Weight loss again. Questions for the combi feeders!

[kit10grl]

Sooo.

Our paed appointment was today after LO's lack of weight gain and weight loss. As I posted last week, after a week of two hourly feeding LO gained four ounces. But after a second week of two hourly feeding LO has LOST three ounces.

The paedatrician examined him and said he has no worries about his general health but has taken blood to test and see if he is hypothyroid (I have this, he was tested at birth but they want to double check). He has said he will phone me when the results come in.

He has said its possible that LO might just not be getting enough calories. He also said he understands that its practically the opposite of what i've been told but that it might be in LO's best interests to either wean early or to give some formula. He said me and DH should have a talk about it and see how we feel about both options.

I havent decided yet but was wondering, for those of you who combi feed,

how many bottles do you give and how often?

did it harm your supply or were you able to continue bfing well at other times.?

what times of the day do you give your formula?

Is it better to give top ups after a feed or replace a whole feed with formula?

thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Ew68j5]

I don't know the answers from personal experience but I have a friend who struggled with her supply and now combo feeds. They give formula at bedtime and often one other bottle in the afternoon. I think as long as you are consistent your supply should adapt. Good luck whatever you decide and well done, your LO has had such great benefits with bf regardless of what the scales say!

 

[BattyNora]

WSS

We did for a week at 6 weeks when I couldn't cope with it and gave two bottles - one at 10am (so I could nap!) and one at 5pm (so I could actually cook dinner!). As long as you are consistent as to which feed to give formula your body will respond - exactly as it would if your LO dropped a feed naturally. Also, it took a few days but we cut those out and my body began producing more again when we needed it!

 

[BlackBerry25]

I'm kinda in the same boat.

I have EBF Elliot and now he's not gaining well

I tried to give him a bottle of breast milk though yesterday, and he won't suck it. I don't know what to do.

 

[cat lover]

I feel your pain. My LO lost weight and I was told to top up. In hindsight I now know that your supply can be increased and regret it to some extent, even know I don't trust my breasts to feed my LO properly and this is due to having been undermined by a bitch MW in the early days - lots of ladies on here can help you with advice on continuing Midori, Summer Rain and Patch to name but a few, if that is your preferred route.

However if you do choose to combi feed, it can be done without harming your supply if you are VERY determined to carry on BFing.

how many bottles do you give and how often? - 2 a day now - it was 3 but I have cut back. The 2pm feed is a bottle, then I give a small 3 ounce one late evening (LO is 6months)

did it harm your supply or were you able to continue bfing well at other times.? I don't know, to be truthful, but I still seem to have plenty of BM - if you keep on BFing a lot you should be OK.

what times of the day do you give your formula? Answered in first question

Is it better to give top ups after a feed or replace a whole feed with formula? I would replace the whole feed. If you top up you are more likely to have supply issues as your body will think that LO doesn't need as much.I would give the formula at the same times each day so your breasts get to know which feeds to produce milk for

It might be worth pumping to keep up your supply if you wish - I have never been able to pump more than in ounce in 2 hours so gave up torturing myself with this one long ago.

Good luck hon, I know how upsetting this is as I have been in a similar boat. Whatever you choose, you have done great and its clear to all that you want what is best for LO

 

[puddycats]

i combi feed as my lo always seems hungry even after bein on the breast for over a hour, i tend to give him a bottle at night time when he wakes up during the night he has breast and sometimes in the morning he will have a bottle, if i know im going out and going to be out a while he has a bottle as he settles for longer, im unable to bf out in public due the only poisition lo will breastfeed in.

 

[summer rain]

i combi feed as my lo always seems hungry even after bein on the breast for over a hour, i tend to give him a bottle at night time when he wakes up during the night he has breast and sometimes in the morning he will have a bottle, if i know im going out and going to be out a while he has a bottle as he settles for longer, im unable to bf out in public due the only poisition lo will breastfeed in.

Its totally normal for babies to feed constantly and still seem hungry after an hour in the early days; if you combi feed at this time your milk supply will never be optimal and very often the formula takes over! It sounds like you have been given really awful advice as to what is normal for a newborn baby xx

 

[summer rain]

Kit10grl is there any possibility of getting your baby tested for underlying allergies as well? I know the NHS is loathe to do this in babies but privately, its a possibility. Also there is a difference of opinion as to which is better if a baby's weight stalls at the 4 month mark; while I normally think later weaning is better and formula does have more calories than most weaning foods; baby rice while not exactly great is quite 'inert' and some BF experts such as Dr Jack Newman prefer the idea of early solids vs. formula if thats what it comes down to xx

 

[kit10grl]

Mostly i want to put off weaning as i really wanted to BLW.

The paed looked at me like i was some crazy stupid new mum when i mentioned thee allergy thing. I actually missed his call but ......

the blood tests came back normal. So thats a huge relief.

The message said to talk through options with the HV at his injection appointment today but when we got there she was sck and the nurse didnt really want to give advice. Im supposed to phone her tomorrow but imnot sure i want too.

Is it bad i just want to ignore them and keep doing what im doing. I want whats best for LO but like being able to say hes exclusively breastfed. Am i just being selfish?

 

[summer rain]

No you're not being selfish, as the specialist said its only a possibility that your baby not getting enough calories is the cause, usually in my experience if paediatricians are so sure that x is causing y, they will let you know of this and be very pushy about it. Unfortunately some paediatricians have no clue that allergies are possible through mums milk, when it is not only possible but quite common and sometimes weight gain issues can be caused by this; but it is often only discovered when formula has been introduced or even completely switched to-that the weight gain is still not satisfactory. I understand how difficult and expensive getting private allergy testing is though, we were extremely fortunate with my second eldest that the paediatrician was Spanish and thus didn't care much for NHS protocol. He did warn us there were a lot of vague results with the tests but when they came back the results for eggs and milk were off the scale and there was no chance of them being a false positive. I'm not a doctor and this is just what I would do myself-but if your baby is still happy, alert, having the right number of wet and pooey nappies etc I would just keep doing what you're doing; keep feeding more frequently as you were doing and see what happens in a month-if weight is still static or down by then your baby will be five months and so there really would be no harm in introducing some solids xx

 

[patch2006uk]

Not to go against medical advice, but it's only 3oz. Maybe LO was weighed after a feed last time and before one this time. Or last time LO was due a poo and this time had an empty bowel. I'd stick to EBF for a little while longer, feeding as often as you physically can, maybe add in an extra night feed too, and then see where that gets you.

Obviously a loss is worrying, but have you felt the weight of 3oz?

 

[kit10grl]

Sometimes i wish i had just said no when they asked if i wanted him weighed. Nobody looking at him is worried about him its just the figures that are worrying.

 

[summer rain]

thats the thing; if your baby looked as though they lost weight it would be different wouldn't it? We went through quite similar at around the same age; in our case while I think my son's CMPI and other food intolerances may have been a factor the main issue was he was growing above average in length going from the 50th centile in height to the 98th in a short space of time, and extremely active, so he must have been burning off a lot of calories to do those both-I have my own scale so did some test weighings before and after a feed, and he was taking anything between 2.5oz for a short 2 minute feed to 5oz for a proper 15 minute+ feed but when I'd weigh him later on in the day it was like he'd taken in nothing as those extra oz would be gone again, it did reassure me though that he was getting enough just he was burning it off with his bouncy chair sessions, attempts at rolling etc, a few weeks later he gained 12oz in a week then his weight stayed static for ages until between 7 and 10 months he started gaining 3-4oz a week again (at that age on the chart the expected weekly gain is around 1.75oz a week) xx