Any other small babies?

[Taryn237]

(x-posted in the small babies tribe) Miriam is 9 weeks old and at the bottom of the charts. She was 7lb8oz when she was born and has been gaining about 3-4oz a week so now she is 9lb5oz. We've been doing weight checks because she has mucous in her stool and only gained 2 oz. in 12 days. I had an oversupply so I started block feeding and I think that reduced my supply. I've been pumping, taking alfalfa to up my supply again. She gained 3 this past week, and the malabsorption stool test was negative, so our family doctor isn't concerned...

But I'm on a gluten/dairy/soy/peanut elimination diet to see if that helps, and probiotics because my chiro said we're 'fungal.'

She still fits into her newborn clothes except for length on a few. And everyone always says how small she is. The mamas in our DDC are all saying 'my baby has gained 4+ pounds already...' I was praying for one of those really fat BF babies. lol. I guess maybe she'll just be petite? DS is around the 50th % though.

[scsigrl]

If you are "fungal", has anyone suggested getting off all sugar? I have heard that can help.

[xakana]

Getting off all sugar may be good to fight yeast, but it's really bad for your body and heart.

I have a chunker again but I wanted to say that I know a mama whose baby was falsely diagnosed with FTT because she was always that tiny. To this day, she's now 7 or 8 and still a tiny girl. It's just who she is and always has been. It happens. What matters is that your baby sticks to the growth chart she's creating for herself, doesn't show signs of dehydration and has at least 6 wet diapers a day. Weight gain doesn't mean as much.

Probiotics helped my baby's yucky poop (FOUL smelling, like adult poop--not fungal, just her internal flora being messed up--her dad's is all messed up so he has to take acidophalus to just have the "normal" amount of gas most of the time, so she may have inherited his gut imbalance or it could be from the antibiotics I had for GBS in labor). The trick was getting her to take them (she doesn't take a bottle, kept spitting it out if I put it on my finger--finally, I got it to work with a baby medicine doser syringe) but it definitely seems to help.

Naomi still fits into most of her newborn clothes despite being over 14lbs, by the way. But she didn't fit into newborn clothes when she was first born, at 8lbs, 7oz and 21" long--despite the fact that she should have been easily fitting newborn, she needed preemie clothes to start. She's actually pretty tiny despite her weight. People would say "Oh, what a tiny little baby! How much was she when she was born?" I'd tell them and their mouths would drop open and they'd say "Well, I guess not tiny after all!" It made me so mad, she IS tiny and her weight doesn't change that one bit.

[Hallielynn01]

Work on teh breatfeeding,and try not to stress too much. i have a friend who's baby was 9.8 lbs at birth, and then didn't gain much in the firt few months, the Dr wanted her to switch to formula and such (since she went from a 90th % to a very low % on the scale) but my friend new her baby showed no signs of problems, other than growth not matching a chart. And now she is just petite, she kept with breastfeeding, and watched her baby, not a chart!

Here is a link about growth of the breastfed baby from La Leche Int.
http://www.llli.org/FAQ/growth.html

[Phoenix~Mama]

I have a small baby and have now change peditricians because I was so upset with the last pedi trying to push formula onto us because my DD isn't in a percentile compared to billions of other children anymore.

My DD is just petite. According to everything on kellymom and to a LC I spoke with she is doing good. Babes are to gain 1-2 pounds a month, which my DD is doing. They should double their birthweight by 3-4 months and she only has 1 lb and 8 oz to go to hit that, which I think she can do in a month or so. :

Thing is, DD is happy, extremely alert and hitting developmental milestones. I'm so tired of everyone stressing me out with what a small baby she is. yes, she is small, but she is wickedly strong and active!

We had a weight check last week and DD gained 7 oz in 4 days!



I am trying to follow my heart and tell docs to shove it when they get too annoying. I say watch your babe and listen to your heart... some people are just petitie.. so why can't some babies just be petitie?

It was really hard this weekend because my cousin was up visiting with her baby who is one month younger than my DD and she has 3+ pounds on my DD already... but she has also been FF from day one.

[mamajody]

From your post, it sounds like your DD is doing pretty well. As the mother of 3 smallish kids, I would say don't sweat it. My current babe is enormous, so I am having the opposite problem. It is always something.

[jr'smom]

Gaining 3-4oz a week is completely normal!

My DD weighed 10lb 6 oz at birth. I'm guessing she may finally be back to that (at 11 weeks) after losing more than 2 lbs in the first couple weeks after birth. She's just meant to be little. She's completely happy and poops and pees a lot. What is there to be concerned about? Fortunately my doctor has the same view and has never told us where any of my kids have been on "the charts."

[Taryn237]

If it was just the weight I'd be fine but I realllly think its tied to food intolerances. Yesterday she had a big gob of yellow mucous in her diaper (TMI I know) and over the weekend she had a couple days of vinegar smelling poop which I just read in the allergies forum is a reaction.