Any tips for fattening up baby?

[4littlebears]

Hi all,

I'm a regular poster on the J15 board. My DS is 2 weeks and some change old. He's my 4th child and I breastfed all of them past a year, and my third child until almost 2 years.

DS is struggling to gain weight like the pediatrician would like. He only gained 5 oz in a week. I know our pedi, we've been with him 6 years and he's great and we connect with him really well, but I don't want to be told to supplement. Any tips for fattening him up would be great. I'll be trying to remember to wake him and feed him every 2 hours. Anything else? Thanks!

[nursefrizz]

My pedi told me to make sure I wasn't making her switch sides too early. This way we were sure she was getting the fatty milk at the end. I am a FTM and thought I had to switch her after a certain amount of time. I have a little bit if oversupply, so a lot of the time DD only nurses one side per feeding. You could also try to find a lactation consultant in your area. I, unfortunately, didn't have good luck with the ones available at my hospital (no one ever saw me after I'd requested multiple times ) but I've chatted with one online and it was a huge help!

[melody330]

5 oz in one week seems to be low range of normal. TBH, as long as you are feeding on demand and not giving bottles without supplementing, I wouldn't stress. Here is a good chart from Kellymom :

www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/growth/weight-gain#wtgain

I would ask for a weight check in a few days, and in the meantime wake every 2 hrs during day and every 3-3.5 at night if you are worried. Breast compressions and lots of fluids. If baby still isn't gaining as you would like you could pump after each feeding 5-10 minutes to stimulate more milk. But I wouldn't start that routine just yet.

[audrey1787]

My cousin was told to pump in between feedings and offer bottles after nursing. He never took more than an ounce or two in the 2 weeks she was doing this so the only thing it really accomplished was giving her an over supply. It's the advice I've heard given to others too but rarely does it seem to help much. He suddenly went through a growth spurt and was basically constantly cluster feeding and then there were no more concerns. If it were me I would see an LC just to be sure there isn't any sort of previously undetected latching issue and give it a little more time with just nursing as often as I could before trying something else.

[4littlebears]

Thanks everyone. I'll be more aware of how long I'm letting him stay on one breast. Sometimes he takes one, sometimes he takes 2.
That article was helpful, but he definitely wasn't back up to his birthweight at 2 weeks.

[ellabee]

I also did a weighed feed with a lactation consultant. LO was like yours and wasn't gaining as fast as the pedi would have liked, so I set up an appointment with the LC. It helped me understand what a full feeding was - which was longer than I had been doing. LO would get too tired and sleepy to finish eating, so she walked me through how to gently rub her to keep her awake and engaged with eating. After that, LO started gaining faster. Good luck!

[tarheelmom]

Anything over 0.5oz per day is considered healthy gain, so >3.5oz in a week is the low end of acceptable.

DD never gained more than 5oz a week, but she consistently gained that much so her pedi was extremely happy with her growth. Supplementation was never suggested because she was gaining a healthy amount. She is now a very healthy and happy 2 year old who still likes to nurse in the evenings.

As much as you love your ped, you may want a second opinion or at least do your own research before trying to take extra measures to "fatten up" your baby. Strange advice when baby is gaining well, especially considering how young he is. If an older baby suddenly dropped to only 5oz gain after having a much higher rate of growth, then there should be cause for concern. Not for a 2 week old who is gaining a normal amount.

Also, be aware that if you were given fluids while in labor, your baby's birth weight is likely inflated. DD was about 3 weeks when she got back to birth weight (again, no concern from her doctor), but I was in labor for 18 hours after my water broke early, so there was lots of stuff getting pumped into me to get labor to progress.

[Deleted]

Yeah 5 oz is fine weight gain for a breastfed baby, esp a baby girl as girls tend to gain a little slower than boys. Normal is 1/2-1 oz a day, and you are pretty close to 1 oz a day.

It's also quite normal for baby to take longer than 2 weeks to regain birthweight. You can do the math yourself, how many oz they lost, lowest weight is usually the day your milk came in and if they gain on the low sideat 1/2 oz a day they will take a while to regain back to where they were.

So if an 8 lb baby loses 10% of birthweight = 12.8 oz of weight loss. If milk comes in on day 4 and they gain exactly 1 oz a day that's going to take baby til day 4+12.8 = 16.8 to regain birthweight. but if they are at 1/2 oz of weight gain (low range rather than highest range) they may take 4+ (2 X 12.8) to regain which is past 3 weeks of age. It's just a math problem with yours gaining 5/7 of an oz a day on average for the last week.

[rayray007]

PPs have said it all, I just wanted to second it. Sounds like you are doing fine and I wouldn't mess with it by supplementing or adding extra pumping. My little guy took more than two weeks to get back up to birthweight and his doc wasn't concerned. And he was only in the first percentile which is when docs tend to want to fatten them up. My big guy only gained fast bc we were supplementing with formula bc of a tongue tie and jaundice.

[mama2a]

I think this sounds fine. It took about 2 weeks for my DD to get back up to birthweight and then she took off from there (consistently stayed in the 15th%ile for weight during her first year of life). If your LO is 2+weeks old I would give it a little more time. What you describe sounds totally normal.

[theresat858]

Jan 26, 2015 17:20:05 GMT -5 4littlebears said:

Hi all,

I'm a regular poster on the J15 board. My DS is 2 weeks and some change old. He's my 4th child and I breastfed all of them past a year, and my third child until almost 2 years.

DS is struggling to gain weight like the pediatrician would like. He only gained 5 oz in a week. I know our pedi, we've been with him 6 years and he's great and we connect with him really well, but I don't want to be told to supplement. Any tips for fattening him up would be great. I'll be trying to remember to wake him and feed him every 2 hours. Anything else? Thanks!

Find a pedi who knows something about BF?  5 ounces per week is completely normal...