Help... Baby not gaining

[mrscletus]

Ladies I am really looking for help here.

My little one is 2 weeks + 4 days today and still not back to birth weight. He is nursing every 2-3 hours for about 25-40 mins each time. I offer the breast every time he shows signs of hunger. However he is only 8 lbs 2.5 oz today. Birth weight was 8 lbs 14 oz... and he was 8 lbs 5 oz yesterday. Is this cause for concern? Or am I being a crazy mommy by weighing him every day?
I have been supplementing when he acts hungry AFTER a feed, but not after every feed.
He is latching well, and I can hear swallowing, etc...
He is having about 6-8 wet diapers and 2-3 dirty/mixed each day. We were fighting jaundice at first, but his numbers are down now.
I am taking More Milk Plus and Malunggay to help with supply as well as eating ‘boobie bites’ with flaxseed, brewers yeast, oats, etc....
So I need to know what to do, do I keep doing what I am doing or start supplementing after every feed? I don’t want to starve my little one, and I am worried I am not producing enough/fatty enough milk.
Any advice would be much appreciated... sorry for rambling, I’m just really struggling here.

 

[noon_child]

Human milk is low fat anyway - the majority of the energy comes from carbs. There is no reason why you wouldn't make good enough quality milk for your baby - humans have evolved to make the food their babies need to survive.

The most common reason for baby not gaining enough is that they can't get the milk out effectively - more on this later. My first question would be: Did you have fluids during labour? - This can artificially plump babies weight up after birth, then they pee it out! Secondly - how accurate are your scales? Are they medical grade? When you are dealing with subtleties of a few ounces the scales not being accurate can make all the difference. From now on you want to be looking for approx 5oz weight gain per week. More than this is fine (as growth curves are different), but less can indicate a concern and would suggest a visit to a medical professional.

When he's still hungry despite feeding, does he outright refuse to latch on either breast? If so massaging your breast to stimulate further let down could encourage him to go back on. Or hand expressing milk will tell you body how much more he likes to drink and ensure your supply keeps up with his demand. I often had to swap my daughter back and forth numerous times to satisfy her and as breasts keep making milk there is no need to stick to just two sides per feed; if he' latch then you can keep going back and forth. I can't tell you not to use formula (as you might need it if your baby is genuinely unable to drink properly) but it is worth understanding how using formula could make producing enough milk difficult in the long run.

His nappies sound great. Are there any other indicators that he can't drink enough milk - nipple pain or damage for example?

 

[doggylover]

All the advice above sounds great. The info about fluids during labour is especially true, it really can affect their birth weight by making it falsely high.

I would suggest lots of skin to skin, to encourage both your milk supply and frequent feeding.

Even if you can hear swallowing, it may be that your baby isn't effectively getting the most milk out. If you can get someone qualified to have a look at latch to help ensure milk transfer is going well, then that may help.

 

[mrscletus]

Thank you ladies so much!! I have reached out to a CLC. He’s latch seems to be fine as I am not having nipple pain/damage. Once in a while it will be uncomfortable but I just unlatch and relatch him and we are good. He is a very tired eater though. He will suck for a good 5 mins, then gets super sleepy. I tickle his feet and under his chin.

Today I have tried feeding much more often... every 2 hours like clockwork. Not letting him go any longer.

My scale is a medical grade and I am weighing him just in a dry diaper each time.

I feel a little better now though, since I wrote this post a week ago and he is at 8.8 to 8.10 today. Obviously it varies a bit from feeding to feeding based on wet/dirty diapers.

However he hasn’t had a BM since 1:05pm yesterday. Should that concern me? Or can he go a day without?

 

[noon_child]

Glad he's starting to gain more. In general once babies are over two weeks we can stop worrying about whether they have a bowel movement every day. Once the bowel has been colonised by the right bacteria (from you and your milk) and got rid of meconium and started to function as a healthy bowel, then milk can be digested so efficiently that there is sometimes not enough left over to make a bowel movement and some parents report waiting 7 days for a poop!

HOWEVER there are exceptions to this, as it is based on feeding going well enough to properly colonise the gut and get baby to birth weight. If the poo was still darkish or green and hadn't ever been (english) mustard yellow, I would still want to see some regular bowel movements and the colour continuing to change till it reached yellow. What was your LO's like?

Also as your LO hasn't quite reached birth weight it might be something to keep a closer eye on as you are still worried about whether he is getting enough milk. As long as he is peeing that has to come from somewhere so he must be drinking, but if he doesn't poop for a few days it might be worth getting another opinion.

If you are ever worried that you think he is ill, or something is not right, go with your instincts and ignore advice on forums - we can't see your baby and we don't know your baby.

he hasn’t had a BM since 1:05pm yesterday. Should that concern me? Or can he go a day without?

 

[mrscletus]

Thanks so much for your advice ladies.

I am so thankful for the support here as well as my support IRL. My LC got back to me and we have to add a feeding or 2. He is right now getting on average about 20 oz per day... according to the birth weight, age, etc he should be getting 23.31 oz. so therefor if I add 2 feedings where he is getting at least 2 oz each we should start to see an increase in weight.

I did have fluids during labor as I had a scheduled section, so I started fluids about an hour and a half prior to the labor.
LOs poo has been yellowish/seedy for about 2 weeks now (give or take a couple days). We have our 4 week checkup with the pedi tomorrow so I will address my issues there as well. I started using a Lactation aid feeding tube instead of using a bottle for supplements. Hopefully that will help to increase my supply along with the extra feedings and we can get over this hump.