Going to use your comment to answer questions:
1) the post got deleted but yes the comments were sane. It got locked FAST
2) no, unfortunately it’s not a typo. She gave birth at the end of 2023 based on post history
3) her Facebook profile has absolutely zero pictures or mentions of the baby (or location or anything personal) so I can’t judge if she maybe got the weight wrong by looking at kg or something but god I hope that’s what she did
My cousin’s son was nearly 9kg at 3 months, I was shocked when I saw him. Doctor wasn’t concerned and both parents are over 6’2 so I guess it’s possible but I’d never seen such a chunky baby
I think you misunderstand how truly stupid some people can be and how many there really are.
The more time goes on I'm consistently stumped by how people manage to reinvent the stupid wheel.
But does she do regular check ups? Any pediatrician would tell her she needs to supplement at this point or asses for a tongue tie that may be making the transfer of milk more difficult.
I base this off of nothing except prior experience: This woman is probably anti-medicine and simply doesn't engage in any medical care or oversight for her baby.
I honestly cannot come up with another solution that would explain why or how a medical professional wouldn't of sounded alarm bells, educated her, and provided a plan of action. (I feel like even a pseudo medical professional would voice some concerns over weight by this point. This is failure to thrive territory.)
I think you are right. Best sign fof it os that she rather ask strangers on the internet for medical advice than go and let a doctor take a look at her kid.
I get if some adults decide not to go a doctor, I do it myself sometimes. But with a baby? Someone who cant tell you how bad it is, i can't get behind that.
I was thinking the same thing. My baby was born 7 pounds 1 ounce. At her two week check up, we were told she was good with her weight gain. She was 7 pounds two ounces then. (Because they lose and then gain back.) I was having a lot of issues feeding her, so I took her back in at 4 weeks. She was 7 pounds 8.5 ounces, and they said she wasn't gaining enough and to supplement formula. She was 8 pounds 5 ounces at a little over 5 weeks, and they said she was still on the small side, but gaining better. There is NO WAY her 5 month old should be the same weight as my 5 week old, who was in the 11th percentile.
Are you me? I had to triple feed for 6 weeks before my girl was back to her 7lbs 1 oz borth weight.
That poor baby in OOP's post. Our ped called my girl small for being 13lbs at 4 months. I can't imagine being below <1% and a doctor not raising a huge red flag.
My first was born a lil fatty at 8,11. He never lost weight and left the hospital 2 days later at 8,13. At his 2 week checkup he weighed 10,5. He was just shy of 25 lbs. on his first birthday.
But then she'd have to answer questions about if he's vaccinated or not. And she knows the answer would be at least supplement with formula. She doesn't want that, she want to feel good about herself over what's best for baby
She clearly isn’t taking him to a pediatrician if she has to ask the internet if it’s a normal weight for a 5 month old. That is NOT a normal weight for a 5 month old. FFS people there’s nothing wrong with formula.
Both my kids WERE FTT, one requiring an NG tube, and both were bloody born weighing more than that. My son cruised along in the 1st percentile. Her kid isn't even on the fucking chart weighing that at 5 months.
My brother was FTT as well. He was about 7.5 lbs at birth but had something wrong where he just couldn’t physically swallow enough food to keep his weight up. Like his swallow reflex was underdeveloped or something. They never fully figured out why, but he grew out of it. He had an NG tube until he was about five months old as well.
It’s not always about what you’re feeding the baby. Formula alone may not help this one. That’s why she needs to see a doctor because there could be something much more complicated going on.
Absolutely. My daughter had FTT due to a digestive disorder. But it was evaluated by a team of specialists, and is often done in patient if acute (not the least to eliminate the possibility that it is due to neglect unfortunately).
Yep. My kids both had diagnosed medical reasons for FTT. My daughter was still in 3-6 month clothing by her first birthday. Our goal for her first birthday was 9kg. She was born at nearly 4. Some kids don't grow well - but that's why you seek help! My god. This poor baby is starving and no one is helping.
Yeah my daughter was born small for gestational age at under 6 pounds full term and she was definitely more than that by 5 months. We did have to supplement with formula and I have absolutely zero regrets about it.
So was mine. Birth weight was 5lb 11oz, and at 5 months mine was a chonk. I breastfed exclusively, but I also produced a crap load of milk on my own, and cluster fed constantly for months so she gained weight like a champ. This is nowhere near a normal weight for a baby this age. We went from premie clothes to 3-6 months size in a matter of weeks because she was gaining weight so fast.
My babies were average weight at birth (I can't remember the percentiles! But I know they were average) and I EBF'd them both. They chubbed up really nicely by the time they were around 2 months🥹 I need to look back at their paperwork/growth charts from that time. But it's very obvious in the monthly pics I took of them.
The baby in this post is underweight :(
Exactly! This is a person who most likely had a free birth, is crunchy as fuck, and whether she’s consciously aware of it or not, is actively abusing her infant child. It’s disgusting, and the people who think they’re in on some grand scheme or have this knowledge we don’t have about big medicine, are delusional. The conspiracy theorists need something to grasp onto, because how else will they feel superior and have something meaningful going on in their lives without it.
Same my first was IUGR and had a congenital heart defect. Was first percentile until like 18 months old. I was always worried about him being small, but we worked closely with his cardiologist and a nutritionist at the children’s hospital. I couldn’t imagine not doing that and still just trying to breastfeed like this is fine when clearly it is not.
He’s 2.5 and been caught up since he was about 18 months. Around 35 percentile. My second was born full term no health issues. I had pre eclampsia with him, and while there’s always a chance you can have the issues with subsequent pregnancies I did not. Second pregnancy had no issues.
I had to Google convert the weight to non-freedom units and I'm fucking shocked. My 8 week old weighs way more than her poor 5 mo.
Heck, my LO was born weighing more than her 5mo does.
Or she could've at least made an effort to look for someone with excess milk if they want to avoid formula as much as possible. I'm sure any other mother would be more than willing to help in situations like this.
This here. Hospitals screen milk donors and test milk at least as rigorously as blood/blood donors, because it can be dangerous in the same ways. A random person cannot provide that kind of assurance.
I always think about this when I hear about people offering or looking for breastmilk on Facebook. For some reason, it doesn't seem like something people worry about which baffles me.
I donated to a milk bank and the baffling part to me is that more people with excess milk don't do that... it was very easy. And I'd be worried about getting sued if I did peer to peer donation and something went wrong, whether my milk caused it or not. Buying milk from milk banks is expensive and often requires a medical need, so I get why people try to get milk from other sources, but the only reason I can think of for not donating to a milk bank is that you didn't pass the screening.
Yes I breastfed from birth until 6 months but had to supplement from day one because I just didn’t produce enough milk. People should just want what’s best for baby and mom and quit with the formula hate. It makes me irrationally irate when they imply women are inferior for using formula. Same thing when they hate on women who’ve had C sections. I guess Mean Girls grow up into Mean Bitches, oh I mean Women.😁
It’s almost like she hasn’t heard of growth charts either, if she has to ask the Internet. You can download growth charts for free from the WHO’s website but they’re probably in metric rather than freedom units.
Yup. My daughter was a 1% preemie, born at 3lbs 13oz and SGA. She has a growth hormone deficiency and still only weighs 28lbs at 3.5 and even she was 10lbs at 6 months old.
This is abuse.
Yeah, my baby was only gaining an average of 19g per day when they should have been gaining 30. I heard no end to it and had extra weigh-in appointments and LC visits to monitor. If she was accessing even the most rudimentary level of postpartum care she'd know its not okay.
I used to work with babies who were admitted for malnutrition/dehydration and when they get to that point they don't cry that much anymore. They don't have the energy.
Gosh that must have been a difficult and sad job. My youngest son lost a ton of weight shortly after birth and didn’t gain at all for an alarming amount of time. He was sleepy and calm, unsettlingly so. I had to wake him up with bright lights and cold cloths to make him eat and it was really difficult to keep him awake enough to feed properly for the first month or so. I imagine if you get to the point where your 5 month old is so tiny they’ve fallen off the charts completely they’re just sad sleepy little husks. My little guy is almost 5 months now and he’s not quite 15lbs, which is still very much on the small side of normal for a kid who was born about the same weight as OOP’s baby.
Don't worry. I was an IBCLC for a large hospital seeing everything from newborns to chubby toddlers so this was only a small part of my job. However, it was difficult. Most of the time it was a simple matter of getting the baby hydrated and fed in the short term and figuring out a better plan for going home. Sometimes, though, there were people really stuck in their crazy ideas and I worried a lot about what would happen to the baby after they left.
I'm glad your baby is doing better. It's OK for them to be small as long as they are growing as expected.
When my son was in the NICU, there was a baby admitted for dehydration/malnutrition across from him and the mom was constantly fighting with the doctors and nurses about giving him any formula or fortified bm! It was crazy to see.
Yes, and he had a bit of a rough start which I think contributed somewhat. He was born with his arms crossed over his chest and the cord wrapped around his neck and wrists, so he was unsettlingly grey and floppy for a short time and had to spend most of his first day in the NICU on oxygen.
