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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Falling asleep before feeding

5 replies

FeelingHip · 22/01/2011 10:08

Hi all, DS is 9 days old and so far feeding has been rather tricky. He is jaundiced so we have to feed regularly. He wouldn't stay awake at the breast so the midwife said we should formula feed from a cup (so we could go back to breast feeding) whilst I have been expressing (she said it should be formula because she thought it would tax his liver more, anyway, that's by the by now!). It's now time to try and re-introduce breast feeding (topping up with cup if required) but tried last night and this morning and baby just will not stay awake at the breast. The latch seems fine, he has a couple of sucks every now and again and then that's it (even if I leave him there for over an hour!) and based on other advice I have tried stripping him to his nappy, massaging his feet and cheeks. It's just as if he is too cosy to feed, but short of feeding him in the back garden, not sure how I can change it! Until we've resolved it, we still need to cup feed because the jaundice is still there so he needs to be getting sufficient amounts of food...thanks in advance for any advice x

OP posts:
MoonUnitAlpha · 22/01/2011 10:18

I had a very jaundiced, sleepy baby too - did the whole stripping him down, stroking his feet and jaw, wiping his face with a wet flannel. I fed him every 2 hours day and night, and yes each feed was an hour of dozing and occasional suckling.

I found the best thing to do was just to go to bed and stay there skin-to-skin and just let him doze and suckle as much as possible. It took about 2 weeks for him to regain his birthweight, look a bit alert and less yellow.

How is his weight? Lots of wet/dirty nappies?

FeelingHip · 22/01/2011 10:24

His weight loss after birth was within the acceptable level ( i.e. less than 10% of birth weight) and I'm not sure if he has picked that back up at all yet (hasn't been weighed). He is getting lots of wet / dirty nappies, but suspect that's because he is eating lots of formula!

OP posts:
MoonUnitAlpha · 22/01/2011 10:29

I was never told to give formula so that simplified it a little for me.

How often are you breastfeeding?

FeelingHip · 22/01/2011 10:47

I'm trying before every cup feed - so maximum of 3 hour gap inbetween

OP posts:
MoonUnitAlpha · 22/01/2011 10:58

I would take him to bed for a couple of days, skin to skin with constant boob access to try to feed as much as possible.

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