Who are these health visitors? Maybe this is a UK thing I don't understand, but can she take him to an actual pediatrician instead? She needs to get a doctor to check him out and say he's ok, and that will get her family off her back. My baby is a slow gainer, around 4 oz a week, and she's on the smaller end of the percentile range, but the important thing is that she stays on her own growth curve. Her doctor has said she's fine at every checkup.
It is a UK thing; they're the so-called 'early years experts' that everyone is directed to over here. Unfortunately, unlike the US, we don't have family paediatricians, so she'd have to go to her general practitioner, and I'm not sure how much they'd be able to help...
That's too bad. I hate healthcare workers who should know better and give such shitty advice about breastfeeding. I had a nurse's aide in the hospital tell me that my baby was crying because she was starving and that breastfeeding a baby before your milk is in is "just like giving them chewing gum, it doesn't satisfy them." So I guess colostrum doesn't exist?
yes. more demand, more supply. (generally.) oats can help, as can hops (a very hoppy beer will work) fenugreek and blessed thistle supplements can as well. also, pumping can up the supply too, it can be done during feeding, after, inbetween
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i should say the pumping should be done in addition to the regular nursing, not in place of. and she should know that what she gets out with a pump is in no way an indication of her supply, as the baby is way more efficient at getting milk out than a pump.
Oh yeah I already told her that :) The whole thing just makes me so angry though. The 'well we have to pay lipservice to breastfeeding' when in reality, the people who are supposed to help you know absolutely nothing, and their answer to everything is formula. She hasn't even been offered a lactation consultant.
we had a doctor (or an intern? i don't know.) come in to visit that was working in the mommy/baby ward of one of the local hospitals. she was all "supportive" of breastfeeding, but it turns out the minute the mom has any problem or question or doubt or anything, they just hand them formula instead of working it out. and that's THE DR telling us that. my boss and i wanted to give her a serous piece of our minds.
Could she stop taking him to be weighed? This is what my cousin did. She has two daughters, the first exclusively formula fed and the second exclusively breastfed and despite their weight gains being exactly the same she was still told to supplement.
If it were me, I'd do that. I stopped taking my daughter because I kept being told to supplement (for some reason they thought my tiny delicate girl, who's built just like her grandmother, should be gaining at the same rate as her great hulking brother...). She's really really unsure of herself though, despite this being her 3rd, and I think she's worried now because of the comments she got today (along the lines of 'we'll have to refer him to the doctor if you don't feed him formula to get his weight up).
Even the most confident of women bend to such mean pressure. A lot of mothers believe you *have* to see a HV. I bawled my eyes out after the HV left my house just after giving birth, having told me to stop tandem nursing and co sleeping, even though I had no intention to and had told her. My son hasn't seen a HV since that day.
don't blame you. Mine gave me a right bollocking about co-sleeping; made me really worry that I'd kill my newborn, even though I'd successfully co-slept for ages with my 1st. Would like to take the new research that says children should co-sleep til 5 and erm show it to her...
I have a friend whose baby is a slow gainer. She's still pretty tiny, and for the first year my poor friend suffered through every doctor telling her to feed her baby more things and supplement, etc, etc. She did forumula after nursing and started solids at, like 3 months, rice cereal, then other jarred foods by 4 months. All at the doctor's urging. I wish some people would just leave mothers of small babies alone. My son was a tiny little guy. He was born a healthy size 7 pounds, 10 ounces. And I don't know how much he grew weekly or anything, but he went from 50th percentile, to 25th percentile, to the 5th percentile, and for awhile, dropped off the charts completely. Amazingly, no one ever told me to supplement. His main doctor always said he was growing well for him, he didn't pay attention to the percentage so much as the child's growth curve and it went up, it never dipped, it just didn't go up as fast as other kids. Still, he's almost 6 and I think he MIGHT have reached 40 pounds, but two months ago he was 35 pounds
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Yeah I suggested she feed him after a weighing so she can see what he's getting. She really doesn't want to supplement at all, but I am about to lend her my copy of Jack Newman's book, which shows you how to make a lactation aid if that proves necessary. Thing is, his big brother grew in exactly the same way, and the middle one was breastfed with no problems at all. He seems so satisfied after feedings too; he's definitely not still hungry. Wakes on his own, feeds voraciously, goes to sleep. Wakes, feeds, goes back to sleep. Not what suggests an unsatisfied baby to me... But then what do I know. His dad's teeny too. About 5'7" and skinny as a rake. Not that that'll have any relevance, Apparently.
My son's father was 5'5 so it's not a surprise he's short, but the weight is pretty crazy. Even parents who say they're kids are skinny, they're way bigger than my son, LOL. As someone who has always struggled with weight, I think he's pretty darn lucky, LOL.
Unless the baby is showing signs of malnutrition or is seriously underweight, just tell the visitors to fuck off and die.
My son is literally in the bottom 1-2% of babies by weight. My husband and I have been in the bottom 5% our entire lives. We're small people, and so is baby--but he's a perfectly normal, healthy, active boy. If baby is healthy and growing, then that's all that matters. Some of us weren't meant to be big.
My sentiments entirely. I got sick of running the gauntlet of 'but she's so small, you'll need to supplement'. Even got told that I needed to feed her more because she wasn't 9kg one time. Despite the fact that she was still on the same line on her chart. Hello? Childhood obesity anyone?
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My son is literally in the bottom 1-2% of babies by weight. My husband and I have been in the bottom 5% our entire lives. We're small people, and so is baby--but he's a perfectly normal, healthy, active boy. If baby is healthy and growing, then that's all that matters. Some of us weren't meant to be big.
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