Forum home Babies Breast & bottle feeding

Whether to give up breastfeeding?

I'm seriously considering giving up breastfeeding... I don't want to but I'm concerned that lo is not thriving. Since the mix up with his birth weight he has been weighed frequently. We think his birth weight was 7lb 2oz and naturally he lost some weight in the first few days etc. However, the concern is that he is not gaining much weight. He will be 5 weeks on Monday and is only now 7lb. He has dropped from 25th to 9th now to 2nd centile. My HV is very supportive and says as long as he is gaining weight not losing it then it's ok and just a matter of time before the weight piles on. I'm not so sure... so far he is putting on at best about 1 or 2 oz a week. The HV is coming back when he is 6 weeks to weigh him again. In my mind if he hasn't had a good weight gain by then I think I will have to consider swapping to formula feeding to help him gain weight.



What do you think? How long would you give it if your lo was not really gaining weight on the breast? What's your experience of how quickly or not babies gain weight when breastfed? I want to give my lo a great start by breastfeeding but I'm not sure how much longer I can wait for this miraculous weight gain to happen!! Any advice appreaciated.

Replies

  • Hiya! Have you considered combination feeding at all? You will give your LO all the benefits of breastfeeding along with the extra calories that he will get from a FF?



    I, thankfully didnt have any problem initially with weight gain and breastfeeding however there is a lady who goes to the same breastfeeding cafe as me who used a medela breasfeeding supplementer which is somthing which uses little tubes of extra milk next to the nipple so your baby in effect is getting a double feed



    http://www.poshmums.com/breastfeeding/medela-SNS-supplemental-nursing-system.htm



    She was close to giving up when she first came to the cafe and has been making great progress since - i hope that whatever you chose you end up with a happy healthy baby who is gaining weight at a good rate xx
  • i wouldnt worry too much, like they say, so long as baby is gaining weight consistently it should be ok.



    however, instead of giving up breastfeeding, it would be worth it to speak to a breastfeeding consultant to check your latch and to make sure that baby is feeding effectively, many issues could cause baby to not be recieving as much of your milk as it could be.such as tongue tie.



    how often is baby feeding? and is he weeing/pooing plenty, 6-8 wet/dirty nappys a day, good full feeling ones.



    my little one was 8lbs 0oz born, by day 5 he was only 6lbs 13oz, which was a 17% drop due to tongue tie and associated problems. a big contruibutor was the amount of fluids i recieved in labour being passed to him, thus inflating his birth weight. he has always been right between the 9th and 25th centile, but at his 23 week weigh in, he jumped to be right ont he 25th line. i believe tht breast fed babies gain slpwer in the first 6months but 'catch up' after 6months.



    there is nothigh wrong with having a small baby, i prefer tiny babies to huge chubby ones!



    but definitely speak to the lactatin consultant to check that everything is ok
  • Thanks for your replies... just to say that we are already combination feeding. Lo has breast followed by a bottle of formula last thing at night. If I ever feel he has emptied both breasts and is still hungry I top him up with formula though this has only happened once or twice. As for latch etc I have had it checked by a midwife and also got them to check my lo does not have tongue tie.



    He is fed on demand and has plenty of wet \ dirty nappies every day so I'm really not sure where I'm going wrong? Perhaps as you say I should find a lactation consultant to speak to...
  • I think we weight babies too much, it just causes unnecessary stress if baby is producing wet and dirty nappies and is looking healthy. I say this cos I spend a long time panicking about my lo's weight because of my stupid hv. He was born on 9th centile and she said he would feed and feed and jump up the centiles. he didn't, I'm little, he's little and even now he's little.Defo speak to a lactation consultant they can be fantastic x
  • Have him checked again for tongue tie. It could be that he has posterior tongue tie, which is harder to spot.



    My dd took a while to get going with her weight gain compared to others who were ff, but once she got going she gained loads of weight. She was born at 5lb 12oz, lost more than 10% of her weight and only gained 1oz in the first week after we were discharged from the midwife. But then she started shooting up the centiles and went from 2nd (at birth) to 75th (at 8 months) and has now settled on the 50th. Of course, centiles don't say everything as some babies are never destined to be as big as the centile they are born on, whilst others are never destined to be as small as they are at birth.



    I'm with Jellytots, I think we weigh our babies too much sometimes. As long as he's having lots of wet and dirty nappies, is happy and content then he's probably ok. Would you be able to leave it a fortnight before you have him weighed again? Or is the HV coming to your house for weighing?
  • Hey my daughter lost loads of weight (12 1/2% in 2 days) we were combi feeding but it took a good couple of months to get her back to birth weight. I would say if your baby seems content and you want to continue then do so, the crucial thing is that your baby IS gaining weight. Sounds like you are doing a great job to me!! Like the others have said overweighing is an issue. BF babies have inconsistent weight gain anyway xx
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions