{"id":831,"date":"2015-12-15T11:29:55","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T03:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malaysianbfpc.org\/prisma2015\/?p=831"},"modified":"2015-12-15T12:38:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T04:38:14","slug":"why-is-my-baby-not-putting-on-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malaysianbfpc.org\/prisma2015\/why-is-my-baby-not-putting-on-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is my baby not putting on weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Is<\/a>

Is your baby not putting on weight? \u2013 Copyright: benedamiroslav \/ 123RF Stock Photo<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

By BRIGITTE ROZARIO<\/strong><\/div>\n

THERE are several reasons why babies fail to thrive and don\u2019t seem to be putting on weight.<\/p>\n

None of the reasons is breast milk.<\/p>\n

At the recent PRISMA 2015 conference, organised by the Malaysian Breastfeeding Peer Counsellor Association, participants were glued to their seats listening to the topic \u201cPoor Weight Gain and Failure to Thrive Babies \u2013 Should Breastfeeding Continue?\u201d by Dr Hairin Anisa Tajuddin, paediatrician and lactation consultant at Monash University Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Dr Hairin Anisa has had to deal with her fair share of babies who failed to thrive. She is a staunch breastfeeding advocate and she made it clear that breast milk is the gold standard.<\/p>\n

Blocked ducts<\/b><\/p>\n

She related the case of a baby who was brought in to see her at one month old. The baby\u2019s weight had not increased at all in the one month since birth. The baby had frequent vomiting. The baby would suckle and then throw up each time. And the mother said her breast milk was very watery.<\/p>\n

Dr Hairin Anisa found that the baby had milk reflux. In addition, the mother had a lot of lumps and blocked ducts. The mother was not expressing the milk and was just direct breastfeeding her child. This caused curds and multiple blocked ducts.<\/p>\n

The baby was not putting on weight because milk transfer was a problem. The baby was not getting much milk because of the plugged ducts and because the baby was vomiting a lot. In addition, the quality of milk had less fat because it was watery.<\/p>\n

In such cases, mothers are often wrongly advised to stop breastfeeding or to top up with formula milk to to add a milk fortifier.<\/p>\n

Dr Hairin Anisa said that some doctors might even prescribe an anti-reflux milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something I disagree with because my way of management is to uphold breastfeeding as the gold standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my advice to that mother was to breastfeed her baby in the upright position. If the baby looks like he or she is starting to gag, unlatch the baby, help the baby to burp and then relatch. Keep doing that until the baby is full and then put baby in a position where the stomach is at a lower level than the head, maybe at a 30 degree angle,\u201d said Dr Hairin Anisa.<\/p>\n

She also recommended the mother massage the baby\u2019s stomach two to three times a day to help improve the baby\u2019s digestion.<\/p>\n

For the plugged ducts, she recommended that the mother apply frequent hot compresses to the breast and to keep massaging the breast so that the hindmilk, which is thick and fatty, will be removed and the baby will get it when he suckles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also advised the mother to take lecithin which prevents blocked ducts and Vitamin C to heal the blocked ducts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also told her that if you want to have more fat in the breast milk, you must frequently pump, otherwise the fatty milk will not be removed from the breasts. And, if not removed, it will turn to curds and the only milk that the baby gets is the watery milk,\u201d said Dr Hairin Anisa.<\/p>\n

Her method worked and the baby then started putting on weight.<\/p>\n

Tongue tie<\/b><\/p>\n

In another case, the baby came to her at 2.5 months. The baby\u2019s birth weight was 2.8kg. The baby was exclusively breastfed until Day 10. The baby\u2019s weight did not go up much, so the mother gave her formula milk up till Day 24, when the weight still did not go up much and the mother gave up on formula milk and returned to exclusively breastfeeding, but the weight went down, instead. So, she topped up with formula milk and the weight went up a bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she came to see me, I saw that there was a latching problem and the baby was crying because she couldn\u2019t sustain the breastfeeding. I also noticed that the baby had tongue tie, so I immediately did a frenotomy, because they had come all the way to Kuala Lumpur from Negri Sembilan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mother\u2019s milk production was low and the latching was problematic and the hindmilk was very thin (watery). She had multiple lumps in her breasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I taught her how the baby should latch, how to breastfeed and each time the baby is on the breast, to compress and massage the breasts,\u201d said Dr Hairin Anisa.<\/p>\n

This baby\u2019s weight increased after that.<\/p>\n

Distractions<\/b><\/p>\n

In another case, the baby came in at 6.5 months old. She was about 6.2kg or 6.3kg. The mother said her baby didn\u2019t want to feed. The baby was easily distracted and not able to concentrate on feeding, except at night. This caused an insufficient intake of milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI advised the mother to avoid all distractions. Even in the daytime, feed in a dark room with no distractions at all, no sounds, no talking. Because of her age, I also asked the mother to start on the complementary feeding,\u201d said Dr Hairin Anisa.<\/p>\n

This baby\u2019s weight also increased after that.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/a>

Dr Hairin Anisa Tajuddin: \u2018Don\u2019t think that the breast milk offers sufficient calorie intake after the child is six months old.\u2019<\/p><\/div>\n

Reasons for failure to thrive<\/b><\/p>\n

According to Dr Hairin Anisa, some of the medical causes for failure to thrive are:<\/p>\n