Slow weight gain

[UkCath]

Holly has only gained .2 kg in 2 weeks. I was pretty shocked because she seems well and every thing seemed to be going okay.

She is getting weighed again next week. In the mean time I have been sticking her on my boob every minute she will go on. I know thats not the answer though because I used to pop her on all the time and she used to nod off quickly and id let her off. This led to green nappies and HV said it could lead to an upset tummy.

Since then unless she has seemed realy hungry i have not been feeding more then every two hours and squeezing my boob when she starts to nod off to make sure she stays on at least half an hour on the fiirst boob then making sure she is awake to.offer the second boob
I really thought this was goig well.

Any advice on how I can get her to eat more? If her weight gain remains low I am keen to avoid formula topups.

 

[kelly29]

babe it is going well weight gain is better than none at all i would feed as much as poss as well i'm not sure if that's true about too much feeding gives them green pooh i think that's more to do with maybe not getting enough hind milk. don't let the hv put you off hun your doing fab just keep doing what your doing and maybe see if you can get you lo to stay on one boob for longer and then switch sides or if the feed is soon after the one youv'e just done and that feed was short then use the same breast again i'm not into weighing and all of that really as it just freaks me out but weight goes up sometimes it stays the same and sometimes nothing ,so i wouldn't worry too much. you will be able to tell if your lo is happy growing that all is well babe someone here will be able to help more with the weight side of things but i think your doing just fine xx

 

[UkCath]

Thanks. I think the HV was saying that because I was feeding little and often she wasnt getting to the hind milk so i should be aiming for longer more spaced out feeds... She drops off to sleep very quickly when she feeds but the squeeze does seem to help.

 

[AmeliePoulain]

I sympethise with panics about weight, I went through a good couple of months being completely obsessed with Ivy's weight gain.

First of all I would maybe wait another 2 weeks at least to get her weighed again, they really really do gain in fits and starts at this age. It does say in the red book to only get them weighed once a month, I will put my hands up and admit I don't stick to that though

With my little girl she is a snack-a-holic, she would only feed for 5/10 minutes at most but fairly frequently. I used to make sure to stick her back on the same boob a few times to make sure she wasnt just getting fore milk. It is one thing the HV saying that you need to space out the feeds and aim for longer feeds but some babies just won't let you do that!

The other thing is that some babies just don't gain weight as rapidly as others, this is what I have eventually come to accept, at your daughter's age Ivy was gaining 4.5 oz a week most weeks, this has now jumped up to 6oz a week

 

[kelly29]

it will all settle down soon hun maddies always been a freq feeder and was always pretty quick, sometimes a feed would be 5 mins sometimes 30 mins she always wanted more a short while after, those early weeks she was pretty much glued to the boobs!! but i think as they get older they can do it even faster maddie does the best thing i was told was that not only are you lo's breaky , lunch and dinner you also the snacks and drinks in between! x

 

[summer rain]

I agree with the other posters; its now only recommended as per the WHO and UK NHS to weigh them at 5-7 days, 14 days, 1, 2, 3 and 4 months and then not again until 1 year. I know its hard to avoid weighing them more often; I bought myself a scale as two of my children had severe weight gain problems due to allergies, they both suddenly went from gaining over 1lb a week most weeks to less than 2oz a week. It was becoming a bit of an obsession though so now I only weigh him every 6 weeks or so. For the first 12 weeks approx, he gained 10-12oz consistently every single week (so 300-350g approx) but since 16 weeks he has even lost weight on one occasion and on another occasion didn't gain any weight for two weeks but when you take it all into consideration and do the maths, he is gaining 4oz a week overall which is bang on average for his age. I'd also ask for your LOs length to be taken and possibly head circumference as well; often babies are growing in length and this uses up energy that would normally be used to put a few oz on. The time my LO lost weight he grew 3 inches in a very short period of time xx