Pediatrician Baby Weight Issues

[Anonymous]

The baby didn’t gain weight the first two weeks and has gained 3lbs in 6 weeks. I wouldn’t worry.

My first baby lost weight in the beginning and was alway a 1-2lbs smaller than the average weight. My second son was born smaller and was a normal sized baby. Every baby is different. I would get a pediatrician you can see regularly instead of seeing a different pediatrician each time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a FTM and I have an 8 week old. We had his 8 week appointment today and the pediatrician told us we need to get his weight up. He was born full-term but didn’t gain much weight in the first two weeks due to low supply and hard to feed because he was sleepy ( no jaundice). He has been gaining weight but he is small for his age. He is combo fed ( 20oz of breastmilk, 8-12oz of formula) and eats 4oz 7-8 times a day. He has plenty of wet and dirty diapers. He is sleeping well, happy, and healthy. I’m worried and partially annoyed because I feel like we are doing all that we can. The pediatrician suggested adding in another feeding or switching to a higher calorie formula. My husband thinks we should keep doing what we’re doing and find a new pediatrician. Any experience with this situation? Should we get a second opinion?


Stats - Born 9/18/2021

BW- 7lbs 14, H - 20in
Day 3 - 7lbs 2oz
W2 - 7lbs 7oz
W3 - 7lbs 14oz
W4 - 8lbs 9oz
W8 - 10lbs 14oz, H - 22.5in

What makes you say this? He’s in the 40th percentile for weight right now. And why is your husband challenging this recommendation? Sounds like he’s taking it personally, as if the pediatrician is judging you. If the baby needs an extra feed, give it. I’m not understanding what the issue is with this pediatrician.

Most 2 month old boys weight 12lbs. An almost 8lb baby should be weight around that age this age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My chubby babies were eating more like 12x a day. Don't let your baby go more than 4 hours at night. Wake him up.

3lbs in 2 months sounds like nothing to me. Have you looked at a weight percentile chart? Is baby falling of their own chart?

If baby is falling asleep they may not be getting the fatty hindmilk

Babies gain 1-2lbs a month. 3lbs in 2 months is a good weight gain.

[Anonymous]

You should stop breastfeeding and switch to formula. He will gain more weight with formula.

[Anonymous]

It looks like the baby had a slow start but is now gaining. A 3 lb gain in the last 5 weeks is great. I'd probably just ask for another weight check in 2-4 weeks before making any decisions, since the most recent trend is favorable.

[Anonymous]

3lbs in two months is good. I wouldn’t worry about it.

[Anonymous]

Between 4 week visit and 8 week visit went from 22 to 39 percentile (cdcgrowth chart) so he’s been doing great with weight gain. Height is 44 percentile so reasonable weight for height. While it’s true that he is not at his birth weight percentile (53%) there may be other factors related to birth affecting initial weight.

Think it’s reasonable to seek out a second opinion/pediatrician. Rechecking weight in 2 Weeks also seems like a good option as well. He looks like he’s been on a good trajectory the past 4 weeks and could very well continue on his percentile gain trajectory without additional intervention.

[Anonymous]

Switch to formula. Your child didn't even meet the goal of their birth weight on time, and another only gained 5oz in 11 days? That's really bad. Why are you so reluctant to add more bottles of formula or a higher caloric formula if your baby is already FF?

[Anonymous]

Add one feeding of formula and replace one nursing session with formula. Check weight at end of one week and again at end of second week. If gain hasn’t been substantial then switch to higher formula and sub more FF for BF sessions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please do not mess around with this. Your pediatrician is an expert and telling you this for a reason. This is your first lesson in parenting the child you have, not the child you want. I would add more formula or switch to a higher calorie formula.

This 100%

Plus to this as well my son was like this and when pediatrician said add more feeds, I did.
Will it kill you to add another bottle and see how it goes after a week? Babies are small they need to gain weight to meet milestones and …grow. I listen to my pediatricians y’all should too it’s not like they’re not trying to recommend what is best. P

This is good advice. Why not offer another bottle? You mention the baby is very sleepy. I would not want insufficient calories to impact my baby's development. You have a lot of power over the intellectual and physical development of another human, I would not want to misuse that. What exactly is the harm in offering another bottle of pumped milk or formula? Maybe the baby would be more alert, don't know without trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switch to formula. Your child didn't even meet the goal of their birth weight on time, and another only gained 5oz in 11 days? That's really bad. Why are you so reluctant to add more bottles of formula or a higher caloric formula if your baby is already FF?

