Breastfeeding support

[Als99x]

My 7 week old baby boy has been gaining weight slowly and although we have been getting plenty of wet and dirty nappies he has now dropped two percentiles.
He was 8lb 10 when born and now only weighs 9lb 11oz even though I am breastfeeding every 2-3 hours. He had a tongue tie release at 2 weeks and since then the feeding had been going well (so I thought!)
I have recently been expressing and topping him up but he doesn’t seem to fussed…
Im now worried he isn’t getting enough from me and putting alot of stress and worry on myself 😩 does anyone have any advice or tips on what I can try?!! Or anyone who has had a similar situation?
thanks x

Congratulations and on your baby.

TBH this is the sort of thing that needs a professional to support with. You can ring the NCT infant feeding line and speak to a trained professional. They can find out why he might not be gaining weight as expected.

tel:0300 330 0700 0300 330 0700

It would be worth finding some in person support as well. You can search for La leche league, ABM and NCT breastfeeding support groups. There someone can watch you feed and see if there are any clues there.

Dropping 2 percentiles is something to be looked into but there could be so many reasons why. It’s really important to speak to someone.

I hope you can get some support today. 🩷

Thanks.

our Health Visitor has suggested we see the GP so we have an appointment coming up with them but was just hoping someone might have also gone through this and just to hear from another perspective really.

thanks for your comment x

Sorry not to be more help, but it’s the sort of thing that needs a more in depth conversation.

id suggest speaking to the breastfeeding line before the GP. GPs are amazing but very few have ANY lactation training (it’s not mandatory on most medical degrees!)

I'd see a lactation consultant if you can afford it. I did and it was a life saver. Given the tongue tie, I'd want someone knowledgeable to have a look at the feed. You are making enough milk if you are feeding on demand, you don't just dry up, unless there is a feeding issue, like the tongue tie.

I'm afraid if the GP isn't one who has a special interest in infant feeding, he will just say to give formula, which isn't the most helpful.

My 5th baby was also born with tongue tie, and it was such a difficult journey with worrying about how to get them to eat well. I ended up topping her feeds with formula because I was so worried and she was not responding like she had enough to eat (really fussy and wanted feeding every hour/two). Eventually I stopped topping up (after about 4 weeks post tongue-tie surgery, it was a very slow process to get my milk to catch up), and she seemed to latch much better after that and be able to feed easier once the muscles in the mouth were stronger.

I think it is early days post surgery and she is getting used to feeding with the right muscles and it might take a while to put weight on.

Definitely worth speaking to the doctor though as suggested. I am quite surprised that the health visitor didn’t offer more help (at least forward you to a specialist), they are generally really good (sometimes even better than the doctors).

I have a 4yo DS who I fed for 9 months and a 6 month old DD I’m currently feeding. My DS took 3 weeks to get back to birth weight and dropped from the 25th to the 2nd centile by week 12. My DD took 5 weeks to go back to birth weight but by week 12 had went from the 2nd centile to the 50th centile. Want to know what I did different? Absolutely nothing. Babies need a bit of time to find their centile. There is so many factors to how big or small a baby is born that are to do with the pregnancy and sooo many women get disheartened by a line in a red book. Weight gain (even slow), plenty of wet nappies and a content baby after feeding are the main signs your baby is getting enough. Give it a few more weeks and everything will settle. You’re doing amazing!

You can phone, instagram or FB message the National Breastfeeding Helpline any time day or night 😊

.

Please be kind to yourself. I had difficulty with weight gain for both my babies and had awful anxiety about it. My DD i topped up with formula and got so stressed by weigh ins. I know others have said about getting real life support. Very good idea, but I would caution, find someone you trust and stick with just that one source. I got advice from lots of different people, which was frequently contradictory. The paediatrician in A&E told me to top up, the breastfeeding supporter said absolutely don't use a bottle, HV said pump every 2 hours to top up, the lactation consultant said tongue tie, the tongue tie practitioner said something different. I was a minefield and meant I never felt confident I was doing the best for my child. As a result, I decided to refuse weigh ins for my son after he regained birth weight. To be honest, that led to different problems after I finally weighed him at 4 months and found he'd dropped 25th to 2nd centile. The advice I would most give you is to try your very best to remember that feeding is only one tiny aspect of being a mum, and, used judiciously, no decision is going to be right or wrong. If you're watching nappies, no signs of dehydration and baby is happy enough, you can crack on with breastfeeding. Alternatively, giving some small top ups of formula and then gently cutting them down is highly unlikely to end your breastfeeding experience and really won't do your baby any disservice, despite what you might hear about the negatives of formula. Please be careful about pumping routines - they left me so utterly exhausted I had no resilience to manage the anxiety.