slow down in weight gain - should I be worried?

[maisymoo]

went to get DD weighed today for first time in a fortnight. she was putting on 8oz a week. today she has only put on 5 oz in a fortnight. she is 10 weesk tomorrow & exclusively breastfed. she seesm happy & alert & is having wet/dirty nappies.
she was treated for thrush from 2 wks until about a fortnight ago when they finally did a swab test on her & it came back negative. she still has a white tongue whereas I had no symptoms at all.
I KNOW that these charts are based on bottle fed babaies etc etc but feel that I am failing her somehow. she is till between 75/50 centile.
any thoughts?

[Samuel's mum]

Please try not to worry. I know it's easier said than done!

The basic guideline is a breastfed baby is expected to regain birthweight by the end of the second week. Then double birthweight by about 5-6 months. Triple by about a year. It's around the 3 month mark that formula-fed babies and breastfed babies part ways in terms of weight gain. By age 2 years, weight gain is again similar.

(I'm getting all this from a doctor's reference manual called 'Pocket Guide to Breastfeeding and Human Lactation')

8oz in a week is not something she would be able to keep up with forever. She is your guide - her wet nappies if she's ebf (don't go by dirty as that really starts to slow down - one poo a week is perfectly within healthy limits) and her alertness and development.

You know the stuff about the charts. Have a look at this sticky too:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63598.0

and perhaps talk to a breastfeeding helpline to get their perspective. I'll bet they'll reassure you too. They might also have some thoughts about thrush. It's usually considered sensible to treat both mother and child even if mother is symptom-free.

'

[saraswathi]

 I think most parents worry about this, especially with the first baby. My daughter was a big gainer early on, nearly a pound a week some weeks.. .. but she dropped right back, thinned out and lost that chubby baby look. She was quite lean by the time she was 7-8 months, but very healthy! It simply isn't normal for babies to gain the same amount of weight each week - think how big they would be by the time they started school. 
You may also notice over the next few weeks that your breasts stop feeling full (if they haven't already). This doesn't mean you're low on milk, it's completely normal and just means that your breasts have regulated the supply to your baby's demand - trust me, things get more comfortable after this.
Watch your baby, not the scales. Overall, is she happy and alert? Healthy looking? Wet nappies? Generally babies find a growth curve over a period of time and more or less stick to it. It's normal after only a few weigh ins that she could move into different percentiles.