newborn weight gain.

[liz1985]

My lo lost 10% of her birth weight by day 3 and spent a night in hospital been monitered as she wasnt weeing. She had formula in hospital but since then she has been ebf again. Her weight gain is so slow, she was static on one weigh in and this time only gained just under an once. So because of the static weight she's only gained just under an ounce in a week.

She's getting weighed again on Wednesday and im worried she wont have gained much again.

What have your newborns lost and gained?

 

[summer rain]

Judging by another post your LO will be two weeks on Tuesday? They allow them two weeks to regain any birthweight lost and really they should only be weighing on day 5 (although in your case there were reasons to weigh on day 3), day 10 to make sure things are going in the right direction, and day 14 or 15 to make sure birthweight has been regained. Any extra weigh ins than this can be misleading. If you have the right amount of wet and pooey nappies I wouldn't worry too much. My youngest was weighed on day 5 and had only lost 5% of his weight, however he then gained not a bit between day 5 and 10 and may have even lost a bit more as my home baby scale can be up to 2oz more than the scale at the local clinic. However he had plenty of wet and dirty nappies and he was born with quite severe water retention, they aren't sure why which may have artificially inflated his birthweight and the weight on day 5. Due to a colossal mix up he wasn't officially weighed again until he was a month old but my home baby scale showed he started gaining again on day 11 and by day 15-16 he had regained the 7oz he had lost. He then gained bang on 7oz a week from then on until he got poorly at about 4.5 months, lost 4oz and gained a bit more slowly for a few weeks, then started gaining 5-9oz a week, the past two months he gained 1-2lb a month when the average for his age, 7.5 months is half to one pound a month. If weight gain hasn't improved on Wednesday I would look into the possibility of a tongue tie or other problem with milk transfer. Good luck!

 

[liz1985]

Thank you. Yes she is 2 weeks 2morrow. They were weighing every 2 days, now its every 3. There is no way she will be back to birth weight by wednesday. She was still at a 5% loss yesterday. Im pretty sure she doesnt have a tongue tie, this has been checked. Her latch wasnt great to start but now its great and she appears to feed really well. My mil says I need to change what I eat to make my milk more nutritional and higher in caleries? Could this be true or is it just mil speaking nonsense? I do eat a healthy diet.

 

[melfy77]

I've been in your position twice. Both my daughters lost 10%.

DD1 was 6lbs 2oz and was still losing after 2 weeks, so I ended up doing combi-feeding (she never nursed for more than 3-4 minutes so couldn't get the ''fat'' milk)

DD2 was 6lbs 14oz and started to gain an average of 40g/day as soon as my milk came in (I gave 1-2oz of formula/day for 2 days as we were worried about jaundice). She is now getting breastmilk only.

So it could really go either way, but keep in mind that giving formula DOEST NOT mean you have to give up breastfeeding!! She is gaining, even if it takes a longer time to regain her birthweight, it's ok if your LO is doing well

 

[summer rain]

Your MIL is talking nonsense, genuine low milk quality is extremely rare and usually associated with thyroid conditions. It does sound as though things are going in the right direction and it does take some babies that bit longer to regain weight lost, my eldest took 3-4 weeks to regain his birthweight and then only gained 4-5oz a week after that, even with the odd formula top up. We now know he had reflux and tongue tie though xx