Hopeless Doctor!!!!!

Hey Hailstones, I just looked in my little girl's Plunket book, and at 12 weeks she was only 5.29kg. She was always a slow weight gainer (3.56kg at birth, 3.625 at one week, 3.875 at four weeks, 4.74 at 6 weeks, 4.72 at 8 weeks) and had weight losses just like your little Elle. I was also panicking as I had read that babies should double their birth weight in the first three months of their lives (don't know where I read it, but it stuck in my head) and Emma didn't double her weight until she was almost a year old! Even now, at 15 months, she's only 8.92kg -- just on the 20th percentile line on the Plunket growth charts. 

What did I do about it? Heaps of worrying, of course. Heaps of reading to find out what I should try. I spent a few days in bed with her, just breastfeeding and sleeping, and that seemed to help (that was when she gained between four and six weeks). I called the LLL and Plunket and got advice. I spent hours crying on the phone to my mother (who kept saying unhelpfully, "But YOU were always on the 98th percentile!!!").

After a while, I started to look at other things than her weight gain, and started thinking that maybe Emma was just a slow gainer. Her health seemed fine, her poos were okay, her sleep was becoming predictable, she was breastfeeding fine, she was active and happy, she was starting to move and take an interest in her environment. How is Elle doing with things like this? Are her poos "breasfed runny" (because a breastfed baby's poos are meant to be runny) or "sick runny"? Does she seem hungry more often, as if she's having a growth spurt? The gain of 2cm in such a short time certainly suggests that she's growing just fine. If you look at the little Plunket growth chart, is her growth steady along one of the lines (doesn't matter which one, just that it's steady!)? Is she active and engaged? Take a look at the whole picture, and if things aren't adding up, then definitely go back to the doctor and stay in their office until you feel like they're listening to you. Big hugs!!!

Hope it all goes well for you today, Hayley.  I think it sux that your GP fobbed you off like that.  And I agree with whoever it was who said Plunket are a great resource for this sort of thing.  I take Ella in every 2 weeks for a weigh-in, and they're great.  I've found that they usually listen really carefully to what you're saying, and spend a decent amount of time with you if needed.  Definantly worth a try.  Hope you can get some answers soon. 

FYI - Ella is a very active baby too (and low weight gainer).  I don't imagine that your Elle has the same reasons for slow weight gain (I hope not!), but one thing that I did find reassuring was when our GP said that active babies burn off a lot of energy during their awake times - they may consume just as much, but don't pack it all on as weight.  She said that a baby who is very docile and likes to just relax a lot will gain more weight.  In her opinion (she seems to be a good GP!), there's an extent to which an active baby being slender is not a problem at all, and it's time to worry when a previously evergetic baby suddenly becomes more lethargic, and won't gain the weight. 

And there was another thread somewhere on here about the overabundant milk supply... I'll bump it for you if I can remember what it was called - might be worth a read if you're thinking about what yummymummy posted.