Worried about baby's weight and my supply

[jenkuh]

I made a list of what we're experiencing and am wondering if you can offer some input. He turned 4 months on the 18th and is only 12.7 pounds. He was born at 6 Ibs 10 ounces:

low weight - 5-10%
Darker, fowl smelling stools, passing gas on occasion
VERY gassy
struggled with poor latch.
right now he pulls on the nipple the entire time and eats on the very tip, frequently unlatching and relatching. I can frequently see his tongue.
lots of spitting up in the beginning that we associated with over-active letdown. Fixing that lessoned the spitting up but not entirely and not enough in retrospect.
The first month after he was born I gave up dairy but didn’t seem to make a difference so I went back on. DD was sensitive to dairy and I went off it for a whole year with her.
Wet burps and spits up frequently
Only recently sought any kind of comfort nursing. For awhile when struggling with Overactive letdown you’d have thought he hated to nurse.
I struggle with supply issues. Got my first real period April 18th but have struggled with random spotting and “mini-periods” since he was born. I’m eating oatmeal, taking fenegreek, and drinking mothers mlik tea
upside is he’s very happy and bright-eyed, meeting milestones appropriately

[starling&diesel]

Sounds like you're doing a lot of good things ... I'll be interested to see what other advice the wise mamas here will give you. My DD is 13 weeks and just over 11 pounds, so she's likely to be the same weight as your LO when she hits four months ... the pediatrician is satisfied with her weight, even though she's in the 3rd percentile. He says, "Well, the whole range is within normal, from 0-100, so so long as your child registers on that scale, we don't worry." He's right. So long as your LO is following a steady curve, his OWN curve, and is meeting milestones ... I'd say you're on the right track.

[Llyra]

So he's gained six pounds, or thereabouts, right? That doesn't sound so bad to me. The typical breastfed baby doubles birth weight by around four months, and some don't double until later. He's very close to having doubled his weight. It sounds like he started out small, and has stayed small. Some kids are just little. My DD2 was born small and has always stayed small, around the 3% curve, but she's always consistently on or near that percentile, hence perfectly normal. A baby that's born at 6 pounds and a baby born at 8 pounds will double their weights and yet be at vastly different sizes by four months-- 12 pounds vs. 16. And it's all normal and expected.

http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns...ight-gain.html
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns...alculator.html

Gas and spitting up and "wet burps" are really normal and typical at that age.

Honestly, the only aspect of any of it that sounds unusual to me is the foul-smelling stools. But I've seen all kinds of variation in stooling with my three, all colors and consistencies and smells, and they're all fine. My DD2 had the nastiest poos any EBF baby ever had, for instance.

It sounds like you're very worried about your supply, but I'm not sure why. Is it because of the weight gain, or the periods, or some other reason? Because I am wondering if there really is a supply issue, after all, or if baby is just small genetically and otherwise perfectly normal.

In the meantime, though, I might start cracking down on the poor latch. If he doesn't latch correctly, unlatch him and start over, even if it means doing it a thousand times. If you consistently insist on correct latch, he may get out of the habit of latching poorly, and that at least will make things easier. Forgive me if you're doing it already, of course.

[jenkuh]

Well I'm worried about my supply because there was a good portion of a week where he had "wet" diapers but never soaked (even in the morning) and not NEARLY as much as it used to be, and I lost track of the last time he had a dirty diaper.

My supply always dropped with DD when I had a period and it lined up with the period I had on the 18th. SO... that makes sense, but on top of that I am having another one right now (what, two weeks later)?! SO it's like my supply keeps getting affected by that. Plus, there was awhile where I didn't have an obvious let down or he would drink for a couple minutes, cry and wanna switch sides, and then drink for a few minutes and just stay awake generally unsatisfied. When that happened, I kept trying to get him to nurse more but he just got angry.

So all that combined with the low weight got me concerned. My DD was a good 3 pounds heavier at this point and started out only a few ounces more than him so that has me concerned too.