Pediatrician Baby Weight Issues

[Anonymous]

Eh I would listen to your pediatrician. I had a baby born small and follow their curve but still very small and I always wonder if I could’ve done more/something different at the beginning. If your pediatrician is concerned I assume they’re not on their curve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Sounds like he’s doing great. Let him sleep as long as he’s gaining and happy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My last baby was 7lbs 12oz at birth and tipped the scale at 10lbs at 6 weeks, so 1-2lbs seems like nothing to me. I do have big kids, though.

[Anonymous]

in 2 years if the ped told you your kid wasn't gaining enough weight and you should up the calories of his meals, presumably you would start adding healthy fats without thinking twice. The only reason this is a hot topic is because the breastfeeding crazies take it as a personal slight. Just feed your baby the amount your baby needs to grow, per your baby's doctor, and don't think about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in 2 years if the ped told you your kid wasn't gaining enough weight and you should up the calories of his meals, presumably you would start adding healthy fats without thinking twice. The only reason this is a hot topic is because the breastfeeding crazies take it as a personal slight. Just feed your baby the amount your baby needs to grow, per your baby's doctor, and don't think about it.

Disagree. It’s really about whether it’s necessary to wake up one more time during the night and wake the baby up. Sleep is precious and I would be questioning this pediatrician too if I was being asked to do so despite really good weight gain after adding formula. It’s very very different than offering your older child a bit more food or higher calorie foods at meals.

As a pp noted high calorie formulas come with their own disadvantages/complications and should only be used if necessary so it is smart to question whether it is truly necessary particularly when pediatrician did a poor job of communicating why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in 2 years if the ped told you your kid wasn't gaining enough weight and you should up the calories of his meals, presumably you would start adding healthy fats without thinking twice. The only reason this is a hot topic is because the breastfeeding crazies take it as a personal slight. Just feed your baby the amount your baby needs to grow, per your baby's doctor, and don't think about it.

+1000, but OP and her husband are going to a new ped who will tell them what they want to hear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:in 2 years if the ped told you your kid wasn't gaining enough weight and you should up the calories of his meals, presumably you would start adding healthy fats without thinking twice. The only reason this is a hot topic is because the breastfeeding crazies take it as a personal slight. Just feed your baby the amount your baby needs to grow, per your baby's doctor, and don't think about it.

+1000, but OP and her husband are going to a new ped who will tell them what they want to hear.

Op and her husband are already supplementing with formula so this has nothing to do with „breastfeeding crazies“ rather being given advice that doesn’t make sense. Hopefully their new pediatrician can communicate better and also take their concerns into account.

My kids doctor did that. She had slow weight gain and after taking account my life circumstances (single mom with no support) we came up with plan where almost all formula suppmentation was done during the day and I EBF at night (exception being if my dc showed signs of being still hungry after breastfeeding then of course I offered her more but this was very rare.) She gained weight like a champ on this plan, my sleep was less disrupted and all was good. Some doctors are better at explaining their rationales and taking family concerns into account and I hope OPs new year pediatrician is one of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

There's huge variation and the key is what the kid does after that. I agree with the advice to check weight in 2 weeks and then decide.

My first kid was born average size (7 lbs 14 oz) and within a month shot up to the 90th percentile in height and weight and stayed there for 3 years. At 3 he dropped to the 40th percentile for both and has stayed there ever since (8 years old now). My second kid was born a little smaller, 7 lbs 6 oz, and like OP's baby she was very sleepy for the first month and would eat only small amounts at a time. She wouldn't take a bottle, wouldn't eat more when pressed to do so, just wouldn't eat. We did weight checks every 2 weeks and it sucked. I had a ton of supply, she just wouldn't eat - she ate less than half of what her brother did. But she grew - she was just skinny. She quickly dropped to about 30th percentile in weight and has stayed there ever since (now age 5), while being close to 80th percentile in height. They are both normal, healthy kids, who had weird growth patterns. But I don't think that's actually as unusual as I thought at the time. With DS, we actually took him for endocrine testing because his percentile dropped so much (and DH is tall and I am average height), and the doctor found nothing and basically said we're nuts and it's normal to take a few years to settle into a growth curve.

[Anonymous]

This seems very odd, so I would at least get a second opinion. My kid had much more severe weight gain issues, and I was not recommended higher calorie formula...only trying to add another formula feed (my baby was combo fed). Higher calorie formula seems like a pretty extreme intervention, if there aren't other FTT indications, and there don't seem to be.

I'm not a pediatrician, of course, but I'd get a second opinion in your situation. Introducing a "treatment", which higher calorie formula is, seems like it should warrant a clearer cause.

[Anonymous]

A good pediatrician isn’t bothered when parents seek a second opinion— we also use a practice with several doctors, one recommended something for our daughter we were on the fence about, we asked a more senior physician in the practice and he said a wait and see approach was also fine. Pediatricians are not omnipotent and a good one will tell you that the parents instincts are valuable as well.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like your baby is doing great. If it’s true that he has gone from 54th to 40th %ile that’s NBD. Ignore the posters who are telling you to stop breastfeeding (unless that’s what you want to do).

How experienced was the ped who told you to supplement more? Younger doctors can be really quick to recommend interventions. If there was a pediatrician you clicked with in your practice you could ask if you can just start following with that person—they would probably make an exception to their 4 month rule.