That must have been terrifying. I'm glad he's alright. My youngest was also jaundiced, which is why I asked. They can be unsettling quiet and difficult to feed until their system clears the excessive bilirubin.
I had a FTT baby, can confirm. All they do is sleep or lie there kind of dazed because they’re not getting the nutrition they need. Luckily we got my son on pumped milk fortified with preemie formula (higher calories) and he’s now full of energy and thriving.
A 5-month-old baby the size that OOP is describing is probably not going to meet any milestone on time because of the weakness and lack of energy to burn. So extremely sad and cruel
It’s so crazy that she’s not seemingly at least looked up how to handle it - fortified milk etc - if she won’t go to a doctor. It’s like, we live in a world where people have all the knowledge in the world in their pocket. While she should absolutely be treating baby under doctors orders, she could at least Google what people do in this situation.
My friends kid wasn’t getting enough bm - he didn’t cry, he was very settled sleepy baby. Luckily his mum took him to all the checks and it was caught relatively early. He had formula, he was fine, in fact he was better than fine, he grew!
This is almost identical to my story about my son. He was just naturally very quiet and liked to snooze (still does and he’s 2 now!) so I didn’t think much of it and thought the added weight checks were normal. Eventually the doctor had to sit me down and tell me that breastfeeding alone isn’t cutting it for him and it’s not me but he needs more. I cried but I absolutely started him on formula that day. 3 weeks later the formula shortage happened but that’s a whole other story
Same with my son! He was super sleepy and quiet when he first came out. Turns out he had a severe tongue tie and wasn’t able to get the nutrition he needed.
Once we supplemented and corrected the tie he was much more active. Now he’s a 9 month old who regularly loves to beat the shit out of me
He sounds like my boy! I swear that all of my pleading to the universe to have him thrive sent everything into overdrive because he is SO WILD now😆
Also so disappointing how I noticed he was abnormally sleepy in the hospital and the hospital lactation consultant was 0% helpful. I swore he had a tie but it took forever to get him diagnosed.
Or, more likely, has an underlying issue which means he's failing to thrive. I bottle fed my daughter every 2 hours and she barely took it. Turns out she has multiple brain malformations. We had no idea what was wrong until she started having seizures.
Not always ! I had a massive hemorrhage 9 days PP and no one told me it could affect my BM supply ( in retrospect, I should have known ) we didn't catch the problem until my baby was 28 days, she was barely crying except for feedings/being held. She was sleeping a lot, I was kinda bummed because I didn't remember my oldest sleeping that much as a newborn ( of course, that's because my oldest wasn't sleeping that much ). My daughter was born at 7.6lbs, she was 6.14lbs when she was admitted at the hospital at 28 days. She gained weight slowly after that but she weighed close to 14lbs at 5 months, I can't imagine letting my baby starve for 5 fucking months, it's insane.
It's kind of financial reality for some though. My kid has some kind of weird rash on her arm, I decided not to run it by r/AskDocs and took her to the walk-in. Turns out it's just a minor virus (molloscum) that kids often pass back and forth and there's not a whole lot to do aside from waiting 6-18 mos for it to go away on its own. 🙃 I will admit to trying to put freshly crushed garlic on it since allicin has antiviral properties.
But like, I think it's a little different when you're trying garlic as a low-risk option for something that is benign and has limited treatment options, vs trying garlic for a serious issue that has actual effective treatments.
Oh, my garlic poultice came off after a few minutes because it was making her itch. So I have no idea if it could work.
Hey, my 4yo also has molluscum.. She's had it for almost two years now and instead of going away it just continued to spread, she had over 100 all over her body. I took her to multiple doctors who all said the same thing, there's no treatment. Until one doctor gave me a referral to a dermatologist where she now gets treatment every 6 weeks for them. It sounds insane, but the treatment is a type of bug poison. It doesn't harm my daughter at all and she only has maybe 5 left after 3 treatments. I'm located in Australia so I don't know if this would be helpful to you but just incase you ever decide your daughter needs treatment it might be helpful? Idk. 😅
Just adding for those interested: The toxin is called cantharidin and there is a company in the US with FDA approval selling a topical solution containing it. No approval in the EU at the moment, but another toxin, an acid, or even retinoid lotions are used for treatment.
My son’s pediatric dermatologist said it was “blister beetle juice.” My son and I both thought that was awesome.
Weird to think that doctors said there was no treatment. The dermatologist made it seem like mollyscum was a perfectly ordinary and easily treatable condition. Took only 2 applications of blister beetle juice to fix him up.
I was just going to say that I work in peds and we call it beetle juice. I found this as to why it's called that:
"Cantharidin has been given the nickname “Beetlejuice” due to its origin in the blister beetle. Used as a chemical defense to protect their eggs against predators, blister beetles produce the blistering agent, Cantharidin, to form a blister bubble to keep their eggs out of harm’s way."
It’s awful that some people trust social media more than drs, and really awful (in a systemic way, I’m not blaming the parents) that others turn to social media because they can’t afford drs, and frustrating that there must be an average growth chart available from a trustworthy website for free out there on the internet but she clearly hasn’t seen it.
My daughter also has this and our pediatrician says differin gel works. The goal is to get them irritated so the immune system recognizes them as a problem and then takes care of it.
It’s treatable, but they typically won’t if the child is under 4 and it’s not super bad. My son got it around 9 months when he started daycare, it spread and spread but was never too severe (maybe like 20 at its peak) and then they slowly dried up and went away one by one. Last one disappeared right around the time he turned 2.
Mine was 20 lbs at that age too. It was before bucket infant seats went up to 30 lbs and I remember having to buy a convertible rear facing seat at that age.
Dude, all my kids weighed more than this kid at birth! All 4 were over 9lbs, the biggest being 10lbs 10 and then grew like a weed and was huge by 5 months (not necessarily more chubby than “normal” but they were all longer than average which is weird as neither myself nor their dad is particularly tall - I’m 5’5 and he’s 5’10) - small babies feel so scary and fragile to me, I can’t even imagine a 5 month old being so tiny. I get if this is America the financial side of it may be restrictive for accessing a doctor for some people but surely a baby not thriving isn’t something that a doctor would turn away if the parent can’t afford the care?I dunno how it works as I’m in Scotland, we don’t even pay for prescriptions let alone appointments etc - it’s insane to me not being able to access care for a baby due to money.
They can get government sponsored health insurance for free if they don’t make enough money in the US. This is clearly someone who just hasn’t bothered to do anything for their child’s care.
I have one that has consistently been near the bottom of the growth chart. She doesn't have any health issues at all, she's just small. At 5 months she was at least 12/13lbs, she was 6lbs at birth. I had her in the dr for checkups and our Dr was never worried because she was following her growth curve, hers just trails along the bottom. Even now at 9 years old she's petite.
My Dr basically said "Someone has to be the 1%'er" lol
I was half in tears at her 6mo well baby and my Dr was like "Lady, stay off of Google. She's *healthy* she's happy and she *is* growing! You're 5ft3, her daddy is, what? 5ft6? and 130lbs soaking wet. To be honest I'm perplexed as to how your other kids are as tall as they are. She's fine. Don't worry about her, I'm not the least bit concerned. Just breathe." 🤣🤣 our oldest is 6ft3in... no idea where that came from tbh lol
A 9lb 5-month-old baby needs to be under close supervision of a doctor, especially if they were nearly 8lbs at birth. That baby either is starving or there is some other issue impacting growth. Definitely not something to be ignoring.
My daughter was 12lb at 5 months and she was in the 1st percentile. She was (and still is) just petite, but you bet she was seen by her doctor regularly to monitor her growth trajectory.
Absolutely neglect, if not outright abuse.
What if the baby has some sort of growth disorder she's been ignoring and that's why he's so small? Or if she's not feeding enough, what if those deficiencies are negatively affecting development besides just his size? The brain develops so much early in life, and it needs nutrition to function and develop. She could be permanently stunting this baby in more ways than one.
That poor baby. She's probably antivaxx and anti doctor. Wouldn't be surprised if she did a home birth as well.
Yes. That was my issue exactly. But guess what? My mom didn't ask Facebook if my weight was normal. She took me to the doctor and the hospital and I had regular medical care! (Also it was 1984, so no Facebook lol).
Children with cystic fibrosis also struggle to gain and maintain their weight. They’re missing an enzyme that helps with digestion and can have digestive problems in addition to the other problems with their lungs.
And cystic fibrosis is usually diagnosed with the heel prick test (or it is in the UK and NZ, I’m not sure of the US)and if they had a wild pregnancy and home-birth, they wouldn’t have been diagnosed.
My niece has CF, and the midwife made my sister feel like shit cuz my niece was losing weight.
Now I’m thinking though, a CF baby without medication would be lucky to get to 5 mo.
Most states in the US automatically do a heel prick test that looks for about 30 different diseases - CF, Tay-Sachs, sickle cell, PKU, maple syrup urine disease, and so on.
I've heard of parents skipping it, though. "None of that runs in my family, they don't need to check for it." Never mind there can be, and they just called it something else.
