Newborn Not Gaining Weight :( - Littleton,CO

This is just my opinion...if he is alert, happy and having normal wet and dry diapers then I wouldn't worry too much. Some kids are just slow growers. That being said, if he becomes lethargic, and does not have normal wet diapers then by all means, take him in.

I agree with the others. If he's pooping/peeing fine and nursing a LOT (which it sounds like he is) then probably you're fine. I would recommend renting a baby scale from somewhere and weighing him prior to nursing and then after nursing (without changing clothes or diaper) to see how much he's drinking. I had to do that with my daughter and keep a written log. But at least that way you'll get an idea of how much he's taking in. If he's not growing but eating enough, then the issue isn't due to lack of food.

And you calling him a huge baby made me giggle. I see that in comparison to your others he was your largest. My smallest was 7 lbs. My largest was 10 lbs 11 oz (and I'm almost 5ft 4in and weigh 117lbs post babies).

We had to watch mine really close. She lost over 10% of her body weight in our three day stay at the hospital and took 4 weeks to regain her birth weight. At the end of the day she was a lazy eater. With the help of a lactation consultant we made a plan that involved pumping 8x day. Nursing for 30 min, then pump, and give her the expressed milk in a bottle. That way she was learning to nurse and the supplementing was with my own milk. It was a struggle and now at 9 moths she's only 15 lbs. She's just a peanut, but a healthy peanut.
I should add, that during the worst of it we did supplement some formula (because her lazy eating had prevented me from establishing good milk supply). In time my milk caught up to her demand and by meticulous charting I was able to see that we were using less and less formula, but she really needed it to get past the hump.

You sound like you are a wonderful mother, and that you are doing everything right! You probably have a lot more experience than alot of us, so trust yourself! Here's my two cents, though....3-4 hour stretches at night seems a little bit long for a newborn breastfed baby that's needing to gain weight. Maybe wake him him it's been any longer than 21/2 or 3? I know-not ideal-but might help with weight gain in the short term? Also, can you make a "deal" with your doctor and just go in every 2-3 days, while watching for signs of dehydration like chapped lips, sunken fontanele and dry diapers? Might take some stress off both you and baby to not be heading to the dr so often. Best wishes to you...I'll bet he is/will be just fine!

He sounds fine... babies will lose much of their water weight quickly after birth - which is necessary since they are no longer living in an aquatic environment. Tell your Pediatrician that unless he notices other major symptoms - such as dry tenting skin, pallid skin tone, lack of muscle tone, sunken eyes, dull stare or lack of voiding - that he call it a day and let you and son get on your business of bonding, sleeping and nursing.

They are using formula fed charts anyways - which are very different. Formula makes babies fatten up more because the proteins, fats and nutrients are synthetic, souped up to the highest legal rate and foreign proteins - which makes it harder to absorb, yet all the sugar and fats in the formula make them gain weight quicker. Your baby is having the normal nutrition, which isn't covered in medical schools... and they have no clue what they are doing. Maybe you should ask if they have a more breastfeeding knowledgeable and friendly pediatrician, or search for one.

Try to relax and enjoy your newborn - sounds like nothing is wrong except he's not getting as fat as formula fed babies your Dr has dealt with... which is normal and absolutely fine! To ease your mind, get in contact with an IBCLC, not a run of the mill LC or CLC and have her check your latch and measure how much baby is consuming. I'm sure that will make you more at ease.

First RELAX. If he's throwing up some he may be lactose intolerant. So maybe you stop eating and drinking dairy. And the anxity isn't helping him he can sense it.
Both of my kids were huge babies. 8lb 3oz and 9lb 4oz they both lost about a lb before gaining again . As long as he's not loosing even more I'd say he's fine. He'll start gaining again. Also one thing I just thought of , make sure he's getting the fatty hind milk. make him empty the first breast completely before giving him the second. maybe he's not getting enough of the hind milk.
Teresa , yeah I giggled too at saying 7lb 12 is huge. I'm a little lady too, 5'4" 120lb pre baby lol.

Okay, nursing was a huge struggle for me and although you've done it successfully with two kids before him, all kids are different. When my daughter was born I went to quite a few lactation consultants b/c I was having so much trouble. Each time they would watch me and say it was great and I was doing it right, etc. Well she still wasn't gaining weight, was losing some weight and so finally we decided to weigh her before she ate and then again after she ate and that's when we figured it out...she wasn't eating! My lactation lady was stunned b/c she swore she was eating (and she's been doing this a while) but the scale don't lie! ;) So, I would give that a try. Most hospitals have some sort of breastfeeding support group or something with access to a scale or just call up a lactation nurse from your doctor's office or the hosptial where you delivered. That could be the issue, even though you're a seasoned BF veteran, you never know!

Also, I too wondered about lactose issues, that could be a problem. You might want to try eliminating that from your diet or try supplementing with a soy formula and see if he is still throwing up from it. I know it is so hard when your tiny baby isn't thriving just right, but you'll figure it out! Hang in there!

