11 day old not at birth weight

[dolly1244]

Hi,

My 11 day old is not at birth weight which was 9lb2 he dropped to 8.5 and is now 8.7. Midwife advised will re weigh in a few days worried that he will not reach birthweight by then.

Had a sickness bug 2 days before delivery and had IV fluids and antibiotics - could this have caused him to be heavier?

He was very swollen when he came out and seem to go down first 2 days.

He's feed every 4 hours but I have to wake him as yesterday he went 5 hours without a feed.

Any advice welcome. Thank you

The IV fluids could have inflated his birthweight. I had a c section and a couple of people have told me that the IV fluids can inflate birthweight.

My little boy also lost a lot of weight and struggled to get back to birthweight and we had to wake him up for every single feed. In the end we were discharged from the midwife before he got back to birthweight as he had been steadily gaining and we were nearly there so they were happy.

After speaking to a few friends about our experience quite a few of their babies took a while to get back to birthweight so I think as long as your little one is gaining weight steadily try not to worry and he'll get there.

Don't stress. It can take up to two weeks (did with both of mine) without any sickness bugs. I was put under totally unnecessary pressure around this. So only worry about problems when they are here, not in advance! That's my honest advice.

Enjoy that gorgeous bundle!

As long as there's a general upward trend and it's not continuing to drop then please don't worry not every baby does it by 10 days! Just feed when the cues are there and don't let the stress of it ruin time with your new little one

I say feed when the cues are there but then read the last like properly - still wake to feed as you have been!

It can take a month, so don’t be worrying at this stage. I think for HVs there’s a cut off for reaching birth rate of 28days or similar when they start to advice countermeasures.

but don’t worry, it’s only been 11 days. That’s not unusual at all.

How are they fed? Breast or formula?

I think it’s 3 weeks that they usually allow for babies to be back to birthweight. If that doesn’t happen, the very worst that the HV will do is help you with a feeding plan or refer you to the infant feeding specialist midwife for extra support.

I’d try to feed more often if you can. I assume you’re bottle feeding? Try to do every three hours. Five is a long gap for a newborn If breastfeeding then give the baby more time sleeping on you, and perhaps let him feed in his sleep, it’ll stimulate you to produce more milk.

But ask the midwives and health visitors they’re there to help and support.

Are you bottle feeding? I would do every 3 hours during the day and 4 at night until birth weight is regained then I’d wait for them to wake themselves at night but still stick with every 3 during the day. 4-5 hours isn’t really frequently enough for a newborn that isn’t back at birthweight and in the beginning they can be really sleepy and don’t always wake frequently enough.

It took over 4 weeks for my DS to get back to his birth weight (no problems, I think he just has my husband's fast metabolism!). We were told not to leave him longer than 3 hours between feeds (we had to wake him up a few times, at 4 weeks they suggested giving him a bottle of formula (I was BF).

Honestly I was in tears after half the health visits thinking I was failing him, he's now 3 years old, full of energy perfectly healthy. They need to keep an eye in case there is a problem but if DC is filling lots of nappies and isn't dehydrated, taking a while to regain birth weight does not necessarily mean there is something wrong

Thank you everyone for your comments. He's now at 9lb and they have discharged me - only 2oz off birthweight