EBF 6mo losing weight- doc wants formula?

[merebella]

Hey gals,

I'm writing for my cousin, who isn't a member.  She has a 6mo dd who just came from her well-baby and has gone from 15lb2oz at her three month to 14lb6oz at her 6month. The doc is pretty concerned and has recommended that she go on a strict formula diet (some sort of beefed up, hypo-allergenic formula) for two weeks to see if she gains, so they can rule out anything serious. 

She told my cousin that she could continue to comfort nurse in addition to the formula, but must feed her 6oz of formula every three hours. 

Has anyone experienced this type of weight loss with an ebf baby?  She's only just started a few solids, but baby has a sensitive tummy, so my cousin has been taking it slow.

My cousin isn't sure how to proceed with her nursing. Just pump several times a day, and offer the breast between formula feedings? 

Thoughts, experiences, etc?  What do you think of the formula trial? 

As a note, my cousin is very pro-bf, but only plans to nurse until 9 mo, maybe a year. So, it wouldn't be the end of the world to her to stop nursing now, but she's hoping to keep going.  I encouraged her in that.

Thanks for your feedback!

[3girls1boy]

Has this baby been tested for malabsorbtion conditions?  In my state, it is required to do a whole panel of blood tests to look for these conditions.  The number of conditions that they are required to test for vary state by state. 

[IgniteInsight]

My 9 mos dd lost a bit of weight around 7 mos because she was more active. She was already off the charts plump so I didn't worry very much. My doctor told me to start supplementing with formula. I found a new doctor! FYI...a lot of peds use a growth chart for formula fed babies. Breastfed babies grow differently. Hope this helps.

Here is an excerpt from the growth chart link http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/growth/growthcharts.html

     Growth charts and breastfed baby growth

 "

I have heard of many breastfed babies (including my own) whose doctor was disturbed at some point because the baby wasn't gaining weight quickly enough, even though the baby was well within the above parameters for weight gain. The problem is that many doctors are not familiar with the normal weight gain patterns of breastfed babies, and rely too much upon standard growth charts.

Healthy breastfed infants tend to grow more rapidly than formula-fed infants in the first 2-3 months of life and less rapidly from 3 to 12 months. All growth charts available at this time include data from infants who were not exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months (includes formula-fed infants and those starting solids before the recommended 6 months). Because many doctors are not aware of this, they see the baby dropping in percentiles on the growth chart and often come to the faulty conclusion that the baby is not growing adequately. At this point they often recommend that the mother (unnecessarily) supplement with formula or solids, and sometimes recommend that they stop breastfeeding altogether. Even if mom realizes that her baby is perfectly healthy and doesn't follow these unnecessary recommendations, she ends up worrying for no reason (and moms don't need anything extra to worry about!).     

[dewey2]

I'm in the middle of something similar right now.  My son, who is EBF, just had his 6 month well-child visit and had only gained 7 oz in two months.  He went from 13 lbs 5 oz to 13 lbs 12 oz.  My naturopath is having me pump for 5 minutes after he finishes to see if it helps.  I'm also increasing the amount of brewers yeast I take.  I might try fenugreek in a few days but the last time I tried it, my son had horrible gas.  It's been about 24 hours now and I'm not seeing much of a difference.  Hoping it'll start working soon.  :(

[3girls1boy]

I'm not saying to the PP that you shouldn't be concerned but this article may be helpful:

http://drjaygordon.com/pediatricks/newborns/scales.html

[MovingMomma]

If baby really lost weight, that is reason for concern.  Was it the same scale, same clothes, dry diaper, etc?  

Keep in mind until baby is eating an appreciable amount of solids, she still needs to nurse about the same number of times per day that she did after breastfeeding was well established...say at the 3-4 month mark or so.  If mom was offering solids instead of breastfeeding, that could explain the loss.  Solids should be offered after a nursing session through the first year.  

And really, the doctor expects the baby to eat 48 ounces of high calorie formula/day???  The typical formula fed baby takes 24-32 ounces/day; I don't know that it's fair at all to expect mom to be able to get that quantity into baby.  Also, both mom and doctor may find these numbers enlightening (though a high calorie formula may well be more calorie dense than breastmilk): http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/milkcalories.html

[lizfu]

If the doctor is concerned about a potential food allergy in the baby then why can't the MOM go on a restricted diet? No dairy, eggs, soy, or whatever it is they are worried about. I know of a little girl who is now allergic to dairy, soy, nuts, forget what else who was VERY small until her breastfeeding mom started restricting her own diet- once she did that her DD grew much more.  I would start a restricted diet for a few weeks as a bf mom before putting my kid on formula.  All those formulas are still made with cow's milk- it's just treated- so isn't it easier for the mom to just stop eating dairy herself and see what happens?

GL to your cousin.  Weight loss at that age is concerning, esp. if she's not crawling yet and hasn't been sick.  My son stopped gaining much weight around 9 mo, but that was after crawling and a few illnesses.