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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Cluster feeding?

5 replies

Dorset555 · 03/03/2021 12:13

Hi there I wonder if you can help me my baby is 16 days old and yesterday was feeding pretty much every half an hour throughout the day - she was then (I think) so so tired from only having short half an hour naps that she worked herself up and was crying from about 10pm to 2am. It was really hard to know what to do to settle her and we tried everything eventually settleling her with skin to skin short feed. I'm thinking maybe this is cluster feeding? She is exhausted today and sleeping plenty I'm just very keen to avoid a repeat of this. Do you think its cluster feeding and does that often make babies overtired and hard to settle? Is there anything we can do if it happens again? Thank you!

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HaveYouSeenMySerotonin · 03/03/2021 13:38

This sounds like cluster feeding to me, I'm afraid! I remember those days with DD. It does get better, but it's exhausting for you. I know this never worked too well for me as she'd just glug in two seconds and actually wanted the experience of being on the boob, but have you tried expressing so you can get a rest?

Somethingsnappy · 08/03/2021 13:41

Babies are known to become very unsettled in the evenings in the early days and weeks. Google 'the period of purple crying'... It's a very helpful website. And cluster feeding in newborns is very common. Hang in there! Things change very quickly, even though it may not feel like it at the time. It helps to just settle down with some good TV and just go with it x

Somethingsnappy · 08/03/2021 13:45

P. S. On a good note, in my experience, babies do tend to have a longish period of settled sleep after cluster feeding. My babies have all done this and my current newborn (8 weeks) tends to cluster feed all eveni g between about 8 and midnight, but will then sleep about 5 or 6 hours.

Original poster

Dorset555 · 08/03/2021 18:45

Thanks so much...its just hard to know what's normal when you have no experience of babies...I guess everyone's winging it! Just feel bad for her crying and don't want her to be distressed! Thanks for the advice:-)

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Original poster

Dorset555 · 08/03/2021 19:02

Thanks @HaveYouSeenMySerotonin have tried expressing but it's so time consuming I'm hoping it speeds up? Any tips? I've got a medela swing pump xx

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