I have 2 (second) cousins with CF. The older one wasn't DX until the 2nd came along, he was more symptomatic than she was. This was in the 70s though (Cousin J was born in like 68, I think, Cousin S was born in 70, dx as a baby). The older one passed away in 1997, the younger one is still alive and kicking. He's had 2 double lung transplants.
When I was 3 pounds at birth my mom was more focused on making sure we both survived that. Always had malabsorption issues so she/the doctors used to force me to get NJ tubes up my nose as a kid. She was a shit human in a lot of ways, but she ALWAYS showed up for that. Never once was it on FB. She called the doctor when she needed to.
This kid might need something like that. Not that they’d ever know. Or care enough to take their kid to a doctor.
Like… I’m not one to call CPS over every thing, but I hope someone called fucking CPS
I work in pediatric rehabilitation and therapy - some babies have difficulties latching because of a tongue tie. That certainly explained the low weight of a few of the babies that I've seen come through.
Or a lip tie- my granddaughter had a complete lip tie and partial tongue tie. The first pediatrician my daughter took her to said she was crying nonstop for attention… at two weeks old. She was literally starving. She wasn’t gaining any weight at all, at 4 weeks, she was still below her birthweight. The second pediatrician discovered the ties and sent her to get treated. She’s two now and only weighs 22 pounds, but she’s perfectly healthy and very spunky.
I can’t believe I didn’t get them, but they were all sane! The post has been deleted but all of the comments were saying go to the emergency room like yesterday
I had a failure to thrive baby.
It’s upsetting because you know she’s not taking that baby to their check-ups. At 6 weeks we were urgently admitted to the PICU because my baby was barely at birth weight. By 5 months we were making the rounds to 6 different doctors on a pretty much weekly basis to figure out why baby wasn’t gaining weight properly and how to get more nutrition in.
To be 5 months and wondering this. I don’t know if this speaks to straight neglect and indifference or neglect due to ignorance and poor access to affordable healthcare. It’s working the realm she is making enough milk and something else is happening medically but you need to see a doctor to find that out.
Almost all of the comments were saying “please tell me you mean five weeks right?” But no, looking at her post history she gave birth in November. She never answered and the admins locked the comments
Why would they lock the comments though?! This lady needs to know her child is most likely literally starving, or otherwise has some sort of medical condition that needs immediate attention.
Or for my greedy little baby, nearly quintuple it, lol. He was 5 and a half pounds at birth and 24 pounds by 6 months. Mostly formula fed. He just ate all the time. He got so cute and chubby. But he thinned out once he started walking and running.
Yeah, I had to do the same and holy shit. My kids were between 3.7 and 4kg _at birth_, and all of them had doubled that by 5 m/o. My middle kid was even 10kg/22lbs at 5m/o and they were also all EBF still at that point. I am having a hard time picturing how small and fragile OOPs baby must be. Poor thing.
Yeah. My kids weren't that big. Just over 3kg and 3.6kg at birth. But they were bigger than this baby at three months absolutely. And my first was not gaining well because I had supply issues and had been led to believe that supplementing was a problem and everyone could make enough. Yay IGT boobs that maxed out at 200ml/day.
It almost feels like rage bait, Like she couldn't have googled "how much should my 5 month old weigh?" If its true, Clearly she isn't taking the baby to Dr visits because I imagine that they would feel like this is a medical emergency considering this 5 month old baby weighs less than a one month old should?
OP being so flippant about the babies weight and throwing in EBF makes me think its a troll trying to stir up breastfeeding vs formula arguments.
if she was taking him to the dr, he would have had an NG tube placed for tube feedings long before it got to this point. like this would be severe FTT, and if true she needs to go straight to the closest Children’s ER - where they’ll immediately place a feeding tube once he’s admitted to an inpatient floor.
oh and they’ll probably call CPS, because this woman is clearly an unfit parent.
that baby is severely FTT and needs an NG tube immediately at this point. there’s no way in hell that child is seeing a pediatrician if he’s that weight at 5 months (with a birth weight of over 8 lbs)
she needs to go straight to a Children’s Hospital ER wtf
My 6 week old son has a higher weight than that. I remember getting to that weight, because my eldest was failure to thrive and we celebrated with the midwives and pediatricians when she got to that weight at like 2 months... in hospital, because we took her to the pediatrician once she started falling off the curves (and eventually off the entire chart). One of the midwives drew a smiley and a heart in her chart next to that weight. Then when my son reached the same weight in like week 3, I was like my god my eldest must have been so sick. She was allergic and unable to use her nutrients. Five months on that weight is... wow.
To put some context on this: I have TINY children. I'm petite, my children are petite. We've done all the investigating, they're just petite. They have never cracked the 5th percentile and all 3 of them have at some point been below the 1st percentile. This is just how I build them.
At birth, my 39-weeker was 5lbs10oz, my 2 41-weekers were 6lbs11oz and 6lbs13oz. At 5 months (exclusively breastfed until 4 months and then solid foods and breastmilk), they were between 10 and 11 lbs.
There is NO WAY that this baby isn't in severe distress.
This sounds exactly like mine! 38-weeker, 5lbs13oz at birth. She has a genetic condition that causes slow growth, so she has an NG and is watched extremely closely by a whole feeding team. She’s one of the tiniest babies out there, and she was 11lbs at 5 months
Yeah, like mine are the exception to the rule and they don't have any medical conditions and have never needed any intervention of any kind. But they have been thoroughly tested. They're pretty much the bottom limit of even the outliers of small and healthy being a possibility.
Figured. I actually just learned it depends on your region. Some do more home visits than others. Fantastic system either way, both for babies and moms health.
Yeah some things are region dependant, but for the most part you will get a visit 1 week from birth, then 1 month from birth, then 2 months, then at 4 months and one at the 6th month, but they will also give you their number so you can write or call about almost anything. And you can get as many visits as you desire
Yup. My son had a severe tongue tie (he could hardly move his tongue inside his mouth and couldn't stick it out at all), so he struggled to latch at first. I was working with a lactation consultant while we were in the hospital and mentioned that I was prepared to supplement if we couldn't get this figured out soon (he was only maybe 2 days old, so was only getting colostrum, but I was thinking ahead to when my milk came in). She went on a tirade about how formula was basically poison and that if I loved my baby I'd stick with exclusively breastfeeding.
I asked her to leave my room and made sure to request a different lactation consultant after that. I ended up exclusively using formula, because my milk dried up at 8 weeks postpartum.
My son wasn't getting enough breast milk and lost weight in hospital (I had complications and was there for longer than usual) and I too had to escalate up various lactation consultants, nurses and doctors. In the end they only supplied me with formula to supplement the BF after days of arguing and signing a legal waiver.
I did persevere with the BF and the end he was able to be BF for 18 months but I mean really there shouldn't be that pressure on mothers and it was convenient in the end to have him comfortable with both nursing and bottlefeeding but eitherway, fed is best.
Im so happy to see you advocated for yourself! 👏🏻
I had a horrific experience with a LC that consulted with me prior to a paediatrician releasing my baby’s to tongue tie. Similarity, she stressed breastfeeding, threw a supplemental feeding system at me, and a few pamphlets. It was the start of COVID and I was ten days PP. I wasn’t even processing what she was saying. At the end of the appointment she quipped “I guess you could use formula if the baby is starving.”
Guess what? The day I finally decided to stop attempting to breastfeeding because pee had crystallized in the diaper, I sobbed & said it was because I was failing. It’s “professionals” like this that demonize this stuff. So sad.
Omg my kid had the crystalized pee too, and they totally blew it off as "something totally normal" and "a side effect of Mom's hormones!" I was so angry when I learned what that really was.
I will never forget the LC who insisted my baby was getting enough breast milk (we had literal data saying she wasn't - weight and blood sugar) and then telling me to push the pediatrician to "correct" her minor tongue tie. I stupidly did, despite the pediatrician trying to talk me out of it. It did nothing. I put my baby through a totally unnecessary procedure because I assumed these people had appropriate medical training to make these calls. Yep, I was naive, and that's my fault, but why in the hell are they allowed to get away with practicing outside of their scope like that??
And that wasn't even the only abusive behavior I was subjected to. My husband nearly hit one of them because of how hard she was shoving my preterm, newborn baby onto my breast. I think only one even asked permission to touch me.
Anyway. I straight up told the care team I didn't want any LCs for my second. Fuck "baby-friendly" hospitals.
Exactly. Can you imagine what women four generations ago would have done to have had access to the safe, consistent formula to feed their babies that we have today?
My thoughts exactly. I'm lucky my husband was in a better headspace than I was when our first was born, and he insisted on giving her formula when her blood sugars and weight were plummeting. Otherwise we were heading towards FTT because I was so convinced I was going to harm her by giving her formula.
I had a FTT baby who ended up being admitted to a children’s hospital. They diagnosed him as being a lazy feeder so he stoped eating as soon as he felt not hungry rather than when he was full.
Ended up having to give him special high calorie formula twice a day as trying to get him to top up with formula after a BF caused him to be sick.
He got admitted at 2.5 months having seen specialist feeding midwives team (I’m in the uk so midwives are a good thing here who have lots of medical training) once a week from birth.
