Is there anyway to make a breastfed baby gain weight?

[Clomid1]

Hi,

My daughter was born at 37 weeks at 2kg due to severe IUGR. Apologies for posting in the premature birth section but as premature babies will be smaller due to their gestation age I assumed this board might be the best place to post for advice.

My daughter was born on 0.1 centile. She is now 14 weeks and I have gotten her up to 2 centile (4.7kg). She is an exclusively breastfed baby. I am getting increasing pressure from my husband to add formula so that she’ll gain more weight. I am reluctant to do this because she’s happy and content baby so I don’t want to disrupt anything yet.

What ways can you make a breastfed baby gain weight? I feed every 2.5 hrs during the day and in the night she goes a stretch of 4.5 to 5 hrs and then 2.5 hrs again.

I have tried feeding even more frequently but that disrupts her sleep.

Is there a way to fatten breast milk so that there are more calories in it? What should I add to my diet.

No need! She seems happy, is gaining weight and has been upped a centile! No need to ram more food down her for the sake of it. My son was tiny when he was born as 6 weeks premature. We formula fed so it was a bit different but he grew at his own pace and now he's a tall almost 4 year old. We

Your husband needs to back off or maybe ask him why he wants the baby to grow faster?

My first fed every two hours and his growth was perfectly fine. I'm sure someone will be along soon but I don't see how you can make your breast milk more calorific. Speak to your health visitor if you are worried but baby sounds to be doing well.

The ONLY person you should speak to is a lactation consultant such as Olivia Hinge, Kathryn Stagg or Lucy Webber (other IBCLC are available!). HV no almost nothing about EBF and inappropriatly advise on centiles.

But I'd suggest you do nothing but enjoy your baby who is gaining weight slowly but surely and happy and content. Well done you!

Congratulations on your baby. You would be better to get information from your health visitor. As long as they are tracking a centile line, they are happy. Yours has gone up a couple of lines, which is amazing. Mine was born premature and on the 25th centile and dropped to 0.4 by the time they left hospital. At almost 3, they are now consistently between the 2nd and 9th centile. No one has any concerns because they are tracking a line.

You could try a top up with formula....it's what HV suggested to ne for DD many moons ago....resulted in her vomiting after every feed so I stopped after 4 feeds. She never followed the centile charts.
If you DC is feeding well & gaining weight try not to worry, all the charts are based on FF babies anyway. Your baby will.let you know if they're not happy, if they are settled & feeding well I'd say all is well.

I'm pretty sure breast milk just naturally tailors to what the baby needs, it's clever like that. So just make sure you are eating a normal balanced diet and drinking plenty of water. Sounds like your baby is gaining well if she's jumped up a centile rather than just following the birth one? Your husband can support by making sure you are well fed and rested rather than pushing for formula or big weight gains!

Sounds like you’re doing great. You’re feeding on demand and baby is gaining weight and going up the centiles. Just make sure you keep getting plenty of fluids and are eating well, she will let you know if she’s hungry. My DC were all EBF and two of them tracked their birth centiles and one of them rocketed up, but her weight gain only started accelerating from about 10 weeks. Every baby is different and sounds like yours is doing really well but if you’re worried I’d definitely recommend talking to a lactation consultant (rather than HV as I’ve found they can be hit and miss on bf).

all the charts are based on FF babies anyway.

This has come up here over and over again, and it is not true. The WHO charts used in the UK's red book are based, for obvious reasons, on healthy breastfed babies.

That said, OP's baby sounds like they are doing fine.

That sounds a good weight gain. And increased a centile. Sounds like you are doing everything right and unless medical people advise you change anything, I would not want to pressured by a partner who is not medical.

I don’t believe there is any way to make your breast milk more calorific. I asked my doctor the same thing as my daughter had to start having high calorie formula as she was not gaining weight well due to an underlying medical condition.

has any medical professional advised you she needs to gain weight faster? Is she under specialist care still? If not, I don’t think you need to worry, sounds like she is doing fine if she has actually moved up the centiles!

Sorry meant to say my little one was 36 weeks, dropped to 0.4 centile, took 5 weeks to get back to birth weight and 12 more weeks to double birth weight, now is very much on 25th percentile for weight. EBF.

Sounds like she’s doing perfectly fine and so are you!

My DD had IUGR too, born 1.6kg at 36 weeks. At 14 weeks she was 4.4kg so pretty similar and she was formula fed from the start. Shes now a healthy 4 year old on the 35th centile for weight.

Thank you all for your responses. This is my second IUGR baby but my first gained weight very quickly and was at 25 centile by 4 month (also breastfed).

I will contact both the health visitor and a lactation consultant but this thread has reassured me that I am doing the right thing.

@ForeverTired89 on a different note, did they ever find out what the reason for the IUGR was? Mine didn’t bother to test the placenta for my first and for the second they lost the sample. This is my last baby so I guess I’ll never find out.

@modgepodge this is exactly why I don’t want to introduce formula either. I have a very happy baby and don’t want to disturb that.

No all the medical professionals are really happy. We were under specialist care and they discharged her because they were happy with the weight gain (their graphs were corrected for her gestation so she had jumped up to 9th centile on that when they discharged us).

You could look at foremilk and hindmilk, but honestly if she's climbed a centile that's incredible! In my experience it's hard enough to get a breastfed baby to track the centile they were born on in those early stages, let alone go up a centile. Sounds like you're doing just fine, and your baby is thriving.

Formula is not an automatic route to a heavier weight baby anyway, yes for some people that does work. I got pushed with one of mine to use formula as they dropped a couple of centiles, only for them then to have massive issues drinking formula as well (and digestive issues through toddlerhood, although they are fine now!) It's well tolerated by most babies, but not as well adjusted to them as human milk anyway, but especially the milk of their mother, where it constantly changes to be the exact nutrient composition they need as well as all the other positive benefits.

There's no need for formula as your baby is gaining weight.

She's a small baby so her weight gain will be proportionate.

Meanwhile your baby is getting milk which is specifically designed for her.

She will catch up.

If you are concerned please speak to a medical professional who has knowledge of breastfeeding preferably a lactation specialist.

@Clomid1 They took my placenta for testing but never told me the results. But I have 2 autoimmune conditions which can produce small babies 🤷🏼‍♀️ She’s my first (and only) so I guess I’ll never know!