Slow weight gain

JulieSmiles · October 2014

My LO has had very slow weight gain since she was born. She has reflux and spits up a ton which is impacting her gain. She has fallen off her growth curve so the doctors are getting more worried. We added in extra ounces for her to eat each day, but it seems like she still isn't gaining well. Has anyone else been through this with their LO? Any suggestions?

**Extra info: I bf, but with the increase in ounces the doctor wants LO fed each day, I may not be able to keep up. I pump 4 times a day while at work.

JulieSmiles · October 2014

She was at the 75th to start, but fell to the 50th really quick. I took her in for a weighed feeding last week and they said she had fallen off her curve. She was still at the 50th just after 2 months. She just turned 4 months. She is on Prevacid for reflux, but this is our third med. It seems to be helping. We discussed adding cereal to the bottle, but haven't tried it yet because she has been sick.

steprozz · October 2014

when B was going through his FTT and trying to catch his weight back up, we increased his caloric intake rather than feeding him more ounces because with the reflux and spitting up, feeding him more ounces wasn't helping because it was all coming back up anyways. so we fortified his BM and then I couldn't keep up pumping so we did fortified formula. so between adding cereal to the bottle to help keep it down and also add calories, and fortifying his milk, he caught back up fairly quickly- it was about 2.5 months and he went from the 3% to in the 30s where he has stayed. may be worth discussing with your doctor.

Brittnic531 · October 2014

@juliesmiles- I'm so sorry you're struggling with this! I went through this with LO right after she was born. She was borderline Failure to Thrive. My situation was a little different in that part of the problem is that I wasn't producing enough breast milk. We started out supplementing a feeding or two a day, per our pedi, then we had to go to supplementing every feeding. When she was a month old, she was finally diagnosed with reflux. Honestly, the thing that has helped her was the thickened feeds, which was suggested to us by the pedi and I only did it as a last resort. I wouldn't have done it without his guidance. LO is on Zantac and is being followed by a GI specialist as well. I hope you get things figured out soon! It is so stressful and I still worry. I did make the decision to EFF as it was what was best for both of us.

fsumom · October 2014

I'm sorry you're going through this. My DS did lose 15 oz after he was born but now seems to be gaining well but I also only started EBF at almost 3 months old because he really wasn't efficient before then. It's really scary when you don't know what's going on.

Rei2metse · October 2014

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this. It's so disheartening and amplifies my mommy guilt when thinking about my baby being hungry and unable to gain weight. My LO was born in the 5th percentile, increased to the 10th then dropped off his growth curve by the 4 month appt. I was EBF but had to supplement once I returned to work. My guy got a bad cold which didn't help his weight gain. Good health and moving up to medium flow nipples helped my LO maintain and gain weight.

JmeJoLee83 · October 2014

My guy was at the 17th percentile weight at 2 months and now dropped to the 13th at 4 months. The Pedi says not to worry, but i had hoped his numbers increased...

coffee89 · October 2014

FF here and losing percentiles quickly. We went from 60th to 15 between 1 and 3 month appointments. He cant take more than 4 ounces at a feed and his reflux has had nearly half of what he eats come back up at our worst. Also he wasn't properly digesting a few of the. I am stressing over everything that goes in and comes out just to try to know if he is on track. It is a scary place to be.

jclester614 · October 2014

Thanks for posting this, and I'm sorry all you mamas are dealing with this! There's nothing more we want than to see our LOs thrive.

I have a weight re-check scheduled today, I've been concerned he hasn't gained much since we went to EBF. He was getting 2/3 formula and 1/3 BM about 3-4 weeks ago, and he seems slimmer now, but his spitting up has improved since getting off formula. Go figure. He was in 30th percentile for weight before, hoping he's around the same now!

Update: He's down about 8-ish oz since our last visit, so they want to see him tomorrow. Booooooo! I'm sure they will tell me to supplement with formula. : /

Lara0802 · October 2014

I'm in the same boat. My little guy was born at 6 lbs 12 oz and dropped 10 oz. He didn't get back to birth weight until 3 weeks old. He's been a SLOW gainer since. He was 8 lbs at 2 months, 8 lbs 13 oz at 3 months, and at 4 months he jumped up to 10 lbs 11 oz. BUT, he's still under the 1% for weight.

