Mom Confused Why Baby Won’t Gain Weight – Until One Look In Mouth Confirms Scary Truth Doctors Missed

Jordan Talley was thrilled to be pregnant with another sweet baby girl. The professional photographer from Kentucky couldn’t wait to personally document her delightful daughter’s every single milestone once she arrived. It turns out that those very photos Jordan snapped of her precious little girl were what helped save her baby’s life.

Her pregnancy with the little girl she named Lucy was fairly normal, Jordan said, until she developed gestational diabetes and slightly elevated high blood pressure toward the end of her pregnancy. When her blood pressure became dangerously high, Jordan was induced. It took just two pushes and Lucy arrived!

The blissfully happy family celebrated the arrival of Lucy, who weighed six pounds, eight ounces and measured 20 inches long. She was only in the 26th percentile for weight, which surprised Jordan since her last ultrasound pegged her at seven pounds and since babies born to gestational diabetic moms tend to be bigger babies. Even though Jordan’s blood sugar levels had dipped down several times during her pregnancy, Lucy’s levels were perfectly fine, Jordan was told by the medical staff. She was even cooing and latched on fairly well when nursing.

“Her tiny lips looked to me as if they were as wide as they could go, and her mouth was moving, so I assumed that she was eating well. I had never exclusively breastfed, so I wasn’t entirely sure of what to expect.”

Just to be safe, Jordan still met with a lactation consultant before leaving the hospital, since she was tender from nursing. The consultant attributed it to Lucy having a shallow latch, so she showed Jordan some other nursing positions and shared a few tips to help secure a deeper latch. When they left the hospital, Jordan weighed six pounds, one ounce. Because weight loss is normal in the first couple of days of birth, Jordan didn’t think much of it.

Once comfortably settled at home, Jordan nursed Lucy on demand, which was often, and ate foods that would buoy her milk supply. Lucy always fell asleep while nursing, which Jordan thought meant she was “milk drunk.”

“I was prepared to nail this breastfeeding thing… But for some reason, she seemed to pull away from her latch and scream as if there wasn’t anything coming out. I was starting to get nervous that my body wasn’t making enough milk for her. I told myself that my body was literally made to feed this sweet baby, and knew deep down that it wasn’t a supply issue.”

At Lucy’s one-week check-up with the pediatrician, her weight had dropped to five pounds, 12 ounces. The doctor told Jordan her baby looked perfect, but he wanted her to gain more weight.

“I went home and nursed and nursed and nursed. I was still having pain every time she latched to eat. She was still fussy – as if my breasts were empty bottles and I was forcing her to suck on air.”

Their hard work paid off, because she had gained a bit more weight by the following week. She was up to six pounds, one ounce, but still wasn’t at her birth weight. Suspicious of Lucy’s inability to pack on the pounds despite always nursing, Jordan had an inkling that something was prohibiting her daughter from nursing well. So she took her to the doctor to check and see if Lucy had a tongue or lip tie.

“I had read that ties can interfere with breastfeeding—thus interfering with weight gain. He peeked in her mouth and said that she didn’t have any ties.”

The doctor said if she hadn’t gained enough weight by her one-month checkup, they’d have to take action. Jordan cried when she left the office, feeling like she’d let her little girl down somehow by exclusively nursing her when in reality that wasn’t the problem. Two weeks later, Lucy still wasn’t at her birth weight and now her eyes were dull and sunken. Jordan still experienced pain when she nursed. Sitting at the doctor’s office, Jordan recalled how her oldest daughter was able to exceed her birth weight noticeably by her one-month check-up. But it was because she was on formula.

“I choked back the tears as I gazed down at my sweet Lucy, her skin just sagging off of her. Why was I failing?”

But that’s when the doctor delivered heartbreaking news to Jordan. He declared that her milk probably didn’t have enough calories for Lucy and that Jordan would have to supplement with formula every time she tried to nurse. Jordan instead asked if she could fortify pumped breast milk instead, but that wasn’t an option. She wondered just how sick her daughter was.

“I knew in my head that my body makes exactly the kind of milk that she needs, because I had researched. I knew that breast milk is a living substance that changes day to day, or even feeding to feeding in order to meet baby’s needs… I left the doctor feeling completely defeated. I knew in my head that my supply was fine, but couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t gaining proper weight.”

Jordan shared a photo of Lucy taken after she was done nursing in a Facebook group for moms and explained their situation. One woman noted that Lucy’s closed fist did not indicate a “full and content” baby, but rather a fatigued baby who had worn herself out from unsuccessfully nursing. Jordan blamed herself and after seeking advice online from the mom’s group and from a good friend, knew she had to take action immediately. The photos she had been taking revealed what the scales showed: her baby’s birth weight percentile had dropped from 26 percent to 0.6 percent.

“My baby was failing to thrive… and she wasn’t thriving because I failed her.”

After connecting with another lactation consultant, the woman offered to supplement Lucy’s feedings with donor breast milk because she was “concerned for her.” Jordan admitted being nervous that the lactation consultant and doula was worried about her baby—just how sick was she? Within minutes of meeting the consultant, Amanda, she instantly diagnosed a tongue tie and a lip tie. She recognized that it wasn’t a supply issue, but rather that Lucy needed medical intervention.

Armed with a sense of peace and bags of donor milk, Jordan set out on a mission to boost her baby’s weight as quickly as she could. She fed Lucy every two hours and by that evening, Jordan could already see a difference in Lucy’s appearance.

“She had gained nine ounces the first day. For the first time in her life, Lucy was content.”

Because Lucy’s medical condition was so severe, a doctor was able to perform the tongue tie and lip tie revisions the very next day. Immediately following surgery, Jordan nursed Lucy and she could feel a completely different experience while finally able to nourish her little girl. Thanks to an abundance of prayers, the surgery, donor milk, and the consultant, Lucy was on the mend.

Jordan was quick to point out that she is not against formula, but wanted so desperately to be able to nurse her second daughter unlike with her first. She also noted that moms must support each other and trust when they sense that something is wrong with their kids, like she did with Lucy. Jordan’s persistence paid off and Lucy now is a thriving, happy, active baby girl, thank goodness.