Did you breast feed?

[K1999]

My baby boy is only 2 days old but he doesn't feed a lot..at all. Maybe one decent latch and feed a day. He's had a few poos and wees though. But the midwife said he should be feeding ever 2-3 hours but he's really not!
He's just sleeping lots and lots. Any advice please as google basically tells me I'm awful

You’re not awful at all. Has the midwife helped at all? Does he have jaundice? That made both my boy so so sleepy. Have you tried rousing him every two hours or so. Stripping them down to nappy and lots of skin to skin seemed to help. A light tickle of the soles of their feet can help too. You’ve got this mumma. If you continue to be worried get on to your midwife again, she should help. La Leche League and the Breastfeeding helpline are great for advice 💐

Yes. You need to be waking him to feed and trying to get him to take it. At two days old, one feed a day is nowhere near enough. Is he jaundiced? That can make them sleepy. Strip him down, tickle his feet, gently blow in his face to keep him awake and feeding. Is he latching and just not feeding or just not latching at all?

Are you in contact with midwives?

Could he possibly have a touch of jaundice?
Both of mine just wanted to sleep for the first few weeks of their life. I woke them up every 2 hours and tried to feed them. First just picked up after a few days and second we had to bottle feed expressed milk for a few weeks until she became a bit more awake, she was premature though.

To add, my second was jaundiced and had to have phototherapy and when I look back I'm sure my first had a touch of it too. She had a bit of a tan and DH and I are spectacularly pasty!

You're absolutely not awful. The first bit is the toughest. Plus you've just given birth.

I think you might want to seek medical help. One feed a day for a two day old is very worrying. The sleepiness could be due to dangerously low blood sugar.

(Listen, not trying to make you feel bad or frighten you. I had a similar shitshow trying to breastfeed my newborn and I had no idea how little she was getting. I went straight to formula because my mental health couldn’t take anymore trauma).

Please seek urgent advice.

Set an alarm, every 3 hours for the time being if you're midwife has recommended that timescale. Second everything scarfladysbag said. If still really sleepy, you could change nappy and baby on a cold floor. Don't look back and feel awful just look forward.

Yes. I agree with pp, set an alarm and wake him to feed. Undress him a bit when you do, it used to help a lot with one of mine who would pick a doze over a feed if he was too warm and comfy.

You are NOT awful.

Was he early?

Some babies are too sleepy to feed, especially if early or small. You do need to wake him every 3 hours yes, definitely in the day at least.

Clothes off. Tickle feet. Make a sucking noise against your teeth (weird but it works, they don’t like the high pitched sound and it wakes them).

Can you keep an eye on weight loss/ gain? Not every day as some up and down is normal, but every few days? DD got weighed in a washing up bowl on the kitchen scales..

Oh yes nappy change first on a cold floor is a good idea!

You are not awful at all, but I agree with everyone else, you need to feed him more often than once a day, so you need to wake him up at the minute to get a bit more into him.

Strip him off, skin to skin on you. Tickle his feet or rub his ears to keep him awake

Please get urgent help OP. Baby should be feeding very frequently at this age.

Frequent feeding is needed to nourish baby and also to stimulate milk production. Please get help now, don't wait any longer.

You should have been given a number to call?

Agree with all above. You are not awful

Get you and baby in bed, lots of skin to skin, lots of food and drink for you. Regularly offer him to feed (I used to hand express a teeny bit of the colostrum into DD to whet her appetite in the early days).

Congratulations on your little one!! I would call the midwife/leave a message for them to call you back. In the meantime can you get into bed, strip off your top half, strip baby to nappy and have a few good hours trying to get baby to respond to skin to skin and smelling the milk. X

You’re not awful at all but you need to get medical health. Is he at all jaundiced?

I'd call the national breastfeeding helpline if I were you op. They are great and that way you'll know you're speaking to someone who has had training. Google the number.

Newborns should be breastfeeding very frequently in order to help them put on weight and also to help with establishing your supply.

For the first 2 weeks of our son's life we had to wake him for feeds to ensure he was fed every couple of hours around the clock. It was exhausting (after 2 weeks he started to demand to be fed himself!) but once the first few months are over everything calmed down and breastfeeding became much easier and enjoyable.

Good luck

No.
DS was too sleepy and couldn’t latch. We had to force his mouth open and stick a bottle in, he would then manage to suck.
Get some support and then if it doesn’t work give up with no guilt. Life’s too short!