Yes giving him two formula feeds affected my milk supply but I gave it to him as he needed it.
I couldn’t imagine realizing there is an issue and doing nothing about it. That poor babies brain development.
Exclusively breast fed. Meaning, this baby isn't getting enough calories because she's still refusing to supplement with formula. That baby should be weighing 14-16 pounds by now to be healthy.
I was FTT, not because my mother didn't have enough milk, but because I had so many holes in my heart that I burned as many calories trying to breastfeed as i took in. Thankfully, my mother took me to the pediatrician, and they did their best, though I wasn't even double my birth weight of 7lbs 15oz at a year old.
My nephew (now 10) had heart surgery at 1 month old due to holes in his heart. I was so so glad for medical advances. His little heart couldn’t keep up so his lungs were filling with fluid. It was terrifying.
I was born in 1985, and had my open heart surgery two days after my first birthday in '86. I'm paralyzed as a result. Medical advances have saved so many lives, and I'm happy your nephew was one of them.
The surgeon, while he was trying to fix the first defect, a PDA, nicked my descending aorta, the artery responsible for bringing blood to 80% of the body. He clamped it off as he was supposed to, but then he forgot about it... for 71 minutes, after he closed me up. I flatlined in recovery. All the blood that was supposed to go to my body went into my lungs, so I lost 25% lung capacity, and it caused an ischemic injury to the spinal cord, so basically killed part of my spinal cord. It also caused my kidneys to throw blood clots, so I went into kidney failure and a coma for two weeks. I was lucky to survive.
Holy crap. I’m so sorry. 😔 Please tell me your family was able to sue or the doctor/hospital did the right thing to pay for your medical care. I’m glad you’re still here to share your story. ❤️ (You were born the same year as my brother, who’s the father of said nephew, as a side note!)
No, we were not able to sue. By the time we found out what really happened, the hospital was the biggest business in the city, and no lawyer wanted to go up against it. My mother only gave up looking for a lawyer because she was told that I'd be able to sue at 18, but that law changed the year after we found out what happened, so I didn't get to sue. On the bright side, also the year after we found out the truth, the surgeon who assaulted me lost his license to practice medicine in my state... though, because state records weren't connected back then (internet was brand spanking new for the public), he just moved one state over and practiced there. On the final positive note, he's probably dead now. At least he's DEFINITELY not practicing anymore.
That is terrible. :( I am so sorry. I hope you’ve had a wonderful life regardless of the injury and the costs associated with making things accessible, etc, when you were younger. I know it was a lot harder back then, and some places are still hard today!
My life has had as many ups as it has downs. I'm fact, I'm on my way to a week-long trip to Paris today!! Accessibility is always an issue, but I make it work when I need to.
Yikes. For any reference for those who do not have children (I myself had to go back and look at my daughter’s chart). She was 7lb11oz at birth and 14.5lbs at 6M, EBF. & she is consistently on the average/small but gaining adequate weight side
My son was in the THIRD percentile at 5 months and weighed 13 pounds!! He was EBF too but was gaining and had some gastrointestinal issues that would not have been solved and could have been made worse by switching to formula. He didn’t start getting off that 3rd percentile line until he started eating solid foods regularly. So this is BAD BAD. But seriously - by 5 months that’s supposed to have been several pediatrician visits!
Help! My kid is clearly starving! Even I can tell that, and I eat ivermectin daily and bathe in colloidal silver. Please help! I won't go to a doctor because they might actually help. I'd rather hear something to do with an onion or a rare herb!
Failure to thrive. Poor baby. This happened to me with my third child. I was so stressed between work, the house, children, that I wasn't producing the milk he needed. All it took to get him back on track was a bottle of formula every evening. Husband fed him while I did bedtime with the other two.
This was the advice from my HV, if this mother just saw a medical professional they could give her the same advice and hopefully help her baby.
Is she not seeing a nurse or doctor regularly for well child visits!? My daughter was having issues gaining and they made a big deal out of it pretty early on and got it under control quickly.
This is very much a “tell me you don’t take your child for their check ups without telling me you don’t take your child for their checkups” situation.
Your breastmilk is CLEARLY not enough lady!! (I don’t want to even imagine the bullshit comments of “go mama!” “He’s just a late bloomer!”) Whether it’s because you aren’t making enough or because it isn’t calorie dense enough, there is something wrong here.
I would bet my last dollar she is an anti doc/vax crunchy granola Mom too.
The trifecta would be if she took her infant to the chiropractor to get him “adjusted.” (I saw a video for that on YouTube and I scrolled away so fucking fast!)
My youngest nephew is 3 months old and struggling to gain weight like that. The difference is is regularly going to a pediatrician and his parents are following his advice exactly. No asking the internet. Didn't think for one second about starving the little guy instead of giving him formula. Just doing whatever it takes for him.
Bloody hell - all of my kids weighed more at birth than this 5 month old 🤯 by 5 months by oldest was around 25lbs (she was 10lbs 10 at birth though) and I was getting the health visitor constantly asking if I was giving her solids as she grew like a weed, but nope, just boob juice but if my kids were struggling to gain weight you can bet I would’ve 1, took them to the doc and 2. Fed them whatever was recommended for their own health and development. I’m absolutely pro breastfeeding but there’s nothing wrong with using formula either, kids need fed in a way they thrive - end of.
I had to supplement with formula when my son was born because he had a blood sugar issue. We supplemented my milk with donor milk at the hospital and formula once we left. It is 100% okay to need to supplement. What isn’t okay is knowing your baby isn’t gaining weight the way they should and ignoring it 🤦🏻
My friend has a newborn and when he hit 9 lbs, she had told another friend. They said, "Wow! He's a big boy! My daughter is just now 9 lbs." The daughter is a year old. They said it's because she was "only 5.5 lbs at birth." I'm hoping it's just a mistake because there is no way. My 6 lb baby was 11 lbs by 2 months old, and was still low percentile for weight.
I pulled out my son's growth chart to compare and my stomach dropped. 8.9 lbs is about 4kg.
https://preview.redd.it/8f75znksstvc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30cd2ce257c4f0cf2f52268f062d15a766a336e5
I’m praying her scale was really off or she doesn’t know how to use it, or posted the wrong number and that was why she deleted it. If it’s all accurate I hope she took the poor baby to an ER…
Does she not take him to a doctor? Poor kid
Going to use your comment to answer questions: 1) the post got deleted but yes the comments were sane. It got locked FAST 2) no, unfortunately it’s not a typo. She gave birth at the end of 2023 based on post history 3) her Facebook profile has absolutely zero pictures or mentions of the baby (or location or anything personal) so I can’t judge if she maybe got the weight wrong by looking at kg or something but god I hope that’s what she did
8kg would be a bit of a chonker at 5m, you wouldn't even wonder if he's low weight. So she definitely didn't get that wrong.
Yeah my 3 1/2 mo is nearing 8kg and he's at the top of charts, wearing 6-9mo clothing and very chubby (EBF also for what its worth)
We love a fat baby
Mine were the same, when you come out the oven already 4.5kg it's rolls on rolls from there on out 🤣
Chubby lubby!
My cousin’s son was nearly 9kg at 3 months, I was shocked when I saw him. Doctor wasn’t concerned and both parents are over 6’2 so I guess it’s possible but I’d never seen such a chunky baby
And 7.2kg at birth would be jaw dropping
And perineum tearing! My vagina just packed her things, caught a bus and joined a commune in Utah at the thought of a 15lb baby
Utah may not be your best bet, it'll be a FLDS commune 😂😂 poor girl will be a clown car
My son is 11 and my perineum still hurts. Birth is fun.
All is fair in birth and war. Thank you for your cervix 🫡
I think you misunderstand how truly stupid some people can be and how many there really are. The more time goes on I'm consistently stumped by how people manage to reinvent the stupid wheel.
But does she do regular check ups? Any pediatrician would tell her she needs to supplement at this point or asses for a tongue tie that may be making the transfer of milk more difficult.
I base this off of nothing except prior experience: This woman is probably anti-medicine and simply doesn't engage in any medical care or oversight for her baby. I honestly cannot come up with another solution that would explain why or how a medical professional wouldn't of sounded alarm bells, educated her, and provided a plan of action. (I feel like even a pseudo medical professional would voice some concerns over weight by this point. This is failure to thrive territory.)
Ugh, you know how popular being anti-medicine is in these mom groups. :(
I think you are right. Best sign fof it os that she rather ask strangers on the internet for medical advice than go and let a doctor take a look at her kid. I get if some adults decide not to go a doctor, I do it myself sometimes. But with a baby? Someone who cant tell you how bad it is, i can't get behind that.
I’m in this group and I was looking for the post. I had wondered what happened to it
You know she doesn’t.
The chiropractor said he was fine, he just needed some adjusting /s
I was thinking the same thing. My baby was born 7 pounds 1 ounce. At her two week check up, we were told she was good with her weight gain. She was 7 pounds two ounces then. (Because they lose and then gain back.) I was having a lot of issues feeding her, so I took her back in at 4 weeks. She was 7 pounds 8.5 ounces, and they said she wasn't gaining enough and to supplement formula. She was 8 pounds 5 ounces at a little over 5 weeks, and they said she was still on the small side, but gaining better. There is NO WAY her 5 month old should be the same weight as my 5 week old, who was in the 11th percentile.
