12 week old slow weight gain but happy but HV sending me into mental spiral

[Emkitch]

Hi! We are EBF and never had pain but due to slow weight gain had tounge tie assessed and snipped at 8 weeks old. After this we had two good weigh ins as she had put on 160g two weeks in a row. HV due to come back 2 weeks later to weigh and if a good result hopefully discharge (this was today). But she had ‘only’ put on 200g over the two weeks. As a side not she is the most content baby and sleeps amazing with only one feed in the night. Poos usually once a day sometimes more.
so she is on the 9th centile and they did her length today for the first time and this is also on the 9th centile.

I was so excited to be discharged as it’s STRESS having the weigh ins but after today we can’t be because she’s not gained enough and they want us to top up with bottles (which is is literally just point blank refusing!)

looking for some reassurance. My gut says she would be unsettled if she was hungry and not happy but she is so happy- never falls asleep on the boob always pulls herself off. Surely they don’t ALL again within the average gains??! They aren’t robots.

help.

thank you. My first post on here so hope it’s in the right place and some of you can respond

xx

attached image of her weight chart

@munchies30 there is really no need to shout darling.

The issue is that your post was patronising "little ones", I think you mean babies or infants, "well experienced", I think you mean very experienced and that should, imo, be qualified by a minimum of three to five years practical nursing or midwifery experience.

Sadly the hv service is opaque. HV's give advice without backing it up with clinical, evidence based knowledge and do not make it clear that the service is optional.

My HV instructed me to attend the manky baby clinic (I went once). If she were that keen for me to attend, she should have made me an appointment and explained it was optional. My baby was filling his nappies, growing into his baby gros, and I chose never to go to the dreadful place again.

@Emkitch 180g is 6.5oz. That's really good over ten days. How sad your hv is not encouraging and empowering you.

The HV sounds like a twat, but I suggest you cleverly play the game so that you can get rid of her asap. Maybe take your Dh with you to the next appointment, she won't like it that's there's a witness.

@RosesAndHellebores, I wasn't shouting, Darling...and no I meant what I put...'little ones', not patronising at all, not in my nature so your obviously one of those people that like to troll boards, unfortunately not wanting to be educated yourself. Their information should always be backed up by NHS evidence in the policies and procedures within their NHS hospital trust information but, I'm not sure to trust what you say as you've already twisted my words. You'll come back with more now and it's not about us, rather OP getting advice and support so let's leave it at that.

@munchies30 oh dear, you are still shouting. Please tell me where I have twisted your words. Please tell me why you have accused me of trolling. Please explain why you think I don't want to be educated myself. That stems from a belief that I'm not educated.

I take it you are a health visitor and I recall the Head of the HV Association being quoted in The Times when my son was a baby and I kid you not "the role of the HV is to teach ignorant mothers the three C's: cooking, cleaning and communication". I must have been one of those ignorant women who didn't want or need to be educated by their HV.

So what happened with us is, slightly slow weight gain got picked up at our 8 week check with GP , nothing too concerning at this point but GP said come back for monthly weigh ins and let's keep an eye on it. I think if I remember correctly after the second month we were dropping down again and then got referred to hospital. This was June time and when I got the letter for the appointment it was September, I did find that strange as it seemed a long time and worried me that it would be an even bigger problem by then.
i actually phoned my health visitor at this point as it was stressful, however no answer, left a message and no phone back.... which was not very helpful!! So had no advice from health visitor on this, I don't think they even knew!!
we got discharged after a second appointment at the hospital in jan this year. Also hospital appointment was nothing to worry about ... basically is she doing what she is supposed to be doing for her age ... yes ... ok great let's just keep an eye on it. In jan we went back up to 50th centile so discharged. I was in the room about 2 minutes lol.
tbh once I had stopped getting so stressed about it, I realised my gut instinct was she's fine!! she's still petite now, we get some comments but I think she can't be that small as she's on 50th! I think it's her little legs 😂

I don't think the charts give the full picture of a baby's health, of course dropping down the centipede could possibly be a sign of a health issue and it's always worth being checked however as humans we are all different sizes, weights etc it's impossible for a chart to give the full picture!

I would say don't worry too much, keep an eye of course but please don't let it take over from annoying your baby.

Sorry just wanted to add, she sounds like she's doing fine, the nappies are also a great sign. We actually had more of a drop than you guys have, please don't worry too much. The weekly weigh ins probably aren't helping much anyway and actually just creating more stress!!

Some funny typos in my first post 😂

It's awful they're putting so much pressure on you. Chances are everything is fine and monitoring the situation is all that's needed. One of my children was underweight in Primary School and we had to give him an extra meal every day, add extra fat to his meals and give him two weight gain supplement drinks every day. He was weighed every three months and one time he only gained two ounces in three months. I thought the dietitian was going to cry when she weighed him but we were doing everything we could. Children just don't gain weight on a regular schedule.