Hi everyone,
I have a question from a fellow NMAA counsellor I hope some of you
can help with. The mum she is counselling is a diabetic and her baby
was quite large at birth - 11lb 1oz and was C-section 2 weeks early.
However, the baby now is only gaining very slowly, too slowly for her
HPs. He is only one pound above his birthweight at 8 weeks. I don't
know if he actually lost significant weight in the meantime. Mum also
had a blocked duct at about week 5.

He is otherwise alert and looks healthy. Output (both urine and
stools) fine. She is now supplementing with formula at HP's advice.
Her LC/GP prescribed ?Motilium, she has been pumping furiously, using
heat and massage etc. Seems like all the right things. Baby just
doesn't seem interested in suckling.

What we were wondering was - is this a 'normal' pattern for a baby
artificially large/heavy at birth due to mother's diabetes. What we
wondered was whether these babies 'drop' to their otherwise normal
curve on the graph and then gain normally from there, so they appear
to not gain well at first. I tried looking up my resources, but
couldn't find any reference to weight gain in the baby of a diabetic
mum - just info about their milk, their diabetic control, etc.

Anyone had experience with this scenario and could comment on whether
this baby really has a problem or not?

TIA

Joy
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia breastfeeding counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
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