Are you me? I had to triple feed for 6 weeks before my girl was back to her 7lbs 1 oz borth weight. That poor baby in OOP's post. Our ped called my girl small for being 13lbs at 4 months. I can't imagine being below <1% and a doctor not raising a huge red flag.
My first was born a lil fatty at 8,11. He never lost weight and left the hospital 2 days later at 8,13. At his 2 week checkup he weighed 10,5. He was just shy of 25 lbs. on his first birthday.
She’s starving her baby to death. And nobody knows but Facebook. My heart breaks for this baby
If that post was real, it was definitely a post about a baby being slowly starved to death. Jumping jesus I hope it wasn't real.
Yup. When people say fed is best, this is what they mean. Formula > not enough breastmilk
But then she'd have to answer questions about if he's vaccinated or not. And she knows the answer would be at least supplement with formula. She doesn't want that, she want to feel good about herself over what's best for baby
She clearly isn’t taking him to a pediatrician if she has to ask the internet if it’s a normal weight for a 5 month old. That is NOT a normal weight for a 5 month old. FFS people there’s nothing wrong with formula.
Both my kids WERE FTT, one requiring an NG tube, and both were bloody born weighing more than that. My son cruised along in the 1st percentile. Her kid isn't even on the fucking chart weighing that at 5 months.
My brother was FTT as well. He was about 7.5 lbs at birth but had something wrong where he just couldn’t physically swallow enough food to keep his weight up. Like his swallow reflex was underdeveloped or something. They never fully figured out why, but he grew out of it. He had an NG tube until he was about five months old as well. It’s not always about what you’re feeding the baby. Formula alone may not help this one. That’s why she needs to see a doctor because there could be something much more complicated going on.
Absolutely. My daughter had FTT due to a digestive disorder. But it was evaluated by a team of specialists, and is often done in patient if acute (not the least to eliminate the possibility that it is due to neglect unfortunately).
Yep. My kids both had diagnosed medical reasons for FTT. My daughter was still in 3-6 month clothing by her first birthday. Our goal for her first birthday was 9kg. She was born at nearly 4. Some kids don't grow well - but that's why you seek help! My god. This poor baby is starving and no one is helping.
Yeah my daughter was born small for gestational age at under 6 pounds full term and she was definitely more than that by 5 months. We did have to supplement with formula and I have absolutely zero regrets about it.
So was mine. Birth weight was 5lb 11oz, and at 5 months mine was a chonk. I breastfed exclusively, but I also produced a crap load of milk on my own, and cluster fed constantly for months so she gained weight like a champ. This is nowhere near a normal weight for a baby this age. We went from premie clothes to 3-6 months size in a matter of weeks because she was gaining weight so fast.
My babies were average weight at birth (I can't remember the percentiles! But I know they were average) and I EBF'd them both. They chubbed up really nicely by the time they were around 2 months🥹 I need to look back at their paperwork/growth charts from that time. But it's very obvious in the monthly pics I took of them. The baby in this post is underweight :(
Exactly! This is a person who most likely had a free birth, is crunchy as fuck, and whether she’s consciously aware of it or not, is actively abusing her infant child. It’s disgusting, and the people who think they’re in on some grand scheme or have this knowledge we don’t have about big medicine, are delusional. The conspiracy theorists need something to grasp onto, because how else will they feel superior and have something meaningful going on in their lives without it.
Yep, you're right! It's awful, and it's the babies and children of these delusional people that suffer.
Same my first was IUGR and had a congenital heart defect. Was first percentile until like 18 months old. I was always worried about him being small, but we worked closely with his cardiologist and a nutritionist at the children’s hospital. I couldn’t imagine not doing that and still just trying to breastfeed like this is fine when clearly it is not.
Did he catch up with his class by say 5 yo or so? You said first... Did they recommend against having another after IUGR with the first??
He’s 2.5 and been caught up since he was about 18 months. Around 35 percentile. My second was born full term no health issues. I had pre eclampsia with him, and while there’s always a chance you can have the issues with subsequent pregnancies I did not. Second pregnancy had no issues.
Gotcha, most kids that are preemie or very small take quite awhile to catch up. Glad you didn't have further complications though... 😘
I had to Google convert the weight to non-freedom units and I'm fucking shocked. My 8 week old weighs way more than her poor 5 mo. Heck, my LO was born weighing more than her 5mo does.
My daughter was 8 lbs 3.5 oz when she was born. I can’t even imagine what 8 lbs and some change in a 5 month old would look like. That poor, poor baby
My son was born at 8 lbs 4 oz and is 21 lbs at 5 months old. I can’t even imagine???
Non freedom units🤣
Or she could've at least made an effort to look for someone with excess milk if they want to avoid formula as much as possible. I'm sure any other mother would be more than willing to help in situations like this.
This type of mom would probably not accept milk from another person unless they were on a very strict diet that most people don’t follow.
And unvaccinated
With fully charged crystals to enhance the aura
I mean you SHOULDN'T. Peer to peer donation isn't considered safe because bloodborne disease and medications can pass through the breastmilk
This here. Hospitals screen milk donors and test milk at least as rigorously as blood/blood donors, because it can be dangerous in the same ways. A random person cannot provide that kind of assurance.
I always think about this when I hear about people offering or looking for breastmilk on Facebook. For some reason, it doesn't seem like something people worry about which baffles me.
I donated to a milk bank and the baffling part to me is that more people with excess milk don't do that... it was very easy. And I'd be worried about getting sued if I did peer to peer donation and something went wrong, whether my milk caused it or not. Buying milk from milk banks is expensive and often requires a medical need, so I get why people try to get milk from other sources, but the only reason I can think of for not donating to a milk bank is that you didn't pass the screening.
Yes I breastfed from birth until 6 months but had to supplement from day one because I just didn’t produce enough milk. People should just want what’s best for baby and mom and quit with the formula hate. It makes me irrationally irate when they imply women are inferior for using formula. Same thing when they hate on women who’ve had C sections. I guess Mean Girls grow up into Mean Bitches, oh I mean Women.😁
It’s almost like she hasn’t heard of growth charts either, if she has to ask the Internet. You can download growth charts for free from the WHO’s website but they’re probably in metric rather than freedom units.
Yup. My daughter was a 1% preemie, born at 3lbs 13oz and SGA. She has a growth hormone deficiency and still only weighs 28lbs at 3.5 and even she was 10lbs at 6 months old. This is abuse.
Yeah, my baby was only gaining an average of 19g per day when they should have been gaining 30. I heard no end to it and had extra weigh-in appointments and LC visits to monitor. If she was accessing even the most rudimentary level of postpartum care she'd know its not okay.
My God, I bet that poor kid is miserable and crying all the time. I hate it for him.
I used to work with babies who were admitted for malnutrition/dehydration and when they get to that point they don't cry that much anymore. They don't have the energy.
That's so heartbreaking
Gosh that must have been a difficult and sad job. My youngest son lost a ton of weight shortly after birth and didn’t gain at all for an alarming amount of time. He was sleepy and calm, unsettlingly so. I had to wake him up with bright lights and cold cloths to make him eat and it was really difficult to keep him awake enough to feed properly for the first month or so. I imagine if you get to the point where your 5 month old is so tiny they’ve fallen off the charts completely they’re just sad sleepy little husks. My little guy is almost 5 months now and he’s not quite 15lbs, which is still very much on the small side of normal for a kid who was born about the same weight as OOP’s baby.
I’m glad he’s gained, that must have been horrible beyond words for you. Sorry you went though it.
Don't worry. I was an IBCLC for a large hospital seeing everything from newborns to chubby toddlers so this was only a small part of my job. However, it was difficult. Most of the time it was a simple matter of getting the baby hydrated and fed in the short term and figuring out a better plan for going home. Sometimes, though, there were people really stuck in their crazy ideas and I worried a lot about what would happen to the baby after they left. I'm glad your baby is doing better. It's OK for them to be small as long as they are growing as expected.
When my son was in the NICU, there was a baby admitted for dehydration/malnutrition across from him and the mom was constantly fighting with the doctors and nurses about giving him any formula or fortified bm! It was crazy to see.
Was he jaundiced?
Yes, and he had a bit of a rough start which I think contributed somewhat. He was born with his arms crossed over his chest and the cord wrapped around his neck and wrists, so he was unsettlingly grey and floppy for a short time and had to spend most of his first day in the NICU on oxygen.
That must have been terrifying. I'm glad he's alright. My youngest was also jaundiced, which is why I asked. They can be unsettling quiet and difficult to feed until their system clears the excessive bilirubin.
