Weight Gain ?

jkipp82

Just wondering what the average weight was that your preemie gained each day during their first few weeks?  Carter of course lost a bit the first couple of days, but since has gained between 1/4 ounce and 3/4 of an ounce each day.  However, in the last 24 hours he gained 2 ounces! 

I was so excited, but am not getting my hopes up that he continues to gain so much.  He is currently in the isolette - learning to eat and maintain temperature, and a nurse told us that usually around 1800grams (4lbs) they will put them in an open crib instead of the isolette.  That means he only has about 3.75 ounces to go. 

Of course, he still needs to learn to eat.  Yesterday we started "non-nutrative feeding".  He is not shy at all about latching on - but doesn't do much sucking yet (however, 2 minutes after we put him back in the isolette, he went NUTS on his pacifier!).  I don't think he will have a problem with the feeding itself - but of course getting the whole "breathe, suck, swallow" thing down may be another story. Just thankful that he is doing so amazingly well!

TriciaJoy

Robbie started off gaining about an ounce a day but then started having issues with his bowels. We had a number of NEC scares (blood in his stools specificially) which fortunately never were NEC, but every time it would happen, they'd pull all the fortifier from his breastmilk and he's stop gaining.

Weight gain ended up being our biggest challenge in the NICU. At one point he went three straight weeks w/o gaining, despite being maxed on calories.

Then he finally started gaining again and went through a period where he gained 2-3oz/day for a while, though he's just now, 14 months later, starting to catch up on the growth chart.

Congrats on the nuzzling. Robbie was a great latcher, too. And nursed well for a while. Then he had yet more stomach complications and stopped eating altogether, but those were unusual and not related to his prematurity. HOpefully your little guy gets it quickly!

lemen99

I think (hard to remember) he gained about an ounce a day average.  2 ounces in one day was very rare for us, but it happened on occasion, as well as an occasional no-gain or slight loss.  Toward the end we also had 2 weeks of no gain when they took out his NG tube, but then he started gaining slowly at maybe 1/2 oz per day and then ramped up to 2/3 oz per day after he came home.  Now he's somewhere around 1/2 oz per day I think because his reflux was acting up.

 

clyoungsey

Roughly an ounce a day.  Some days he would stall out others he would, like you said, gain 2.  Open air crib is associated with weight, but also maintaining temp, which weight definitely helps.  DS was 4lbs at birth and still spent about 2 weeks in an isolette.

wanderlust2006

Rachel gained about 1 ounces per day.