WEIGHT GAIN
While your young baby is supposed to gain on average an ounce a day (30gm), weight gain slows as baby ages. From 4-6 months babies should only gain 3-4 ounces per week (90-120gm) and from 6-12 months babies should only gain 1-2 ounces per week (30-60gm). If you have been tracking baby’s weight gain and see the scale slowing down, don’t be alarmed if your baby is older. Continue to watch for lots of wet diapers and consistent pooping. Trust your baby and trust your body.
PERSPECTIVE
“My hospital nurse told me to feed baby every 2 hours with 15mL and my pediatrician told me to feed baby every 3 hours with 30mL.”
“My IBCLC told me there is a tongue tie but the ENT said there wasn’t one.”
“One consultant told me to use a nipple shield as lo as needed. The other said get off as quick as possible”
“They said don’t let baby feed more than 10 minutes per side, but my baby won’t stay latched that long.”
I hear this all the time in my practice and it can be confusing for families. Why did I get different advice from different people? Perspective. Doulas, midwives, pediatricians, even lactation consultants all come from their own training, education, clinical practice and personal experience. When in doubt, the best person to get lactation advice from is an IBCLC. They have had to go through extensive training and mentoring to become certified in the study of human lactation. But remember: even lactation consultants come from different perspectives.
A hospital based IBCLC typically only works with babies in the first 2-4 days after birth and may see dozens of babies in a week, getting only a short amount of time with each family. A private practice IBCLC may have more time to spend with you but experience and expertise may vary. An IBCLC who is also a nurse will approach breastfeeding differently than one who is also a feeding therapist or who started out as a mother who struggled to breastfeed and became passionate to help others going through what she went through. My best advice is find some one who listens to you, educates on why they want you to do something, and supports you in your journey. Because you have a unique perspective, too.
Too often we look around to see what everyone else is doing and it makes us feel incomplete, incompetent, like we’re doing something wrong or not doing enough. We see the success of others in parenting, sleep training, their milk supply, pumping, whatever, and it makes us feel like we’ve failed. Comparison is the number one way to have your joy and peace stolen. Stop looking at Becky over there with her oversupply and thinking your normal supply is inadequate for your content and growing baby. Stop looking at Gina over there whose baby has slept through the night since two months and thinking there’s something wrong with your happy child. Stop comparing your tiny but mighty that looks like the rest of your flock to my giant giraffe babies that look like the rest of my herd. You’re not getting a grade. Breastfeeding is not a pass/fail activity. Trust your baby. Trust your body. You’ve got this.
Did you know that breast-fed babies and formula fed babies have different growth charts? Breast-fed babies tend to be leaner and gain weight at a slower rate than artificially fed babies. Make sure your pediatrician uses the correct growth chart when weighing and measuring your little one. Many a well meaning pediatrician has inadvertently recommended supplementation to exclusively breast-fed babies bexcuse they’re using the CDC growth chart which was standardized on formula fed babies. In 2006, the World Health Organization released revised growth charts that are representative of healthy breastfed babies throughout the world. Until our doctors are familiar with them, we need to keep ourselves informed so that doctors don’t undermine our confidence to breastfeed our babies.
Healthy breastfed infants tend to grow more rapidly than their formula-fed peers in the first 2-3 months of life and less rapidly from 3 to 12 months. All growth charts available before 2006 (which are still used by many health care providers in the US) included data from infants who were not exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months (includes infants fed artificial baby milk, AKA formula, and those starting solids before the recommended 6 months. The American Academy of Pediatrics revised their guidelines on introducing solids for parents to wait until 6 months. A lot of. pediatricians will push to start solids at 4 months because they’re not current on the latest guidelines). Since many doctors are not aware of this difference in growth, they see the baby dropping in percentiles on the growth chart and often jump to the wrong conclusion that the baby is not growing adequately. At this point they often unnecessarily recommend that the mother supplement with formula or solids, and sometimes recommend that they stop breastfeeding altogether. This is often a cause of unneeded stress. Next time you’re at your peds office, ask which chart they’re using. For more information on growth charts, see kellymom.com