Bless you Can you phone a helpline, I think it was called La Leche when I was breastfeeding, I also had problems feeding - my supply I think. Unfortunately I was so hung up about it, and felt such a failure when the midwife told me to give him a bottle (I did both for a short while). I wish I hadn't been so obsessed about it. As long as you and the baby are happy and healthy, really nothing else matters. But there is a lot of help out there. Oh, and the midwife also told me to use a cool flannel to wake him up! :-D

My DD barely fed in the first few days, and she was a bit jaundiced too. She lost quite a bit of weight.

I did what many pp above are suggesting (skin to skin, trying every 3 hours).

DD is now 8 months, ebf and a fat little thing! Get some help and try not to stress too much and hopefully you’ll both get the hang of it soon

I exclusively breast fed for 18 months with each of mine. Well, after the first few days when I was so ill I hadn't even been to SCBU to visit them.

They both had aptimil for about 36 hours. My youngest was tube fed for 2 weeks because she was premature (she'd stopped growing and was born by emcs) and her mouth was too small to latch on.

I bf both successfully eventually. My first after 48 hours when I was sneeringly told that if I went down from the maternity ward to scbu to feed him myself, I'd "be up and down every night for evermore" (er, yeah, that was kind of what I expected) and also told to cover up whilst bf in scbu in case I offended the dads who were visiting their own babies. That didn't put me off, so they made a big show of wheeling a huge screen around me and apologising to the other parents for the noise and disturbance but they'd got a mother who was "insisting" on breastfeeding... 🙄

Anyway, my point is, google is making you feel bad? Welcome to motherhood 😉 Fuck 'em. Do what is right for you and your baby. Don't let anyone else make you feel bad for being the mother you are or for feeding in the way that is best for you and your baby - whatever that turns out to be.

My reason for telling you my story, is that people tried to make me feel bad for delivering prematurely (yes, woman in Asda who shouted at me for having a premature baby, I'm talking to you); for bf ("i think you've made your point now"; "you're not still doing that are you?" - both from family); and for delivering by EMCS. Don't let them make you feel bad but the only people who count in this matter are you and your baby.

You are not awful; you are awesome ❤

Congrats on your new bubs, could he have jaundice? Ring your maternal health nurse if you're worried about him not feeding often. Normally newborn's are every 2-3 hours and it takes 3 days for your milk to come in. So guessing that should happen tomorrow or the day after. He'll likely increase feeds then until you establish a flow xx exciting times mama!

@SunshineSmellsLikeSummer yes bf is fab, but that's not what OP is asking. She shouldn't just go with the flow here, one feed a day in a newborn is extremely dangerous and apt to lead to dehydration and death if it doesn't get sorted immediately.

OP - as others have suggested, you MUST wake your baby to feed as a minimum every 4 hours. If she's not taking it, keep trying - strip her off to wake her properly, change her nappy before the feed etc. If there's no improvement within the next few hours call 111. Also please check her temp, if it's below 36° get her to hospital straight away.

My baby was just like this and was not jaundiced - just a very sleepy baby!

Please don't panic or think you're awful - you're not! I ended up on day 4 seeking midwife help and they treated me as though I'd done an awful job of feeding her, but looking back on it now I know that it wasnt my fault and I was already trying everything to wake her - stripping, tickling, cooling her etc. She was just lazy!

But as a starting point, as previous posters have said, definitely do absolutely everything you can to get baby to feed every 3 hours on the dot, even if baby is sleeping and not interested.

After 3 weeks I ended up turning to bottle feeding as my DD just found it easier. It wasnt such a battle to get her to feed, and hugely less worrying as I was able to see exactly what was going in her which you just can't get with breastfeeding.

Do what's right for you and baby, and don't let anyone tell you you're not good enough!

He needs to be checked in case his blood sugar is low. They can get into a vicious circle with low blood sugar making them too sleepy to feed so their sugar goes even lower, so please speak to your midwife about this if you haven't already. Strip him down, tickle his feet, blow gently on his face....but I would want him checked over if he really is only feeding once a day. Mine was early, small and slightly jaundiced and it took a few days for him to start feeding completely normally and frequently, but once we both got the knack there was no stopping him.

Thank you all SO much. I was not coping emotionally. I've taken him up the hospital. Thank you ALL again for being so kind and helpful x

Hope you get some help and feel better soon