She already added formula at 2 weeks when inadequate weight gain was discovered and the baby’s weight shot up (improving from 22nd to 40th percentile) and the baby is no longer sleepy but happy and active. The pediatrician should have explained his reasoning better since it is not at all clear why this would be advised when the previous changes are clearly working. It’s important to have a pediatrician one trusts so even for this reason alone would seek out a different one. I would not blindly trust a pediatrician who advises something that does not make sense. That is the issue, not that adding an extra bottle or switching formula is that difficult. If the pediatrician can’t adequately communicate why something is important that is a problem regardless of quality or lack there of of his advice.

[Anonymous]

I’m with your husband. Get a new pediatrician. If you want another opinion, I liked the breastfeeding center of Washington. I did a combo of ff and bf for my 3rd and wanted reassurance I was doing the amounts correctly. They were very helpful.
I hate how some pediatricians seem to forget there are a variety of body shapes. For my twins, the pediatrician kept pushing us to get the small one up in size. My husband is very tall and big boned. I am tiny. It turns out one twin takes after each of us. Our first practice was making me so worried and stressed and basically wanted us to force feed the smaller guy. The twins are tweens now and they have kept the same proportions. I switched practices and have been so much happier

[Anonymous]

I didn't have a ped when ds was a baby, I was low income and used a sliding scale clinic that was used as a training program for family practice residents as well as having board certified family physicians. Had this doctor who criticized baby's weight gain and my BF. (She also shared that she had not been able to BF due to nipple issues so I felt she was using her experience against me). She was actually saying failure to thrive out loud. (I don't remember if she was a resident, if so she was an older resident than the others)

But prenatal I also had enrolled in a program to provide extra prenatal care which was run through public health at the time. I got a lot more communication and attention from them than from the ob-gyn. Anyway, they said his head measurements were just fine (the dr didn't measure his head, just looked at weight, and for his length he was actually on the high end for weight--never had baby fat rolls, he was a very muscled baby, always felt heavy for his size) and he was gaining fine. So I listened to them and ignored the dr.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We will be getting a second opinion.

To clarity, we don’t see the same pediatrician at every visit. Our practice has us see a new pediatrician for every visit until we can select who we like at 4 months. My husband wants a pediatrician that we will see at every appointment.

To get more in depth, I’m a FTM and didn’t know anything was wrong for the first two weeks. He slept all of time and didn’t cry much. We had to wake him for every feed. He would eat for 5 minutes and fall asleep so I assumed that meant that he was full. We saw a lactation consultant and low supply + not waking to nurse was the issue. I tried to nurse for the third week and feed formula, but he was still very sleepy and I didn’t feel like he was getting enough. I decided to pump because I wanted to know how much I made and see how much he was eating everyday. We added in formula at the request of the pediatrician. He eats about 20oz of breast milk and 8-12 ounces of formula.

The pediatrician sent us for a jaundice test and he didn’t have it. The pediatrician said it was very common for some babies to be very sleepy for the first couple of weeks. He started waking up at 4 weeks.
Now he wakes to eat and eats all of his food. He eats 4oz 7-8 times a day. We have tried to feed him more in one sitting but he won’t eat it. He eats every 3 hours but has started sleeping through one of the night feeds for some nights. We can wake him up and feed him, but him sleeping through the night feed makes me feel like he is getting enough. Maybe I’m wrong and we should feed him until his weight is better?

He’s a happy baby. He’s sleeping well, much more awake but still sleeps like 18 hours a day, and he’s happy. He is very active when he is awake and has been hitting all of his milestones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m with your husband. Get a new pediatrician. If you want another opinion, I liked the breastfeeding center of Washington. I did a combo of ff and bf for my 3rd and wanted reassurance I was doing the amounts correctly. They were very helpful.
I hate how some pediatricians seem to forget there are a variety of body shapes. For my twins, the pediatrician kept pushing us to get the small one up in size. My husband is very tall and big boned. I am tiny. It turns out one twin takes after each of us. Our first practice was making me so worried and stressed and basically wanted us to force feed the smaller guy. The twins are tweens now and they have kept the same proportions. I switched practices and have been so much happier

Her baby didn’t gain weight for the first couple of weeks. That very different than just having a small baby.