At 3 months, the pedi asked me to introduce some formula. She wanted 3 bottles a day (half) to be formula, but I only did one bottle instead.

Since he's still small, she wants more formula. She doesn't believe my milk is high calorie enough. But honestly, I'm not worried about it. My guy sleeps through the night and is content after feedings. He's growing. He's happy, his coloring is good and he's hitting all his other milestones. Some babies are just meant to be small. They can't all be in the 50% or higher.

If your baby isn't growing height wise, or hitting other milestones, I'd be concerned. Otherwise, just make sure they are happy.

jclester614 · October 2014

At our appointment this morning, they said to give him 1-2 oz of formula after each feeding, see how much he'll take (let LO lead this supplementing). My supply really isn't there for him, as I'd feared. Ugh, that sucks! He's not even on the chart at 10lb 1.5 oz just barely 3mos old. : /

JulieSmiles · October 2014

smhorak said:
FF here and losing percentiles quickly. We went from 60th to 15 between 1 and 3 month appointments. He cant take more than 4 ounces at a feed and his reflux has had nearly half of what he eats come back up at our worst. Also he wasn't properly digesting a few of the. I am stressing over everything that goes in and comes out just to try to know if he is on track. It is a scary place to be.

I feel like this is us exactly. We even dud a weighed feeding a few weeks ago and DD lost an ounce while at the office. We weighed her to check. Then, she lost what I would guess was the same amount a bit later. When you can only take in 4 ounces and 2 come back out, your weight gain will be slow. I just feel like I'm failing with her since the docs are so worried. She went in last Thursday because she was sick and then again Monday. She didn't gain anything those 5 days so Ihave to take her back next week. I think we may try thickened bottles.

fsumom · October 2014

@Lara0802

It drives me crazy when pediatricians pressure you to formula feed and make you feel like your milk isn't good enough. Have you considered attending a breastfeeding support group so you can do a weighed feeding? This is when you weigh, feed, weigh again. This allows you to see if your DS is transferring enough milk. This was my DS's issue in the beginning and my pediatrician also had me supplement with formula which I did for approximately a week and then I started pumping 6-8 times a day until he was almost 3 months old. He finally got the hang of breastfeeding so I no longer pump.

mareeab · October 2014

What about the 22k preemie formula. Has a higher calorie content (in case you couldn't tell by the name). DD was small because of IUGR and came out at 4lbs 15 oz. In order to increase her weight we used this with a mix of pumped breast milk. I also fed her on the B every 1-2 hours. We were able to get her up to 10.5 lbs a little past the 2 month mark. I know that feeding your LO every 1-2 is not and option for you but maybe the higher calorie formula will help you out with supplementing.

jclester614 · October 2014

So..day 2 of supplementing with formula, and he screams at my breast now and doesn't want to do the work to suck, preferring the easy bottle flow.

Any suggestions? I don't respond to the pump well, so I can't really pump the extra ounces he needs. I am afraid he won't be signaling my body to produce more if he refuses the breast!

Brittnic531 · October 2014

jclester614 said:

So..day 2 of supplementing with formula, and he screams at my breast now and doesn't want to do the work to suck, preferring the easy bottle flow. Any suggestions? I don't respond to the pump well, so I can't really pump the extra ounces he needs. I am afraid he won't be signaling my body to produce more if he refuses the breast!

Have you tried doing a SNS? I did at the beginning to try to get my breasts to produce more milk as well as making sure LO got what she needed. I got all of the stuff I needed through a LC but if you don't have access to one, then I believe you can buy some online. Not sure if that would work for you but wanted to throw it out there!

jclester614 · October 2014

I was thinking it may be helpful. I saw the link in another post - I will probably see the LC this week and ask her about it. Thanks for the suggestion @Brittnic531‌

Brittnic531 · October 2014

Good Luck @jclester614!

Want a personalized experience?

Slow weight gain

Re: Slow weight gain

Choose Another Board

Search Boards