Let's Breastfeed

Baby losing weight too quickly?

Speaking to mums, I have come to realize that the single most distressing thing in their lives, is hearing their newborn baby cry and not know how to comfort or soothe them. It is this anxiety that leads mums to read and digest as many parenting books as possible, before baby arrives. What mums are left with, is a wealth of knowledge but a lot of confusion as most of it is conflicting! So, I want to address a really crucial bit of info all new mums need to be aware of and that is initial infant weight loss. Knowing how to calculate and monitor this will prevent your baby from being readmitted for dehydration.

Let’s look at you and your baby’s birth from my point of view, or at least, what experience has taught me about how mums view their baby’s birth.

When your baby is first born, you are caught up in a cloud of love, elation, pain, confusion, relief and the list just goes on. If your baby latches onto the breast amongst all these emotions, to some degree, you are going to feel a sense of relief that your baby can now lead the way on the breastfeeding front. If you are in pain, you will probably overlook it, as you would do anything for your baby’s wellbeing and besides, you would have been told a hundred times that breastfeeding is painful….so no surprise when it is painful. As you have nothing to go by, to you, almost any degree of pain is acceptable and so you continue feeding your baby, assuming that he or she is getting everything he or she needs.

Then your baby is weighed and your baby has lost some weight. You don’t feel happy about this but as you have been told to expect it, you try to not worry too much…but should you be worried? How do you know that your baby is getting enough food? And is your baby losing too much weight or just enough, how do you know?

This is how!

1. Take my word for it, if your nipples are sore, something is not right! Your baby may be getting milk but you should not be experiencing pain. If you are, a short sharp OUCH! similar to when you wax your legs is still acceptable but nothing more than that.
2. You need to look at your baby’s nappies. If your baby is producing poos and wees, then you know that he or she is getting milk.
3. Look at the colour of your baby’s poos. You have 5 colours and 10 days to reach your goal, so 2 days for each colour. Your colour scope begins at black-2 days, green-2 days, brown-2 days, orange-2 days, yellow-2 days. If your baby is still doing black poos on day 3-4, he or she is not getting enough milk. If your baby is producing orange poos on day 3-4, he or she is getting more than enough milk.
4. Look at your baby’s weight – grams or kg are always easier. If your baby is born at 3000g or 3kg, she can safely lose 300g. We want her to lose weight slowly and usually see that she has lost 10% of birth weight by day 5. That means, your baby can safely lose 60g a day. If your baby has lost 200g by day 2, can you see that she is losing weight too quickly? You need to get some specialist help to assess which part of breastfeeding is not working for you, so that you can get back on the right track as quickly as possible.

These are just some of the basic tips I share with mums everyday. Breastfeeding should be relaxed and easy without too much thinking involved, but I believe that only when we teach mums to think clearly about the important things, this can become a reality.

If you are expecting a baby, I would encourage you to get a copy of the Let’s Breastfeed Beginners Guide eBook

This is packed with practical information I believe every breastfeeding mum should know. It is also fluid, so you can apply elements that are relevant to you and your family, as every family is different and have different needs.

If your baby has already arrived and your nipples are sore, get yourself a copy of the Sore Nipple eBook This will quickly highlight where changes need to be made to encourage healing and afford your baby the opportunity to access more milk without damaging your nipples.

There are clear and concise answers for breastfeeding mums, you just need to know where to find them and who to speak to.

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