Comfort sucking or cluster feeding?

[clara10]

How can you tell the difference and what is wrong with comfort sucking?

DD 4 weeks old, can go 4 hours between feeds but only during the day, in the evenings and nights needs to feed constantly, can't seem to settle without a boob in her mouth. Eventually she passes out for a couple of hours, but then on waking feeds on and off for hours, never more than 2 inches from my nipple.

Obviously i'm very tired but can't get enought time in the eve to cook dinner, give her or my todder a bath or even wash my face before bed (bit embarrassed by that one).

Do you think she is cluster feeding? as this is good? or is she comfort sucking? and is this bad? should i stop over analysing and just get on with it!!!

Normal, normal, normal. Cluster feeding I would think, or a bit of both .

It'll egt better in a couple of months.

It could easily be worse right now for a growth spurt. However...just because she can go 4 hours between feeds during the day, doesn't mean you should let her. In my experience, feed as much as you can in the day, then you will get longer gaps at night. It's part of differentiating between day and night, very gently, to slowly establish a civilised way of life!

It's obviously harder when you have two, but in this situation I used to feed as much as possible during the day, then bath them together, feed during bedtime routine (eg. while reading with toddler) and then lie quietly on the bed in the dark with the little one to create a "bedtime" and hopefully some kind of evening. I knew there would be more feeds later (and could never decide whether to dream feed, wake, or leave) but at least got a bit of time to myself and then get some sleep asap so if the night was bad, I'd had a head start!

Good luck.

Clara, have you tried DD in a sling while you cook? Maybe a slow cooker might help. That way you could bung the stuff in the slow cooker in the morning when she's less demanding and enjoy a nice meal in the evenings.

Oh - and take whatever help you can get. Juggling two is hard, so if someone else can cook you dinner, put toddler to bed, wash up, etc etc then take the help!

And of course you can bath toddler... just bath both (get a hands-free baby seat) even if baby screams throughout! We've all been there.

I would try feeding more in the day too.

There's nothing wrong with comfort sucking imo, it is completely natural. My ds would love to sleep all night with a boob in his mouth and never more than 2 inches away from me I think you need to reach a sort of compromise between you though. For me that means I let him comfort suck at the breast when it's convenient and have a dummy when it's not.

I think at 4 weeks its likely to be a bit of both and they will help stimulate supply. There is nothing wrong with comfort sucking so don't feel it's a bad habit to be broken DD will need it less as she gets older so although it can be draining this time will pass.

If you have to cook dinner yourself can you cheat and buy some prepared food to make it easier i.e. bagged salads and cooked chicken etc.