Please Help! Newborn Losing Weight...

[Islas_mummy]

Ok ladies I need some help/reassurance.

My LO is 6 days old today and it is my first time Breastfeeding.

I came out of hospital too early on the Friday after I had given birth and by the time I went back into hospital at 12 noon the following day, my nipples were munched to pieces and bleeding with blisters on them (I had been doing it all wrong all day and night). So the lovely midwives got me to stay in over night and have help with feeding. So I became confident with my latch and positioning, but my nipples were in so much pain I was getting really depressed. I knew if I carried on in this pain I would just turn to formula.

So I stopped breast feeding that night (Sunday) and began pumping and feeding from a bottle. The next day my midwife came and agreed I needed to let myself heal as my nipples were really bad. And that when they were healed I could have a Breast Feeding Support Worker over every day until he was re-latched and we were both happy.

He was weighed on Monday and had lost 6.5% of his body weight. I have carried on expressing and feeding every 3 hours (getting between 2-3oz) and feeding him that, then topping up with formula if he needs it (which he rarely does). He was weighed again yesterday and had lost another 1.5oz. So not 7.7% weight loss.

I am starting to panic that my milk is not making him put on weight. They are coming again tomorrow to re-weigh him and I am so nervous. I have been feeding him religiously every 3 hours (he is like a robot, he wakes for a feed smack on every 3 hours!) And topping him up (although he very rarely takes it! He much prefers my milk).


I am not so worried about re-latching him, as yesterday and today I have just put him on a few times, whilst the Breast Feeding Support Worker is over, and he has latched beautifully. But I am really worried about his weight!!

Any stories/advise/support would be greatly appreciated. x

 

[noon_child]

Do you have a red book with the growth charts in them? If you look at that you'll see that the chart has a gap for the first two weeks of the baby's life. This is because it is perfectly normal for a baby to lose weight and not get back to birth weight till day 14.

Midwives will also be asking about bowel movements, waking patterns and alertness etc. This is because a baby who has alert periods in the day and is having bowel movements (changing from dark meconium, through green, orange and finally mustard yellow) is thriving whether or not they are putting on/losing weight.

Great sign is that your LO wakes for feeds, he's obviously not lethargic. My LO had to be forced to wake up 2hrly, kept naked, tickled etc. just to keep her awake during feeds! HV's were worried about my LO as her growth tracked below the bottom centile line. Hhowever everyone who met her said she was happy and alert and fine. At 6 weeks I was persuaded to supplement with formula by HV, and although it initially jumped her up a few ounces she STILL stayed below that centile line. I finally realised this was just who she was and stopped fretting about it. At 15 weeks old (!) she finally touched the bottom of the graph and over the years inched up the centiles. She is now a 9th centile 3yr old.

 

[leigh5tom]

My ten week old was tongue tied and therefore couldn't get my milk out effectively. He chewed my nipples off more or less and I was in so much pain! We had his tongue tie corrected at 5 days old and although he could then latch properly, he lost weight until he was 3 weeks old. I supplemented with formula too until he finally reached his birth weight and we are now ebf x x x

 

[smallhelen]

I would say: don't panic!

Our little man was born at 37+2, and was quite small. He weighed 6 lbs 7 oz. The next time he was weighed he had lost 8.6% of his birthweight, and is only slowly putting it back on. He was weighed again 2 days ago (at 3 weeks old), and is still not quite back up to where he was. But he is eating well, and we are supplementing the bf with a small amount of expressed milk, just to give him a bit of a boost. He isn't always that good at latching, so I just need to keep a close eye on what he is doing. But the health visitor isn't too concerned, so we just keep on doing what we are doing now.

So at 6 days, please don't worry. The midwife will keep an eye on everything, and I'm sure that your little one will soon put the weight back on!

 

[halullat]

My LO lost 9% of his body weight, he was born at 10lbs 3.5oz, he did develop mild jaundice but it didn't require treatment, but it is very normal for them to lose weight. I was told they don't like the weight loss to go over 10% so your LO is well within that x

 

[Rachel_C]

Here's what Dr Jack Newman has to say about % weight loss:

https://www.facebook.com/DrJackNewman/posts/162891607195227

It might not all be relevant but it's worth reading.

As long as your LO is weeing and pooing normally and is waking and feeding well, I wouldn't worry about the scales much.

 

[liz1985]

Try not to worry. Dd lost 10% body weight and had to have a little stay in hosptal. I was really worried. Get good support around you, which it sounds like you have and just keep going. It took 3 weeks for dd to get back to birth weight, and no one was particularly worried. (Apart from the beginning but thats because she wasnt weeing and pooing). Im sure now your milk will be properly in he'll soon start putting the weight back on.

 

[summer rain]

It's against their own guidelines to do this, they should only weigh on day 5 to gauge percentage of weight lost, then if it's closer to 10% maybe on day 10 just to check things are going in the right direction and on day 14 to see if birthweight has been regained yet. A lot of midwives seem to be weighing every other day from day 3 these days and there is no basis for them doing this. 1.5oz is such a small amount as well and could be accounted for by baby doing a big poo. It's not at all unusual for them to regain in fits and starts either xx

 

[BigAl]

Like pp upto 10% is normal. They should not be weighing him so often!

I had 6.5% loss and was told this was good (relatively speaking). If he is feeding frequently an plenty of wet/dirty nappies, I would ask them to wait another few days before weighing. Definitely against their own guidelines.