Exclusively breastfed baby and weight gain

[MrsDuck]

My little girl was 6lb 12oz at birth and dropped to 5lb 11oz in the first few days. Since then she has continuously put on weight every week and at 13 weeks was 10lb 4oz.

She is exclusively breastfed and is a very contented happy smiling baby, she feeds every 3-4 hours and sleeps from 8pm til 6am and I'm not worried about her in the slightest however.......

She was following the 9th centile line on the graph but has dipped slightly below the line on the last 2 weigh ins (although has still increased in weight) My guess is its because she is now much more active with rolling and pushing herself around the floor with her legs etc

The health visitor and now the dr following her jabs yesterday is concerned and said if she's below the line again at the next weigh in we'll have to think about supplementing

I don't ave a problem with supply and dd feeds until that 'boob drunk' floppiness and seems very content after feeding and actually all of the time.

How has everyone else's baby's weight gain been who exclusively breastfed?

 

[mrs.ginger]

I had this issue with DD right at birth. I was told I would have to supplement. I pretty much told them to Shove off. I wasn't going to do it. Not only was it against what I wanted, but just as your saying dd was perfectly content. Another thing about supplementing is that if DD does need an increased supply, the only way for her to get that is by more BF. The more you BF the more you will produce. Supply will drop off if supplemented with formula. It's a vicious cycle really. IMO the best thing to do is feed dd when she wants it and as long as she is having the proper number of wet diapers than she is doing great. She would be letting you know if she wasn't happy with her food supply haha. Just my opinion though! You must do what feels right to you.

 

[MrsDuck]

Thanks mrs ginger that's exactly what I thought. Yes she's having plenty of wet and soiled nappies, she feeds when she's hungry and she feeds for as long as she wants. Surely she'd be unhappy/crying if she wanted more or wasn't happy? xx

 

[emmancee]

My DS was 7lb 13oz when born so just above the 50th percentile. He then followed the 50th line until 8 weeks old when he started dropping down the lines (although he never actually lost any weight just didn't put on a lot) he is now following the 9th percentile line at almost 6 months old.
The health visitors I have seen haven't been concerned about this and said it is probably due to him being a very active baby as he started rolling early and is almost crawling already at 5 months old.He also started sleeping through the night from about 2 months so maybe another reason for the small weight gain. I have probably been more worried about it than the health visitors and they have never suggested to supplement. I used to get quite concerned about the fact he had gone from above the 50th at birth to the 9th percentile but as the health visitors have not shown any concern (I have been taking him every 2 weeks to be weighed) then I have just stopped worrying now! I think sometimes breastfed babies are slower to gain weight aswell.

 

[Larkspur]

My son (EBF to six months) started on the 50th percentile for weight and 90th for length, then gained up to the 90th within the first four weeks and stayed there until he started crawling at eight months. Since then he has gone back to around the 50th for weight and stayed 90th for length.

My daughter started on the 95th for length and weight, has dropped to around the 70th for weight and stayed same for length. The doctor seemed very happy with her proportions at her 10-week check.

 

[MrsDuck]

Larkspur that sounds fantastic weight gain.

Emmancee my dd is the same, she's never still, arms and legs going, pushing herself around the floor/cot, she can't wait to be on the move and she's only 3 months.

I've tried feeding her every 2 hours yesterday and so far today but it's like force feeding, she really doesn't want it and is only having a short feed probably only the fore milk so it's counter productive. Every 3-4 hours suits her, she has a long feed and is full to the brim and very contented. I suppose they can't force me to supplement. If she was losing weight or wasn't gaining weight then that's a different story but she's not, she's just not gaining as quickly as the chart says she should.

It's interesting to hear all your experiences with exclusively breast feeding and how quickly your LO's gain weight, thanks for posting

 

[Sarah lo]

My LO is the same age and has done exactly the same thing. Started out on 25th percentile, gained loads of weight week on week and then 3 or 4 weeks ago started slowing down and is now closer to the 9th percentile line. My HV wasn't worried about it.

I'm sure I read somewhere that breastfed babies usually do follow this pattern of fast weight gain initially followed by slowing down, whereas FF babies do the opposite. And I think the percentile lines are based on FF babies (someone correct me if I'm wrong as I can't remember where I heard that!)

 

[Larkspur]

And I think the percentile lines are based on FF babies (someone correct me if I'm wrong as I can't remember where I heard that!)

I don't know that it is true, but even if it is just based on population averages, that will skew the numbers heavily in favour of FF babies.

 

[FarmMom]

I'm sure I read somewhere that breastfed babies usually do follow this pattern of fast weight gain initially followed by slowing down, whereas FF babies do the opposite. And I think the percentile lines are based on FF babies (someone correct me if I'm wrong as I can't remember where I heard that!)

I have read this in numerous places. My daughter was almost 9 lbs at birth, 10 lbs at 2 weeks, and still 90th percentile for weight at 2 months. At 14 weeks, shes a little over 14 lbs, which appears to be 75th percentile. She eats til she spits up half the time and has tons of wet diapers, so i know she eats enough. I'm curious to see what her pedi says at 4 months, but I won't be supplementing no matter what.

 

[Ganton]

My DS1 was born around the 91st centile and followed it perfectly to about 10 weeks, then started dropping through the charts (never lost weight but didn't always gain much) until he got just below the 25th by about 5 months. I was worried about it but it was never suggested that I supplement it wean early, just continue to feed on demand. He's now a very active 2 year old and is still around the 25th centile.

DS2 was born between the 91st and 98th, and now weighs nearly 19lb at 5 months, so is still around the 91st. He is also just above the 91st for length. Both were/are exclusively breastfed and I haven't done anything differently. I just think they are different babies. DS1 takes after me in that he isn't particularly tall and his weight therefore needed to drop down to keep him in proportion. I think DS2 will be much taller like my husband and his weight is in line with that. As long as the baby is being fed when hungry and seems content afterwards, I don't think it's right that they should be forced to take more food.

 

[MrsDuck]

It seems to be quite common by the sounds of it for the weight increase to slow down, glad my little girl isn't alone. My hubby eats like a horse but doesn't put any weight on, if anything he's underweight so I guess she just follows him.

Unless she doesn't increase or loses weight I'm going to refuse to supplement, I just wish she would have a nice big increase to take the pressure off us :/

 

[minties]

Sophie gained weight well at first, but had a definite lull between 3-7 months. She went from the 85th to just below the 50th centile for weight. She quickly went back up, to about the 75th, by her 11 month check.

I think it sounds like you are doing a fantastic job. Milk drunk means baby is getting good feeds I reckon!

Sophie's nurse tried to tell me she needed solids, I just kept on breastfeeding and doing what I knew was right.