Everything ok but no weight gain

[flowerdrago]

My baby 11.5 weeks old had been putting on about 25 gms per day till about 3 weeks ago. Since then, she lost weight, regained some and now is gaining slowly.

I know that the week that she lost weight is probably due to the fact that I was trying to get her to take a bottle (she refuses everything from a bottle so I hired a nurse to try to give her one bottle per day - after 7 days she was taking about 80gm (2.5oz) for that feed, clearly not enough. We also started trying to schedule her feeds better so that she would eat more at each feed - Hoping that she would be hungry enough to take the bottle...no luck). After 7 days of this, she was not taking the bottle although she had dropped from 8 to 6 feeds. As she had lost weight, I decided to stop and started feeding on demand again - we are now at 7 feeds per day.

Then she went through a growth spurt and fed like crazy, didn't put on significant amount of weight and I don't really think she has grown taller either (Although at 58cm, it is hard to be sure . She started turning onto her tummy and spends a lot of time doing this, I don't know if this is burning calories and tiring her out.

She is still on 2 poos per day (her norm) and wet nappies as usual. So I can't work out why she isn't gaining weight as quickly as before.

My regular paed is away so I wonder if it is ok to wait for a week till she is back, or should I be really worried?


Thanks for any advice,
Ro

[LucyA]

Hi Ro, it's perfectly normal for bf babies in particular to slow down significantly in the rate at which they gain weight around 3-4 months of age. Given the feeding issues you've had, and the fact that she's getting more active, and the fact her wee/poo output is the same as normal, and assuming she's alert and happy, it's probably nothing to worry about.
HTH

[Samuel's mum]

Hi
I would agree that you don't have reason to panic. It sounds as though you know yourself why her weight gain might have been affected.
What's known as a 'growth spurt' doesn't have to mean packing on the weight - it can also mean preparing for brain development or a new developmental stage which will require more muscle use. If she's become more active then that would explain why she needs more calories.
There's no way 25gms per day could be sustained as babies got older. Weight gain reallly starts to slow down as lcm describes. It's probably better anyway not to think about weight by day or even week. Move to considering it each month or 2 months as she gets older. As a breastfed baby gets older the charts become less and less relevant to assessing their overall development.

[flowerdrago]

THank you both for your responses. She is still happy and developing really well. I just worry that all this food is leading to very little weight gain (in the three weeks since her last medical check she had a net gain of about 150gms, but grew 4cm taller - so she looks much skinnier too!). All my friends with formula or mixed fed babies have nice roly-polies and they are putting on 25-30gms per day even at 3 months so it is hard not to compare. And I worry about her brain development.

Should I be trying to schedule her feeds ? I know I cannot sustain 7 feeds much longer, I am so tired. and she won't take a bottle with anything in it so I am really at wits end. (Have tried everything written in these boards, no luck).

THanks again,
Ro

[Samuel's mum]

The way breastfed babies gain weight is very different from how babies who receive formula gain weight. You REALLY can't compare - honestly. Do your medical practioners have a history of being supportive of breastfeeding? If they have, they should reassure you and talk to you about how breastfed babies gain weight differently. Your breastfed has a higher fat content than other milks available which is optimum for brain development.
As for scheduling - can you look at what she's doing now and see if you can use her current patterns to form a schedule to start with? Apologies if you've covered this in another thread but when are you currently feeding? Have you tried any cluster feeding?
Finally have you looked at the haberman bottle/feeder? It was recommended by Tracy for your situation and has made all the difference for some people.