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From what I've read, ten days is still within the normal range, particularly if Mum was given IV fluids during labour. What were baby's stats or weight (birth weight, lowest weight and current weight)?

Honestly, I probably wouldn't be too worried! How much did he weigh at birth? I find bigger babies often loose a little bit more (%wise). Also, like someone else asked, did you receive IV fluids in labour? That can inflate a baby's birthweight by 10%.

Is hired an LC to help me with my second baby, she was a terrible breastfeeder for the first few weeks. She said it is perfectly fine to take three weeks to regain their birthweight as long as they are content and peeing/pooping regularly. Good luck!

I think three weeks is the normal time frame! By 10 days I don't think ds was at birth weight. But he was by around 2 weeks.

My first two regained at exactly ten days.
My third had an awful cold for her first two weeks and didn't lose weight from her discharge weight but didn't gain anything. By week three she had more than made up for the two weeks without gains.

What kind of birth did you have (medicated, unmediated, c-section)? It is really common in medicated births. The fluids they give to you make the baby artificially big.

Is the baby starting to regain weight or still losing? If they're gaining at a good rate, I wouldn't be worried.

I'd have the pediatrician or LC check for a tongue and lip tie to be safe because it is way easier to correct when they're this young and try a weighed feeding. We did one at my 7 day checkup to confirm LO was eating enough. He was, so they didn't worry about supplementing.

It took almost a month for my twins (I was supplementing with high calorie formula, in addition to nursing). My ped was very aggressive about their weight gain because they were small at birth, lost a lot of weight in the hospital, and were reflux babies and were spitting up a ton. They continued to be too small for the growth charts until 4 months, but by 6 months they were doing really well. At 2, one of my twins is around 30th percentile and the other is 4th percentile (but growing well. She's just a small person, we think).

Have you seen an LC to see how much you LO is transferring with each nursing session? If he is content and sleeps well, my guess is that he's just getting a slow start. In retrospect, we had a lot of signs that my LOs were not getting satisfied by the nursing + supplementing (the biggest thing is that they didn't progress through the normal colors of poop at the expected times, and they had very little wet diapers), but we didn't really realize it at the time. My DD especially screamed all the time from basically the first day, and now I wonder if she was hungry. It's also sort of her personality, though.

Was he a bigger baby? My LO was born at 9 lbs 5 oz and did not regain his birth weight until 3-4 weeks after birth. That is mainly because he was a large baby.

@Autumnmama79: I'd probably try another weighted feed with an LC. Our LC also had baby scales we could borrow to do weighted feeds at home. Has he been checked for a tongue or lip tie? Also, were you induced? I've heard that in inductions, mama gets a lot of fluids which Increases baby's initial weight. Baby then drops a lot of the water weight and it takes longer to get back up to birth weight because it was sort of an "inflated" weight, if that makes sense. I think that was a factor in my LOs weight issues too, as I had a 24 hr inductions prior to their births.

@Autumnmama79: I know that not everyone feels comfortable with it, but supplementing is always an option if you are very concerned! We supplemented for a year and maintained a great nursing relationship. My LOs are still nursing at age 2, and I think that was only possible because we also used formula to help with their weight gain issues. If all the stress of their weight gain had fallen on my body alone, I don't think we'd be happily nursing at age 2. Just wanted to throw that out as an option.

@Autumnmama79: I really believe you can supplement and continue to nurse if you are committed to make that work. I know other women here also made it work. And there are plenty of women who supplemented a little in the beginning and went on to exclusively BF. Honestly, I'd probably give it a little more time and think about supplementing if he's still having weight gain issues in the next couple weeks because I think 10 days is still totally normal for getting up to birth weight! If you do want to go forward with supplementing - my biggest recommendations are:
- always put baby to the breast first, then give supplement after so your body is constantly getting the message to produce more milk
- practice paced bottle feedings with a preemie nipple. We used Enfamil preemie nipples which were very slow so my kids had to work for it a little. (Medela nipples, even the slowest flow, were always way too fast for my LOs and I didn't want to make bottles too easy)

I made it my goal to nurse on demand 24 hrs a day (even through the night). Any time, any where they wanted, and I do think that helped them prefer nursing to bottles although maybe we just got lucky with never having bottle preference? I'm not sure?

@Autumnmama79: I wouldn't worry yet at 10 days but I think taking steps to see an LC and be proactive is the way to go!

Another story: with my second LO who had a tongue tie he couldn't latch at first so I mostly pumped. I had the same concerns about introducing a bottle so early and everything but he needed to eat. I was able to give himpumped milk pretty exclusively for 4 weeks and the was able to get him back to nursing at 6 weeks. Right now you need to make sure he is getting fed and you can still adjust down the road.

Hugs mama!

@Autumnmama79: it took my EBF DD 12 days to get back to birthweight and her birth was unmedicated. She to this day eats enormous amounts but only slowly gains weight.

@Autumnmama79: that's great news, nurse on Mama!

@Autumnmama79: thanks for the update