You may want to look around www.refluxrebels.com to see if the MSPI info applies to him. Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance is very different from lactose intolerance and requires all hints of milk and soy proteins to be removed from Mom's diet.

I mention it b/c it took us more than 2 months to get our now-5-month-old diagnosed. He had always had good nursing habits and more than adequate diaper output, but he was still below birth weight at 9 weeks. Because of how far it had gone, our nursing relationship was completely destroyed.

If that website rings true to you, the best person to see is a pediatric GI.

If it doesn't ring true, I'd recommend heading to bed for a nice, long nurse-in.

My daughters were born at 2 lbs 8.4 oz and 5 lbs 5 oz. Once the oldest came home and from the beginning with the youngest we couldn't go longer than 3 hours - which meant setting an alarm overnight. However if they woke up before that fed them and then reset for 3 hours. It was a very hard period and exhausting. Rereading your post, I think during the day with my 2nd I went about every 2 hours during the day with her. This went on quite awhile - she was hospitalized at 6 weeks and she was eating about every 2 hours then. and I would pump after those first few weeks to make sure I was keeping up my supply. Maybe if you pumped a little before feeding so he would get the hind milk? Good luck!

You poor thing! I had something similar to this happen and ultimately I told the docs that we needed to take it easy. I appreciate the docs and what they are doing, but sometimes in their quest for a diagnosis they forget the parents side of the world. In my opinion, you know your baby better than anyone! Trust your instincts and let your doc know that you need help staying calm and all the appointments are too much. He/she will work with you. I am willing to bet your little guy is just fine and will start picking up the pace here soon. He is just taking his time. Your anxiety could be contributing too, so just stay as calm as possible, take it easy, and talk to your docs.

Good luck!

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Ok, loosing one pound after birth is totally normal, gaining it back took around two weeks.... And weight check should be done every week.. If he's going to the doctor every day ...there's is something else maybe the jaundice is not coming down, that's the only reason they taking blood test everyday, you can help lower the jaundice; breast-feeding a lot, and putting your baby under the sun light from a window for a few minutes..also my ped. Recommended to wake her up to breastfeed every two hours at night , do not let the baby sleep more than 3 hours...I know is kind of hard for you but this is only while he's this young and gained weight is the pryority .. Don't get to stressed you say it yourself , he's healthy and alert so just relax and let the milk flow and do he's job...I know its feel horrible to take them to the blood test ( my oldest was pock for 17 days straight) and she still has the little marks on her feet.

My twins were hospitalized a month after they were born for failure to thrive. The minute they were put in the hospital I was told to breastfeed them. Anyway, what they did was take a small tube and tape it to my breast and pumped liquid formula into their mouths while they nursed. After a week they were able to go back home and as long as they kept their weight up and growing then they were fine and the visits to the doctor went back to normal. When they were born my girl was 7lb12oz and my boy was 6lb10oz and they went down to around 6lb4oz.

I'll second what lots here are saying. Get a scale for use at home. A precise one (like one you would rent) should satisfy the doc so you can call in daily weights. Save your sanity and lots of trips in the car. Will make the daily weight take 2 minutes instead of a whole morning driving to the office.

Also, if you don't have one already, start working with an IBCLC that can help in this process and monitor you and the baby with a bit of a different perspective than the doctor, and may have some ideas of some other strategies you can try.

Keep up the great work you are doing.

K.:
There's some very good advice here. I'm curious what the doc is looking for with blood tests. High bili? Something else?
A scale at home would keep you out of the doc's office (with all those other sick kids coming in!) Bosom Buddies is one of the local sources for scale rental.
There may be a couple of things you could do to maximize the amount of milk he takes at each feed, even without increasing the # of feeds per day. Definitely log everything: with 3 kids it's hard to remember exactly. You want to have at least 10 feeds a day at this point.
suep
www.bosombuddies.com

hey hope ur lil guy is gaining by now!! I hav a 9 mo old G. .She really had a slow start too. Was cause I didnt have the milk supply. I tried supplementing but finaly I switched to formula! She really took off from there! This maybe doesnt help but I always felt better hearing that im not the only one..:) God luck

Well I think you have gotten some good advice here. Anecdotally, my some was 7.14 when he was born, and never lost an ounce, and he was breastfed. I just want to note that it is possible that babies don't lose weight after birth. (So while it is very normal for it to happen, this may be why they are concerned...) I like the idea of bringing home a scale - I guess the one thing that I hear in your question that people are not addressing is that it seems you are either not sure of WHAT or WHY they are doing all these tests and poking... and have to go to the doctor ever day. Sheesh. What a pain!! So it leads me to wonder if you should either 1) Try a new doctor who builds a trust relationship with you or 2) ask more questions so that you can get totally clear on what is being tested and WHY. Just having more information will help you strategize on a solution that works better. Like having the scale is only a good solution if the weight is their only concern. Taking blood makes me think there might be something else?
The doctors really shouldn't have your whole family stressed out. They should be informing you of what is happening and suggesting strategies for moving forward.

I wish you the best of luck in dealing with this - it sounds incredibly difficult, and I wish you the best.