my 5 month old bfs for up to 2 hours before going to sleep

[lucykh]

help! i'm running out of patience. My 5 month old bfeeds for ages before going to sleep at night. can be up to 2 hours, which is exhausting and hard going on my nipples! Either its because i don't have enough milk at 7pm (my breasts are usually quite soft and floppy), or because he 'sleepy feeds'and is not sucking hard enough to get a good let down. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do? I'm thinking of expressing this feed in the morning for the following night, but don't want to rely on this and play around with my milk supply.

[lucykh]

i forgot to mention that he is hard to put down because he is not satisfied and is still hungry. if hes had enough he goes to sleep, as i've tried a bottle of expressed milk, but don't want to get into this habit

[ches]

Actually it's called "Cluster feeding" and it's to get lots of hind milk and then sleep a nice long stretch.

[jenniferturkington]

Perfectly normal cluster feeding. Even though your breasts feel empty at this time of day, they are still producing lots of high quality milk which your baby is obviously enjoying! As Ches said, it is this that will give your baby a good stretch of sleep. I have a 4.5 month old dd who cluster feeds from 7-9 every night, it is exhausting but it wont last for long- ds started going to bed by 7.30 at around 8 months I think- although I did continue a late dream feed until about 0ne year. I wouldn't express for this feed- it is a case of supply meeting demand, but I'm certainly no expert...
keep up the good work

[hairymelons]

Hi
My son used to do the same, up until he was about 7 or 8 months I think. He's 12 months now and only feeds for 5-10 minutes before going to sleep.
It's exhausting but it won't last
xx
p.s. wish I'd heard of cluster feeding at the time! Thought I was just low on milk...