4 week baby not feeding properly! Help!

[jubblicious]

I've been EBF, and so far it was going quite well. My DS would feed for 30-40 mins and then have a three hour sleep. For the last few days he has only been feeding for 10-15 mins and EVERY hour!

He is becoming more alert. He seems fine otherwise. But i don't know what to do...my nipples are now becoming so sore from feeding on the hour. He just falls asleep so quickly when he feeds. I don't know whats changed nor what to do!

i didnt want to leave your post unanswered and i am sure others will be along shortly to give you more insightful advice but...he is probably about to hit his first growth spurt. the frequency of feeding works to increase your supply.

put lots of laniosh on your nipples between feeds. It is supposed to help with the soreness.

Nipple sheilds are supposed to be helpful but i have no direct knowledge of them. might be something to look into though.

Hopefully someone else can give you some better advice.

hang in there.

Hello, I've used nipple shields a couple of times when pain got too much to bear in this first few weeks. Worked well I thought. Rather fascinating to see your nipple sucked into it by baby. I suspect some of us will like these and others not. Frankly, could just be worth a shot. They were not very expensive I don't think. Unfortunately my H picked them up for me so I'm a bit woolly on that... I used phillips avent ones. Draw backs I suppose same as bottle; different suck style could confuse baby some might say but I took a chance and was lucky, made no difference to my baby's suck at bfing. I didn't use exclusively just on the feed or two that made me cry rather than wince and tried to persevere with the others as usual. This is obviously for you to decide and depends on your own discomfort. Lasinoah is a fab product. Look up cluster feeding threads on here, I found reading them has helped my sanity on occasion and got good advice. Hope they help u too. Good luck! hope gets better soon for u!

It's a growth spurt. We're going through this too. Lansinoh really helps and I've got the Medela contact shields for when its just too sore. I only use them for a few hours to give myself a break, but you do have to work harder to get the baby to latch properly in one way as you can feed with a bad latch with shields and so the baby can learn bad habits.

I've been expressing since DD's birth as she was in SCBU at first and doing that means DH can do one night feed and give me a break.