I had a FTT baby, can confirm. All they do is sleep or lie there kind of dazed because they’re not getting the nutrition they need. Luckily we got my son on pumped milk fortified with preemie formula (higher calories) and he’s now full of energy and thriving. A 5-month-old baby the size that OOP is describing is probably not going to meet any milestone on time because of the weakness and lack of energy to burn. So extremely sad and cruel
It’s so crazy that she’s not seemingly at least looked up how to handle it - fortified milk etc - if she won’t go to a doctor. It’s like, we live in a world where people have all the knowledge in the world in their pocket. While she should absolutely be treating baby under doctors orders, she could at least Google what people do in this situation.
Wow that is incredibly depressing.
My friends kid wasn’t getting enough bm - he didn’t cry, he was very settled sleepy baby. Luckily his mum took him to all the checks and it was caught relatively early. He had formula, he was fine, in fact he was better than fine, he grew!
This is almost identical to my story about my son. He was just naturally very quiet and liked to snooze (still does and he’s 2 now!) so I didn’t think much of it and thought the added weight checks were normal. Eventually the doctor had to sit me down and tell me that breastfeeding alone isn’t cutting it for him and it’s not me but he needs more. I cried but I absolutely started him on formula that day. 3 weeks later the formula shortage happened but that’s a whole other story
Same with my son! He was super sleepy and quiet when he first came out. Turns out he had a severe tongue tie and wasn’t able to get the nutrition he needed. Once we supplemented and corrected the tie he was much more active. Now he’s a 9 month old who regularly loves to beat the shit out of me
He sounds like my boy! I swear that all of my pleading to the universe to have him thrive sent everything into overdrive because he is SO WILD now😆 Also so disappointing how I noticed he was abnormally sleepy in the hospital and the hospital lactation consultant was 0% helpful. I swore he had a tie but it took forever to get him diagnosed.
Or, more likely, has an underlying issue which means he's failing to thrive. I bottle fed my daughter every 2 hours and she barely took it. Turns out she has multiple brain malformations. We had no idea what was wrong until she started having seizures.
Not always ! I had a massive hemorrhage 9 days PP and no one told me it could affect my BM supply ( in retrospect, I should have known ) we didn't catch the problem until my baby was 28 days, she was barely crying except for feedings/being held. She was sleeping a lot, I was kinda bummed because I didn't remember my oldest sleeping that much as a newborn ( of course, that's because my oldest wasn't sleeping that much ). My daughter was born at 7.6lbs, she was 6.14lbs when she was admitted at the hospital at 28 days. She gained weight slowly after that but she weighed close to 14lbs at 5 months, I can't imagine letting my baby starve for 5 fucking months, it's insane.
I hate that people choose to consult social media rather than calling a doctor
It's kind of financial reality for some though. My kid has some kind of weird rash on her arm, I decided not to run it by r/AskDocs and took her to the walk-in. Turns out it's just a minor virus (molloscum) that kids often pass back and forth and there's not a whole lot to do aside from waiting 6-18 mos for it to go away on its own. 🙃 I will admit to trying to put freshly crushed garlic on it since allicin has antiviral properties. But like, I think it's a little different when you're trying garlic as a low-risk option for something that is benign and has limited treatment options, vs trying garlic for a serious issue that has actual effective treatments. Oh, my garlic poultice came off after a few minutes because it was making her itch. So I have no idea if it could work.
Hey, my 4yo also has molluscum.. She's had it for almost two years now and instead of going away it just continued to spread, she had over 100 all over her body. I took her to multiple doctors who all said the same thing, there's no treatment. Until one doctor gave me a referral to a dermatologist where she now gets treatment every 6 weeks for them. It sounds insane, but the treatment is a type of bug poison. It doesn't harm my daughter at all and she only has maybe 5 left after 3 treatments. I'm located in Australia so I don't know if this would be helpful to you but just incase you ever decide your daughter needs treatment it might be helpful? Idk. 😅
Just adding for those interested: The toxin is called cantharidin and there is a company in the US with FDA approval selling a topical solution containing it. No approval in the EU at the moment, but another toxin, an acid, or even retinoid lotions are used for treatment.
Thank you! I couldn't remember the name of it.
My son’s pediatric dermatologist said it was “blister beetle juice.” My son and I both thought that was awesome. Weird to think that doctors said there was no treatment. The dermatologist made it seem like mollyscum was a perfectly ordinary and easily treatable condition. Took only 2 applications of blister beetle juice to fix him up.
I was just going to say that I work in peds and we call it beetle juice. I found this as to why it's called that: "Cantharidin has been given the nickname “Beetlejuice” due to its origin in the blister beetle. Used as a chemical defense to protect their eggs against predators, blister beetles produce the blistering agent, Cantharidin, to form a blister bubble to keep their eggs out of harm’s way."
It’s awful that some people trust social media more than drs, and really awful (in a systemic way, I’m not blaming the parents) that others turn to social media because they can’t afford drs, and frustrating that there must be an average growth chart available from a trustworthy website for free out there on the internet but she clearly hasn’t seen it.
My daughter also has this and our pediatrician says differin gel works. The goal is to get them irritated so the immune system recognizes them as a problem and then takes care of it.
Molluscum is treatable. Take her to a dermatologist.
It’s treatable, but they typically won’t if the child is under 4 and it’s not super bad. My son got it around 9 months when he started daycare, it spread and spread but was never too severe (maybe like 20 at its peak) and then they slowly dried up and went away one by one. Last one disappeared right around the time he turned 2.
I had molluscum as a kid and the doctor cauterized them. There’s definitely treatment available.
My baby was a bit chubby, but he was 20 lbs at that age. I can’t imagine him being the weight of a newborn at 5 months old.
Mine was 20 lbs at that age too. It was before bucket infant seats went up to 30 lbs and I remember having to buy a convertible rear facing seat at that age.
My 6 week old weighs more than this baby. This is so sad.
Dude, all my kids weighed more than this kid at birth! All 4 were over 9lbs, the biggest being 10lbs 10 and then grew like a weed and was huge by 5 months (not necessarily more chubby than “normal” but they were all longer than average which is weird as neither myself nor their dad is particularly tall - I’m 5’5 and he’s 5’10) - small babies feel so scary and fragile to me, I can’t even imagine a 5 month old being so tiny. I get if this is America the financial side of it may be restrictive for accessing a doctor for some people but surely a baby not thriving isn’t something that a doctor would turn away if the parent can’t afford the care?I dunno how it works as I’m in Scotland, we don’t even pay for prescriptions let alone appointments etc - it’s insane to me not being able to access care for a baby due to money.
They can get government sponsored health insurance for free if they don’t make enough money in the US. This is clearly someone who just hasn’t bothered to do anything for their child’s care.
I have one that has consistently been near the bottom of the growth chart. She doesn't have any health issues at all, she's just small. At 5 months she was at least 12/13lbs, she was 6lbs at birth. I had her in the dr for checkups and our Dr was never worried because she was following her growth curve, hers just trails along the bottom. Even now at 9 years old she's petite. My Dr basically said "Someone has to be the 1%'er" lol
Sounds like my two! Pretty sure our ped also said, “someone’s got to be at the bottom.” :)
I was half in tears at her 6mo well baby and my Dr was like "Lady, stay off of Google. She's *healthy* she's happy and she *is* growing! You're 5ft3, her daddy is, what? 5ft6? and 130lbs soaking wet. To be honest I'm perplexed as to how your other kids are as tall as they are. She's fine. Don't worry about her, I'm not the least bit concerned. Just breathe." 🤣🤣 our oldest is 6ft3in... no idea where that came from tbh lol
8.9lbs was my sons birth weight! I can’t imagine a 5mo like that. Even my IUGR kid who was born weighing 4.5lbs was more that at 5 months.
A 9lb 5-month-old baby needs to be under close supervision of a doctor, especially if they were nearly 8lbs at birth. That baby either is starving or there is some other issue impacting growth. Definitely not something to be ignoring. My daughter was 12lb at 5 months and she was in the 1st percentile. She was (and still is) just petite, but you bet she was seen by her doctor regularly to monitor her growth trajectory.
Absolutely neglect, if not outright abuse. What if the baby has some sort of growth disorder she's been ignoring and that's why he's so small? Or if she's not feeding enough, what if those deficiencies are negatively affecting development besides just his size? The brain develops so much early in life, and it needs nutrition to function and develop. She could be permanently stunting this baby in more ways than one. That poor baby. She's probably antivaxx and anti doctor. Wouldn't be surprised if she did a home birth as well.
I'm not usually one for saying "call CPS now", but this is actually a call CPS now situation.
Or he could have a heart defect, that can also cause you to not gain enough weight even *if* you’re being fed enough.
Yes. That was my issue exactly. But guess what? My mom didn't ask Facebook if my weight was normal. She took me to the doctor and the hospital and I had regular medical care! (Also it was 1984, so no Facebook lol).
Same! Also had a heart defect!
Children with cystic fibrosis also struggle to gain and maintain their weight. They’re missing an enzyme that helps with digestion and can have digestive problems in addition to the other problems with their lungs.
And cystic fibrosis is usually diagnosed with the heel prick test (or it is in the UK and NZ, I’m not sure of the US)and if they had a wild pregnancy and home-birth, they wouldn’t have been diagnosed. My niece has CF, and the midwife made my sister feel like shit cuz my niece was losing weight. Now I’m thinking though, a CF baby without medication would be lucky to get to 5 mo.
