the next week or so…