Babies: 0 - 3 Months
christiney06
member
if your LO was slow to get back to birth weight?
christiney06
member
Keira has still not gained any weight , in fact she dropped another ounce from our last weight check on Thurs. she was born at 7lb 7 ounces and was discharged last Monday at 6lbs 13 ounces. today she was 6lb 9 
I thought she was nursing great but apparently she isn't getting enough. she is a super lazy eater and we have to do all the tricks to keep her awake long enough to get a full feeding and even then it's hard to get her to go a full 20 min. we saw an LC on Friday and she gave us a S&S feeder (tube that goes into her mouth while nursing) to make sure she's getting at least an ounce from that on top of what she's getting from me. we used that for 80% of her feedings this weekend and that still did not make a difference. our Pedi sent us home w/a can of powdered formula and we're adding calories to the milk now. I was shocked that giving her the extra milk this weekend did nothing and i'm now starting to get worried. she's a bit jaundiced still so we had to go get bloodwork on that and he threw in some tests to check her electrolytes. they just called and said she is a bit dehydrated. they want us to feed her every 2hrs , just bottles of BM w/ the extra formula and to bring her back in tomorrow. if that doesn't do the trick than they said "we'll see what else the problem could be". I am trying really hard not to google what else could be going on that would be causing her to not gain weight. I feel like a first time mom b/c we've never had to deal w/ a baby this young on our own, PJ was still in the NICU at this age. I am fine w/ E.Pumping for now but i really hope she doesnt' take to the bottles and stop nursing all together once we (hopefully) get the all clear. anyone else have a slow gainer?? how long did it take to get back to birth weight? eta: sorry, no idea why the text is all messed up.
I thought she was nursing great but apparently she isn't getting enough. she is a super lazy eater and we have to do all the tricks to keep her awake long enough to get a full feeding and even then it's hard to get her to go a full 20 min. we saw an LC on Friday and she gave us a S&S feeder (tube that goes into her mouth while nursing) to make sure she's getting at least an ounce from that on top of what she's getting from me. we used that for 80% of her feedings this weekend and that still did not make a difference. our Pedi sent us home w/a can of powdered formula and we're adding calories to the milk now. I was shocked that giving her the extra milk this weekend did nothing and i'm now starting to get worried. she's a bit jaundiced still so we had to go get bloodwork on that and he threw in some tests to check her electrolytes. they just called and said she is a bit dehydrated. they want us to feed her every 2hrs , just bottles of BM w/ the extra formula and to bring her back in tomorrow. if that doesn't do the trick than they said "we'll see what else the problem could be". I am trying really hard not to google what else could be going on that would be causing her to not gain weight. I feel like a first time mom b/c we've never had to deal w/ a baby this young on our own, PJ was still in the NICU at this age. I am fine w/ E.Pumping for now but i really hope she doesnt' take to the bottles and stop nursing all together once we (hopefully) get the all clear. anyone else have a slow gainer?? how long did it take to get back to birth weight? eta: sorry, no idea why the text is all messed up. This discussion has been closed.
Re: if your LO was slow to get back to birth weight?
MY LO was born at 8lbs. By the time we left the hospital she was down to 7lbs 3 oz. By 3 weeks she was up to 7lbs 15 oz, and by 4 weeks she was 8lbs 4oz.
So it took about 4 weeks. We did not supplement, and just kept waking her up, changing her diaper, putting her down, to continually wake her up during breastfeeding. She was in newborn clothes until 6 weeks. She is very long, so she was slower gaining weight because it was going to her length.
She was born 19.5 inches, and by 4 weeks was 23 inches.
our daughter was like that... she was 6. 10 when she was born when we left the hospital a week later she was only 6. 2. She was a little early and a bit jaundice too. The monday after we got home from the hospital she got to where we couldn't wake her up to eat well. We ended up having to call the pedi and they told us to go to the emergency room. When we got there they did all kinds of tests and it turns out that jaundice makes them a bit sleepy, and since we werent getting her to wake up and nurse properly I wasn't making very much milk because it wasn't being stimulated properly. Since she wasn't getting much milk when she ate she wasn't pooping enough and since she wasn't pooping the biliruben out her body was reabsorbing it making her more jjaundice. I didn't even know that could happen so she had gotten dehydrated and the less she pottied the sicker she got. The hospital didn't tell me that could even happen when they released us from the nicu so I was blindsided but they just got us to supplement and
FINALLY after a month and a week she is finally back to birth weight. So make sure she is pottying properly. I hope this helps.
our LO took over 3 weeks to get back to birth weight. she was very long as well, which i think made a difference.
the first pedi we saw (actually a NP) told me I was starving her b/c at 4 days old she had gone down to 7lb 13oz from 8lb 8oz birth weight. we switched pediatricians and they said she looked great at the second one.
we ended up quitting BF for a load of other reasons but not because of that.
This was sooo my story. Took almost a month to get up to bw. Apparently LO was not stimulating my breast enough because he was a not good at sucking, and was getting pretty weak due to lack on nutrition. So... my pedi had me nurse on each side for 5-10 minutes, then supplement with either pumped milk or formula and then pump. The idea was that as LO got stronger he would be able to get my milk better and would eventually not need the bottle afterward.
His theory was correct! Within a week we were back to EBF and my LO gained a whole pound that week!
Keep up the good work and gl!
My story is similar to other posts. DD was 7 lbs 4 oz at birth, 6 lb 13 oz when we left the hospital and then she dropped all the way to 6 lb 4 oz by the time we saw a lactation consultant. She was tongue tied so we had latch issues.
We BF every 2-3 hours and supplement after each feeding. Originally we only supplemented 1 oz of either pumped or formula if I couldn't pump enough, but she was still slow in gaining (quarter ounce to half an ounce a day) We recently upped it to 2 oz supplements and she is gaining great now!
Hopefully it will work out like other posters and our babies will start nursing better on their own once they gain more weight.
Good Luck! I know it can be scary bul your LO will be gaining in no time!