Not gaining weght!

[BeachBaby3]

My 5 month old was born a healthy 3.345kg and put weight on steadily for the first 2 months. However she has now not put on any weight in the last month and weighs just 5.94kg now.

She is BF except she has FF at night just before settling ( I was advised to do this by the nurse when she first failed to put on weight) at about 8pm she then sleeps till 7am ( which she was doing before the introduction of FF ) She will take about 140mls at this time.

My GP has now told me to introduce solids to see if this helps. Bub is happy and alert and doing all she should except growing.

Is there anything I can do to boost BF volume? I'm currently trying to feed her 2hrly to see if this helps but when I expressed the other morning when she had a bottle of EBM I only got 60mls!:no: That can't be right. I don't want to give up BF yet but I also don't want to starve my baby. Help!

[Pinky McKay]

It sounds as though you are keeping your baby well monitored by health professionals which is very sensible.

Expressing to see how much milk you have isnt always a good indicator : your baby is much more effective at stripping milk; the milkj she takes may be high in fat and calories so quantity is irrelevant ( babies regulate the type of milk they need by their sucking - ie low fat foremilk if they are simply thirsty or fattier milk if they are hungry). The performance anxiety of doing a 'yield' will inhibit milk flow, so you are likely to get less than your baby would if she was sucking at the breast.

There are several things you can do to stimulate your milk supply such as more frequent feeding/ 'double' feeds ( a feed when she wakes and another after a play at the same feed time) , expressing as well as breastfeeding ( a Whittlestone expressor is the best pump for this -I can give you contact details if you email through my website), lots of skin to skin contact with your baby; but it would be wise to try and work out the reasons behind your babys slow weight gain and why it happened - are you on oral contraceptives? This affects some women's milk supply; Did you initially use a strict feeding schedule? this can inhibit the process of postbirth breast development and also cause a dwindling supply due to insufficient breast stimulation. Are you offering night feeds? OR has your baby been sleeping long periods overnight ( 8 hrs or more)? If so, try extra feeds at night - at least offer a dream feed late at night and a feed about 5 hours later until the weight gain begins again.
Is your baby sucking her fingers or a dummy ? There are no calories in a dummy so try and get all sucking at the breast.

It would be wise to have your baby's mouth, suck and latch checked by a lactation consultant - sometimes babies with an ineffective latch gain weight ok early on while there is a faster initial flowbut weight gain can slow later as supply isnt sufficiently stimulated.
As a last resort, your GP may be able to prescribe some medication to help your milk supply - check with him, rather than going straight to formula when you will soon be able to use breast and solids..

I do hope you solve this dilemma soon - best wishes
Pinky