Not feeding enough?

Question

My girl was born at 7lbs 13oz due to a stressful birth and being VERY swollen. Discharge weight was 7lbs 7oz. We went to the pediatrician for the first time last Friday and he said weighing at 7lbs 4oz she is very underweight and I am not feeding her enough.

I explained to him that she eats mostly every two hours, 2oz per feedings. She sleeps a lot and there are times she will pass a feeding, but that'll only be her sleeping for about 4 hours at the most. She eats 2oz after waking up and even trying to feed her a bit more has failed. She sleeps so much, but I see nothing wrong. She is happy, not fussy, and she doesn't want the bottle as much as I want her to eat more!!

I tried waking her up these past two days like he said but every time I have woken her up she has just spit out the bottle with a nasty look on her face. She's very uninterested in it, until she's hungry. Everything else in her is healthy.

Could this just be a case where my baby is a little different compared to the charts?? We go in again tomorrow morning for him to check her weight if she had gained these past two days (which I doubt) and if she hasn't then he is giving her an ultrasound to see if there is a problem inside. I'm nervous!! 😢

If it helps, we have been giving her similac like the one they provided in the hospital, and as much as I can, giving her my breastmilk!

Answer

P.s. All babies go in for a weight check. Losing ounces is totally normal and the reason you go back for a weight check is to make sure that after they lose the initial weight, that they start and keep gaining. A "weight check" appointment is normal and no cause for concern at all. It's normal practice.

Answer

I had my baby on Thursday 8/4, she weighed 8 lbs 12 oz, the next day she weighed 8 lbs 4 oz
We were discharged Saturday 8/6, she weighed 7 lbs 15 oz. We went to her 1st pediatrician appt the following Tuesday and she was down to 7 lbs 13 oz. The pediatrician had me come back a week later because of her weight, she was up to 8 lbs 9 oz and they were no longer concerned. The goal is to be back up to birth weight by 2 weeks.
It is totally normal for babies to lose weight at 1st. Especially if you had IV fluids within 6 hrs of giving birth, they take on that fluid too. My baby was also spitting up a lot of amniotic fluid the 1st day and a half or so. I was told as long as the initial weight loss is under 10% of their birthweight it is not cause for concern.

Answer

How old is she? It all sounds normal to me! All babies usually lose a few oz after they're born and gain it back in the next couple / few weeks. I was told when my daughter was born only the first 4 weeks to wake her up to eat if she goes longer than 4 hours, which she never did she was always up every 2. And no, I've found my baby is not on "the charts" with every single thing. But I love how people try to freak you out and scare you when they aren't!!  Every baby is different with how they eat, sleep, poop, etc. so just trust your instincts.. if she's happy, sleeping, eating, pooping, and peeing, then I'm sure she is just fine. My pediatrician is less invasive with testing and procedures and I tend to like that more than one jumping all over her to do unnecessary testing on my baby.

Answer

I met with a lactation consultant again and she had really good advice. We are now pushing longer feeeds in early evening to try to avoid the multi mini feeds per hour all night long. It worked already we got two 3 hour stretches of sleep last night. And the dirty diapers are rolling in :)

Answer

I'd like to follow, my LO is on this same track. She just sleeps for some stretches and I try everything to rouse her to feed cause Drs say so. It feels cruel to try to wake her up for 60 mins on end. I'd rather deal with the inevitable cluster feed in the middle of the night (apparently her new habit).

Answer

Babies get to pick how much they eat. Some of that weight "loss" may be due to IV like you said. If they look inside her and don't find anything wrong you'll probably just keep feeding her as you are. As long as she stops losing weight and eventually starts gaining she'll be fine.

Not feeding enough?

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