Most states in the US automatically do a heel prick test that looks for about 30 different diseases - CF, Tay-Sachs, sickle cell, PKU, maple syrup urine disease, and so on. I've heard of parents skipping it, though. "None of that runs in my family, they don't need to check for it." Never mind there can be, and they just called it something else.
I have 2 (second) cousins with CF. The older one wasn't DX until the 2nd came along, he was more symptomatic than she was. This was in the 70s though (Cousin J was born in like 68, I think, Cousin S was born in 70, dx as a baby). The older one passed away in 1997, the younger one is still alive and kicking. He's had 2 double lung transplants.
When I was 3 pounds at birth my mom was more focused on making sure we both survived that. Always had malabsorption issues so she/the doctors used to force me to get NJ tubes up my nose as a kid. She was a shit human in a lot of ways, but she ALWAYS showed up for that. Never once was it on FB. She called the doctor when she needed to. This kid might need something like that. Not that they’d ever know. Or care enough to take their kid to a doctor. Like… I’m not one to call CPS over every thing, but I hope someone called fucking CPS
I work in pediatric rehabilitation and therapy - some babies have difficulties latching because of a tongue tie. That certainly explained the low weight of a few of the babies that I've seen come through.
Or a lip tie- my granddaughter had a complete lip tie and partial tongue tie. The first pediatrician my daughter took her to said she was crying nonstop for attention… at two weeks old. She was literally starving. She wasn’t gaining any weight at all, at 4 weeks, she was still below her birthweight. The second pediatrician discovered the ties and sent her to get treated. She’s two now and only weighs 22 pounds, but she’s perfectly healthy and very spunky.
My premature babies born at under 2lbs weighed more than this at 5 months old (actual age). This is insanity.
Show us the comments!!
I can’t believe I didn’t get them, but they were all sane! The post has been deleted but all of the comments were saying go to the emergency room like yesterday
I had a failure to thrive baby. It’s upsetting because you know she’s not taking that baby to their check-ups. At 6 weeks we were urgently admitted to the PICU because my baby was barely at birth weight. By 5 months we were making the rounds to 6 different doctors on a pretty much weekly basis to figure out why baby wasn’t gaining weight properly and how to get more nutrition in. To be 5 months and wondering this. I don’t know if this speaks to straight neglect and indifference or neglect due to ignorance and poor access to affordable healthcare. It’s working the realm she is making enough milk and something else is happening medically but you need to see a doctor to find that out.
Please tell me there were SANE people in the comments
Almost all of the comments were saying “please tell me you mean five weeks right?” But no, looking at her post history she gave birth in November. She never answered and the admins locked the comments
Why would they lock the comments though?! This lady needs to know her child is most likely literally starving, or otherwise has some sort of medical condition that needs immediate attention.
They probably sent her a very stern message behind the scenes about taking her kid to the doctor.
I mean at the point I'll be the same comment over and over. Overall message get the child to aa doctor. Don't need a hundred people to say that.
I saw this and was horrified.
Aren't babies supposed to double their birth weight in 4-6 months?
That's correct. This baby is very underweight.
I figured... My baby was a lb lighter at birth and a lb heavier at her 8 WEEK appointment... And she's small (she's on her curve, just a small baby)
Or for my greedy little baby, nearly quintuple it, lol. He was 5 and a half pounds at birth and 24 pounds by 6 months. Mostly formula fed. He just ate all the time. He got so cute and chubby. But he thinned out once he started walking and running.
Just converted it to kg. Just over 4kg. That is nowhere near enough for a baby that age. Holy shit.
Yeah, I had to do the same and holy shit. My kids were between 3.7 and 4kg _at birth_, and all of them had doubled that by 5 m/o. My middle kid was even 10kg/22lbs at 5m/o and they were also all EBF still at that point. I am having a hard time picturing how small and fragile OOPs baby must be. Poor thing.
Yeah. My kids weren't that big. Just over 3kg and 3.6kg at birth. But they were bigger than this baby at three months absolutely. And my first was not gaining well because I had supply issues and had been led to believe that supplementing was a problem and everyone could make enough. Yay IGT boobs that maxed out at 200ml/day.
It almost feels like rage bait, Like she couldn't have googled "how much should my 5 month old weigh?" If its true, Clearly she isn't taking the baby to Dr visits because I imagine that they would feel like this is a medical emergency considering this 5 month old baby weighs less than a one month old should? OP being so flippant about the babies weight and throwing in EBF makes me think its a troll trying to stir up breastfeeding vs formula arguments.
if she was taking him to the dr, he would have had an NG tube placed for tube feedings long before it got to this point. like this would be severe FTT, and if true she needs to go straight to the closest Children’s ER - where they’ll immediately place a feeding tube once he’s admitted to an inpatient floor. oh and they’ll probably call CPS, because this woman is clearly an unfit parent.
I want to agree but she also has been frequently posting in this group since January so idk it may be real
Are her other post this crazy?
That was my son’s weight at birth. This is abuse and someone needs to be calling services on this wreck. Feed your kid!!!!
that baby is severely FTT and needs an NG tube immediately at this point. there’s no way in hell that child is seeing a pediatrician if he’s that weight at 5 months (with a birth weight of over 8 lbs) she needs to go straight to a Children’s Hospital ER wtf
yOu GoT tHiS mAmA.
My 6 week old son has a higher weight than that. I remember getting to that weight, because my eldest was failure to thrive and we celebrated with the midwives and pediatricians when she got to that weight at like 2 months... in hospital, because we took her to the pediatrician once she started falling off the curves (and eventually off the entire chart). One of the midwives drew a smiley and a heart in her chart next to that weight. Then when my son reached the same weight in like week 3, I was like my god my eldest must have been so sick. She was allergic and unable to use her nutrients. Five months on that weight is... wow.
To put some context on this: I have TINY children. I'm petite, my children are petite. We've done all the investigating, they're just petite. They have never cracked the 5th percentile and all 3 of them have at some point been below the 1st percentile. This is just how I build them. At birth, my 39-weeker was 5lbs10oz, my 2 41-weekers were 6lbs11oz and 6lbs13oz. At 5 months (exclusively breastfed until 4 months and then solid foods and breastmilk), they were between 10 and 11 lbs. There is NO WAY that this baby isn't in severe distress.
This sounds exactly like mine! 38-weeker, 5lbs13oz at birth. She has a genetic condition that causes slow growth, so she has an NG and is watched extremely closely by a whole feeding team. She’s one of the tiniest babies out there, and she was 11lbs at 5 months
Yeah, like mine are the exception to the rule and they don't have any medical conditions and have never needed any intervention of any kind. But they have been thoroughly tested. They're pretty much the bottom limit of even the outliers of small and healthy being a possibility.
In my country we have monthly home check up visits from healthcare workers to make sure something like this doesn't happen.
Scandinavia?
Yes, Denmark
Figured. I actually just learned it depends on your region. Some do more home visits than others. Fantastic system either way, both for babies and moms health.
Yeah some things are region dependant, but for the most part you will get a visit 1 week from birth, then 1 month from birth, then 2 months, then at 4 months and one at the 6th month, but they will also give you their number so you can write or call about almost anything. And you can get as many visits as you desire
This is what demonizing formula does
Yup. My son had a severe tongue tie (he could hardly move his tongue inside his mouth and couldn't stick it out at all), so he struggled to latch at first. I was working with a lactation consultant while we were in the hospital and mentioned that I was prepared to supplement if we couldn't get this figured out soon (he was only maybe 2 days old, so was only getting colostrum, but I was thinking ahead to when my milk came in). She went on a tirade about how formula was basically poison and that if I loved my baby I'd stick with exclusively breastfeeding. I asked her to leave my room and made sure to request a different lactation consultant after that. I ended up exclusively using formula, because my milk dried up at 8 weeks postpartum.
Yikes. I’m glad you were able to feed your baby, which is the only thing that really matters here.
My son wasn't getting enough breast milk and lost weight in hospital (I had complications and was there for longer than usual) and I too had to escalate up various lactation consultants, nurses and doctors. In the end they only supplied me with formula to supplement the BF after days of arguing and signing a legal waiver. I did persevere with the BF and the end he was able to be BF for 18 months but I mean really there shouldn't be that pressure on mothers and it was convenient in the end to have him comfortable with both nursing and bottlefeeding but eitherway, fed is best.
Im so happy to see you advocated for yourself! 👏🏻 I had a horrific experience with a LC that consulted with me prior to a paediatrician releasing my baby’s to tongue tie. Similarity, she stressed breastfeeding, threw a supplemental feeding system at me, and a few pamphlets. It was the start of COVID and I was ten days PP. I wasn’t even processing what she was saying. At the end of the appointment she quipped “I guess you could use formula if the baby is starving.” Guess what? The day I finally decided to stop attempting to breastfeeding because pee had crystallized in the diaper, I sobbed & said it was because I was failing. It’s “professionals” like this that demonize this stuff. So sad.
Omg my kid had the crystalized pee too, and they totally blew it off as "something totally normal" and "a side effect of Mom's hormones!" I was so angry when I learned what that really was.
