1st timer here with small baby

[jlw617]

Hi there, so this isn't my first baby but it's my first that I've been able to exclusively breastfeed with anyhow I have a few concerns and I'm hoping some of you seasoned mamas can help especially if any of you have had smaller babies...

My baby was 6lbs 14 oz at birth, he got down to 6 lbs 4oz when we left the hospital, at his one week appointment he was 6 lbs 3 oz but then he actually lost more weight and got down to 6 even, I decided on my own to give him an extra 3 oz of formula a day until I spoke with some friends and they said I didn't need to so after just 2 days of supplementing, I went back to exclusively breast feeding, today he is 3 weeks old and though he is finally starting to gain weight, it is very slow, he is still only 6lbs 7 oz but that's up from dropping down to 6 lbs...should I be worried, should I start supplementing? One of my friends said "technically he's a preemie so he's not going to put on weight as quickly as a full term baby" he was born at exactly 37 weeks.

 

[klsltsp]

Congrats on your baby!

I think as long as they are gaining it's fine. I was going through the same thing, my baby was born at 37+1, she was 8 lbs 12 oz 1 week after she was down to 7 lbs 13 oz.. so almost a full pound. The doctor had us in to have her weighed a few times, her weights are below. He said they like them to gain 30 grams per day or 1 oz. I asked if I should be supplementing to get her to gain faster, and he said not if my milk was in no since supplementing would impact my milk. He said that I needed to feed her every 3 hours... which has been hard since she's a really sleepy baby and waking her is not intuitive! Once we got up to gaining at least 1 oz per day, he said I could stop waking her at night.. he said to still try and feed her every 3 hrs during the day, but that I could let her sleep longer at night... but he said to try and not go over 4 hrs...

Good luck! HOpe this helps.

37+1 - 8 lbs 12 oz
5 days old - 7 lbs 13 oz
1 week old - 8 lbs 1 oz
2 weeks old - 8lbs 10 oz

 

[His Princess]

I had a similar problem when my little boy was born. I don't have any advice but I will share my experience.

My LO was born over 3 weeks early via EMCS due to reduced movements, restricted growth, and repeated decelerations in his heart rate. He weighed 6lb 10oz and by 3 days old, his weight had dropped to 5lb 14oz. Initially I EBF but I was so worried (because he was so small) that I started to supplement with 3oz formula per day. It took 5 weeks for him to get back to his birth weight and at that point, the mw admitted that the quality of my milk may have been affected by the stress of his delivery. At that point, my DH and I started talking about switching to formula and eventually made the switch around a week later. We did what we felt was best for our boy although I still have moments where I feel sad that I couldn't continue feeding him myself. However, he's now thriving and that's the main thing. At 4 months old, he's still relatively small (9th centile vs. 2nd centile at birth) but he's doubled his birth weight and is doing great.

 

[noon_child]

It is advised here that you wake a baby every 2hrs to feed until they are up to their birthweight! It is a pretty rough regime but it does ensure that baby is signalling often to your breasts to make milk and it also means your breasts have less time to get engorged which in turn means easier latching and higher fat milk. You should also offer both sides per feed even if LO doesn't take them. I'm not saying you have to do it but it might be worth a try if you are happy to.

It also depends whether LO is feeding effectively.
Do you have any pain?
Are your nipples damaged squashed or misshapen after feeds?
What colour is his poo and how often does he poo?
How many wet nappies do you get per 24hrs?

 

[jlw617]

It is advised here that you wake a baby every 2hrs to feed until they are up to their birthweight! It is a pretty rough regime but it does ensure that baby is signalling often to your breasts to make milk and it also means your breasts have less time to get engorged which in turn means easier latching and higher fat milk. You should also offer both sides per feed even if LO doesn't take them. I'm not saying you have to do it but it might be worth a try if you are happy to.

It also depends whether LO is feeding effectively.
Do you have any pain?
Are your nipples damaged squashed or misshapen after feeds?
What colour is his poo and how often does he poo?
How many wet nappies do you get per 24hrs?

All of these things are fine, I actually got to speak with a really great lc and she said he's doing great, but like I had suspected, my babies just grow at slower paces and I shouldn't worry because everything else says he's doing good!