How can you deal with cluster feeding?

[C4ro]

Hi everyone. I've got a minor problem and I'd like views on how might be best to deal with it.

Background is that baby was born last Saturday morning (so only 7 days today) and for two days we were both in hospital on antibiotic drips. The hospital formula fed her for all of that time but Sunday afternoon they did give me a breastpump to try and start off the bfeeding. The hospital gave instructions for the first days home just to do 10 minutes each breast, 8x per day and then give her formula topups of 20ml and that was done for another two days. I really want to cut out all formula now and just BF but now the last two days she clusterfeeds from around 5-6pm to 9-10 pm where she just doesn't want to come off. I'm slightly paranoid that my milk is a couple of days behind her needs anyway and with some minor temperature problems too as I'm in Holland and they take baby rectal temps here and shes always just a fraction low so there is additional faff with hot water bottles all day and night too. On the positive, she is putting on a little bit of weight each weighing and does all the right wet/ solid nappies and really is a happy little soul (except during the evening clusterfeed) so I'd like to think it really is OK and this can be got through.

My main questions are;
Can you really do 3+ hours from one breast to the other with no pauses?
How long pauses do you put in when they really don't want to stop feeding but you think maybe breasts need 15 minutes to recover/ fill up again?
Should I use all the hat off/ pressing hand/ tickling feet to make her wakeful and really active feeding when she is on the breast?
She does slowly drop off to sleep but is quickly awake again when off the breast and back asking for more.
How can I be sure its OK to drop all the formula, yesterday after nearly 4 hours of the clusterfeed I caved and give her another 20 ml that she gulped down- although then she went on the breast again.
It goes very slowly and takes her a lot of chewing to then make the swallows- does that just indicate the milk is coming too slowly for her and is there anything I can do about that?

Generally I am drinking as much water and tea as I can fit in myself and she is really OK at latching. The rest of the day the feeds run more like 15 minutes first breast then 5-10 on second. I am just not sure what to do over the 4-5 hours in the evening though.

The cluster feeding is all normal and good - it's her way of getting your supply up to scratch. I am not a bf counsellor nor do I know much about bf really but as I see it the answers to your questions are:

1. All my DC have bf for hours on end in the early days.
2. Don't put in pauses if they don't want to stop feeding as there is no such thing as allowing the breasts to fill - the supply of milk is continuous.

3.I think a lot of people use the tickling feet thing to stimulate babies but I generally don't. I just allow my DD to have a little nap then feed her again when she wakes. Up to you. 4.The short naps between feeds is normal, can be a pain in the arse I know but it's only when she's so little that she will do this. It will get better.

1. Not sure about dropping the formula in one go - can you not speak to a counsellor where you are? If not, I'm sure someone like Tiktok will be along later to offer to "proper" advice on that.

6.As for the chewing/swallows thing, I too, have a slow let down and it can take my DD a while to start the let down. So sounds normal to me.

I think you are doing really well after a difficult start. I hope you get some real advice later in the day - just wanted to offer some support and reassure you that the things you describe sound relatively normal (at least to me!)

xx

Many thanks for the reply; they weighed DD today again and she did manage to put a few grams on in the past 2 days so I'm going to try skipping all the formula now. Will just have to have a long book to hand before the evening rush starts!

Tiktok will no doubt give you good advice on the mechanics of BFing - but my advice for coping with evenings of seemingly endless cluster feeding is to get your partner to wait on you hand and foot, curl up on the sofa in front of a boxset of DVDs and roll with it.

My DD used to feed from about 7pm until 10pm in the early days, this became a lot easier when I accepted it and learnt to enjoy the cuddles. She now only feeds for a few minutes at a time (6 months old) and no longer wants to cuddle - make the most of it :)

My DS2 is 17 weeks and then evening wanted to cluster feed. Fed not stop 6pm-9pm. However he kept on puking and then wanted to feed again.

[Eventually I decided that he was overtired and not actually in need of a feed so put him in his cot. He screamed for 10 mins and is still asleep 2.5 hours later.]

What is relavant to you is that yes, you can feed continously for several hours, milk supply slows down but doesn't stop. I thought he might just want to suck so offered my finger, he was not impressed (sucked a few times and then cried when realised no milk).

I'm not a bfing counsellor either but I would say that your DD sounds perfectly normal, doing really well and you sound like an excellent Mummy.

Cluster feeding is normal and does not mean your baby is hungry or that you have a low supply. Just go with it. Put your feet up, get your partner to bring you feed and drinks and just relax. It does get easier

Take a look at what Kellymom says about cluster feedng and is your milk supply really low?