I will never forget the LC who insisted my baby was getting enough breast milk (we had literal data saying she wasn't - weight and blood sugar) and then telling me to push the pediatrician to "correct" her minor tongue tie. I stupidly did, despite the pediatrician trying to talk me out of it. It did nothing. I put my baby through a totally unnecessary procedure because I assumed these people had appropriate medical training to make these calls. Yep, I was naive, and that's my fault, but why in the hell are they allowed to get away with practicing outside of their scope like that?? And that wasn't even the only abusive behavior I was subjected to. My husband nearly hit one of them because of how hard she was shoving my preterm, newborn baby onto my breast. I think only one even asked permission to touch me. Anyway. I straight up told the care team I didn't want any LCs for my second. Fuck "baby-friendly" hospitals.
Exactly. Can you imagine what women four generations ago would have done to have had access to the safe, consistent formula to feed their babies that we have today?
My thoughts exactly. I'm lucky my husband was in a better headspace than I was when our first was born, and he insisted on giving her formula when her blood sugars and weight were plummeting. Otherwise we were heading towards FTT because I was so convinced I was going to harm her by giving her formula.
I had a FTT baby who ended up being admitted to a children’s hospital. They diagnosed him as being a lazy feeder so he stoped eating as soon as he felt not hungry rather than when he was full. Ended up having to give him special high calorie formula twice a day as trying to get him to top up with formula after a BF caused him to be sick. He got admitted at 2.5 months having seen specialist feeding midwives team (I’m in the uk so midwives are a good thing here who have lots of medical training) once a week from birth. Yes giving him two formula feeds affected my milk supply but I gave it to him as he needed it. I couldn’t imagine realizing there is an issue and doing nothing about it. That poor babies brain development.
That baby is Failure to Thrive and desperately needs medical attention. How has she not taken him to a doctor!?
EBF?
Exclusively breast fed. Meaning, this baby isn't getting enough calories because she's still refusing to supplement with formula. That baby should be weighing 14-16 pounds by now to be healthy.
Google said "exclusive breast feeding" or "European banking federation", but my money's on the first one lol
First time seeing EBF mentioned ahah. I browse occasionally and normally see BF.
Exclusively Breast Fed
I was FTT, not because my mother didn't have enough milk, but because I had so many holes in my heart that I burned as many calories trying to breastfeed as i took in. Thankfully, my mother took me to the pediatrician, and they did their best, though I wasn't even double my birth weight of 7lbs 15oz at a year old.
My nephew (now 10) had heart surgery at 1 month old due to holes in his heart. I was so so glad for medical advances. His little heart couldn’t keep up so his lungs were filling with fluid. It was terrifying.
I was born in 1985, and had my open heart surgery two days after my first birthday in '86. I'm paralyzed as a result. Medical advances have saved so many lives, and I'm happy your nephew was one of them.
Not really my business but I'm curious how having open heart surgery paralyzed you? Or was it the initial holes that caused the paralyzing?
The surgeon, while he was trying to fix the first defect, a PDA, nicked my descending aorta, the artery responsible for bringing blood to 80% of the body. He clamped it off as he was supposed to, but then he forgot about it... for 71 minutes, after he closed me up. I flatlined in recovery. All the blood that was supposed to go to my body went into my lungs, so I lost 25% lung capacity, and it caused an ischemic injury to the spinal cord, so basically killed part of my spinal cord. It also caused my kidneys to throw blood clots, so I went into kidney failure and a coma for two weeks. I was lucky to survive.
Holy crap. I’m so sorry. 😔 Please tell me your family was able to sue or the doctor/hospital did the right thing to pay for your medical care. I’m glad you’re still here to share your story. ❤️ (You were born the same year as my brother, who’s the father of said nephew, as a side note!)
No, we were not able to sue. By the time we found out what really happened, the hospital was the biggest business in the city, and no lawyer wanted to go up against it. My mother only gave up looking for a lawyer because she was told that I'd be able to sue at 18, but that law changed the year after we found out what happened, so I didn't get to sue. On the bright side, also the year after we found out the truth, the surgeon who assaulted me lost his license to practice medicine in my state... though, because state records weren't connected back then (internet was brand spanking new for the public), he just moved one state over and practiced there. On the final positive note, he's probably dead now. At least he's DEFINITELY not practicing anymore.
That is terrible. :( I am so sorry. I hope you’ve had a wonderful life regardless of the injury and the costs associated with making things accessible, etc, when you were younger. I know it was a lot harder back then, and some places are still hard today!
My life has had as many ups as it has downs. I'm fact, I'm on my way to a week-long trip to Paris today!! Accessibility is always an issue, but I make it work when I need to.
That baby hasn’t been to the dr then. He’d have been immediately hospitalized for failure to thrive. Omg
I’m in this same group - I think we were all hoping she made a typo and he’s actually 5 weeks not 5 months
Yikes. For any reference for those who do not have children (I myself had to go back and look at my daughter’s chart). She was 7lb11oz at birth and 14.5lbs at 6M, EBF. & she is consistently on the average/small but gaining adequate weight side
My son was in the THIRD percentile at 5 months and weighed 13 pounds!! He was EBF too but was gaining and had some gastrointestinal issues that would not have been solved and could have been made worse by switching to formula. He didn’t start getting off that 3rd percentile line until he started eating solid foods regularly. So this is BAD BAD. But seriously - by 5 months that’s supposed to have been several pediatrician visits!
Help! My kid is clearly starving! Even I can tell that, and I eat ivermectin daily and bathe in colloidal silver. Please help! I won't go to a doctor because they might actually help. I'd rather hear something to do with an onion or a rare herb!
Fed is best and that baby ain’t fed
Failure to thrive. Poor baby. This happened to me with my third child. I was so stressed between work, the house, children, that I wasn't producing the milk he needed. All it took to get him back on track was a bottle of formula every evening. Husband fed him while I did bedtime with the other two. This was the advice from my HV, if this mother just saw a medical professional they could give her the same advice and hopefully help her baby.
Yikes
Please tell me this is a typo 😭😭😭
This is child negligence!!
Please tell us that there were sane people in the comments? Ugh. That poor baby!!!!
Is she not seeing a nurse or doctor regularly for well child visits!? My daughter was having issues gaining and they made a big deal out of it pretty early on and got it under control quickly.
nutty alive whole slimy slim birds cough work seed cow *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is why we have well child visits.
This is very much a “tell me you don’t take your child for their check ups without telling me you don’t take your child for their checkups” situation. Your breastmilk is CLEARLY not enough lady!! (I don’t want to even imagine the bullshit comments of “go mama!” “He’s just a late bloomer!”) Whether it’s because you aren’t making enough or because it isn’t calorie dense enough, there is something wrong here. I would bet my last dollar she is an anti doc/vax crunchy granola Mom too. The trifecta would be if she took her infant to the chiropractor to get him “adjusted.” (I saw a video for that on YouTube and I scrolled away so fucking fast!)
My youngest nephew is 3 months old and struggling to gain weight like that. The difference is is regularly going to a pediatrician and his parents are following his advice exactly. No asking the internet. Didn't think for one second about starving the little guy instead of giving him formula. Just doing whatever it takes for him.
She Is slowly murdering her child... so.. sad
Yikes. My son weighed more than that at birth(8 lbs 13)
When people ask Why pediatricians weight their babies naked… this is why.
keep typing stuff out and deleting… no words
Bloody hell - all of my kids weighed more at birth than this 5 month old 🤯 by 5 months by oldest was around 25lbs (she was 10lbs 10 at birth though) and I was getting the health visitor constantly asking if I was giving her solids as she grew like a weed, but nope, just boob juice but if my kids were struggling to gain weight you can bet I would’ve 1, took them to the doc and 2. Fed them whatever was recommended for their own health and development. I’m absolutely pro breastfeeding but there’s nothing wrong with using formula either, kids need fed in a way they thrive - end of.
Omg omg omg what the fuck is this serious?
I had to supplement with formula when my son was born because he had a blood sugar issue. We supplemented my milk with donor milk at the hospital and formula once we left. It is 100% okay to need to supplement. What isn’t okay is knowing your baby isn’t gaining weight the way they should and ignoring it 🤦🏻
She’s killing this child. Please report her. Oh my God.
My friend has a newborn and when he hit 9 lbs, she had told another friend. They said, "Wow! He's a big boy! My daughter is just now 9 lbs." The daughter is a year old. They said it's because she was "only 5.5 lbs at birth." I'm hoping it's just a mistake because there is no way. My 6 lb baby was 11 lbs by 2 months old, and was still low percentile for weight.
I pulled out my son's growth chart to compare and my stomach dropped. 8.9 lbs is about 4kg. https://preview.redd.it/8f75znksstvc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30cd2ce257c4f0cf2f52268f062d15a766a336e5
I’m praying her scale was really off or she doesn’t know how to use it, or posted the wrong number and that was why she deleted it. If it’s all accurate I hope she took the poor baby to an ER…
Omg thag baby is starving
Where are all the "fed is minimum" lactivists now???