I can see why some women who aren't confident in breastfeeding can get pressured into thinking their milk isn't good enough sometimes.
This morning, I went to the baby stay and play with Christopher, while Robert spent the morning as usual with his grandparents. The Surestart ladies put the scales out, and I weighed Christopher on them for the first time since he was about 10 weeks old. Four weeks ago he weighed 12lb with his nappy and vest on. This morning, I was somewhat disheartened to find that he weighed just 12lb 9oz, so a gain of a little more than 9oz in 4 weeks. I am sure that if it had been the health visitor who had weighed him, there would be questions regarding the quality/quantity of my milk.
Now, I know that Christopher is a different baby to Robert, who, from the age of 2 weeks, climbed steadily on the 50th centile line til gone 1 year, and he is now 75th+. Christopher went from 25th at 2 weeks, to 50th at 5 weeks, back down to 25th at 10 weeks, now he's under the 25th (half way between the lines) at 14 weeks. He is getting plenty of wet nappies... not so many pooey ones. He saves all his poos for a day or two each week spaced fairly evenly. Before I had him weighed I simply thought maybe he was processing his milk fairly efficiently. Now I am wondering if, despite tandem feeding and therefore having plenty of milk, am I doing something wrong? Am I letting C sleep too much? Am I letting Robert have too much milk (or too soon - before Christopher is due a feed)? Am I not getting enough hindmilk into Christopher?
After he went to sleep at 4pm-ish, I woke him up after I had run Robert's bath, around 7pm. Fed him while Robert sat in the bath, then put him in the bath too. Then after his bath, I fed him again as he was wrapped in the towel. And then he fed again after he was dressed.
Am I being too paranoid? Or should I try and make sure that Christopher always has first dibs - let him have his fill of one breast and then put him on the other, and let Robert go on Christopher's first? I tend to just let Robert climb up and help himself to the other one when C starts to feed.
At what point should I start to worry and re-think my feeding routines?
I had EXACTLY this situation with my first two but slightly more extreme - Arthur climbed to the 91st percentile and stayed there till he was 1, and Matthew was born at the 50th and dropped steadily from about Christopher's age until he was below the 9th percentile. I had no prior experience and was tandem nursing, and the HVs were acting all concerned and pressurising me into supplementing with formula AND starting solids early (4mths).
ReplyDeleteI knew he was never going hungry, was feeding plenty day and night, and was developing fine. But still I felt unsure of myself since The Scales had spoken and everyone else seemed concerned.
I never did supplement, and did not give him solids until 6 months. Once he started eating food, he ate like a HORSE every mealtime - more than Arthur ever had in one sitting! - and continued to breastfeed aplenty round the clock, and guess what happened to his weight? Absolutely nothing! He stayed at the bottom of the percentile chart until well into his 2nd year, then came up to just under the 25th and has stayed there ever since (incidentally just a touch lower than where Arthur has settled down to in the end too!).
If you are worried, I would maybe focus on hindmilk - like make sure he is getting a full feeding on one breast while Robert has the foremilk on the other side, then switch so that Christopher gets the hindmilk on Robert's side as well (if he wants more). Otherwise I think he will let you know if he's hungry! If he's not hungry I would say he's getting all he needs.
In my case it really was simply a great example of two brothers being REALLY different, but equally healthy babies, and I wish I hadn't wasted energy worrying about it in hindsight! It sounds to me like Christopher is doing just fine, don't worry!
If you weren't worried before you weighed him, I'd try hard not to worry now, and STEP AWAY FROM THE SCALES!
ReplyDelete