Have my boobs stopped working?! Baby 18 days old.

[shouldIbecrossaboutthis]

My baby is 18 days old today, He usually feeds every 3ish hours (I feed on demand) and does about 8 dirty nappies.

However the last 2 days he has fed every 2 hours and only had 4 dirty nappies. Is he not getting enough (my gut says he is, he is puking after nearly every feed from stuffing himself) or is this a growth spurt?

I really enjoy breastfeeding, but I hate how it makes me worry. It seems like you don't know things have gone wrong, till they've gone wrong; so I'm always on the look out for "it's going wrong" signals!

Sorry for yet another post, I'm finding the whole thing rather tricky with not much local support so this board has been a life saver!

[ZuleikaD]

He sounds fine! Don't worry about the dropoff in poos - his gut's just working efficiently to digest it all. Breastfed babies can go days without a dirty nappy because it's such good stuff it all gets used.

Sounds like you're doing brilliantly!

[sparklekitty]

My LO is only a few days older than yours but I have noticed a similar pattern, she has started feeding more often and fewer dirty nappies. She's putting on weight tho so I figure she's getting enough.

[worldgonecrazy]

Perfectly normal. My DD only did a poo every 2-3 days when she was breastfed. Some babies go even longer. As long as there are wet nappies and they're not uncomfortable it's fine. It's just there's less waste from breastmilk so some babies don't need to poo as often. Sorry to all those mums that weren't so lucky!

Growth spurts can cause very real wobbles in your confidence so be prepared for them.

[shouldIbecrossaboutthis]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance, I also discovered there is a drop in clinic where you can get the baby weighed so I went there as he's only been weighed once & I'm not seeing HV till Friday. Anyway, he has put on 1lb 4 oz in 8 days so I'm officially going to stop over thinking this whole BF thing and just get on with cleaning up the puke trail!

[worldgonecrazy]

If you get worried again, we're always here. Plus Kelly Mom is a great resource with lots of fabulous (and researched!) information.

[shouldIbecrossaboutthis]

It's just because you can't see it going on, only a hell of a lot of it coming back up, it makes you doubt yourself. Shame they don't go see through like bottles just for a minute so you can check!