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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

Cluster feeding?

15 replies

CJMommy · 13/02/2011 00:49

This may be a daft question and I know each baby is individual but is there a time period when babies stop cluster feeding of an evening?

OP posts:
pyjamalover · 13/02/2011 18:36

Kellymom says 3-4 months. am hoping my 11 week old has read that and will soon stop!

Sarahlou8 · 13/02/2011 20:30

Mine stopped the 7pm - 9pm cluster feed at about 12 weeks - and then began waking in the night again!! (Sorry, hope it doesn't happen to you!) She's now 15 weeks and waking twice for a feed after previously sleeping through.
I'm told it's quite common though.

Sarahlou8 · 13/02/2011 20:30

No she's not, she's 16 weeks! What am I like!!

kimberlina · 13/02/2011 20:38

I'll second that. Stopped cluter feeds at about 12 weeks but now at 15 weeks waking twice (sometimes more!) But it is nice to have your evenings back and feel you can go out for an hour or so

mejon · 13/02/2011 20:49

3 or 4 months Shock. DD2 is 12 days old and is feeding constantly throughout the night (and often from early evening too) going from one boob to the other in rotation with no rest inbetween until she and I finally drop off to sleep by maybe 4 or 5am if I'm lucky. Please tell me I haven't got another 3 months of this. Yet during the day she can sleep for long stretches at a time and is sometimes difficult to rouse. A cluster of a few hours in the evening would be bliss in comparison!

crikeybadger · 13/02/2011 20:53

Mejon- sounds like your DD hasn't got her day and night the right way round yet! You could try getting a bit more in to her in the day so that she does the long stretches at night.

Don't worry though- she won't be doing stints like that forever.

mejon · 13/02/2011 21:06

She's been feeding a lot today actually but tending to fall asleep after only a short while. Currently asleep in my arms but will invariably wake as soon as I move! I know it won't last forever but lack of sleep is a killer.

TittyBojangles · 13/02/2011 21:22

i think its called reverse cycling, check out kellymom for info.

TittyBojangles · 13/02/2011 21:23

Try this :)

mejon · 13/02/2011 21:31

Thanks Titty (fab name Grin). I'll have a read tomorrow - going to bed now hoping DD doesn't wake in the meantime.

japhrimel · 14/02/2011 10:47

You do have to work on helping them get day and night sorted. We try to do lights dimmed in the evening and always made sure we got some daylight.

And sorting out naps was crucial for us - if DD sleeps too long or not enough during the day she wouldn't sleep at night. We now never let her nap for more than a max of 3 hours, but also try to ensure she gets 2 naps a day.

Oh and getting your OH to try settling them can really help - they know Mum has the boobs they want to sleep on!

Original poster
CJMommy · 14/02/2011 14:12

Japh In relation to naps, she has not slept in the day since she was born, always overtired and would only sleep on me. However, she will now nap in her swing for 20mins. Also, I've stopped bringing her bed downstairs each day as pointless. However, she has started to nap in it during the day when it's been left by the bed Confused. Maybe she associates our bedroom with sleep??

Over the last week, DH has grown in confidence with her and has started having her more in the evening to give me a break which DD seems to like; I sometimes do wonder whether by the evening, she's happy to see someone elses face other than mine! Grin

OP posts:
MsScarlett · 14/02/2011 14:52

DD has just been diagnosed at doc's today Sad She has all symptoms mentioned here, including white tongue and hoarse voice etc. She also has explosive and green poos and farts all the time. In a way I'm glad I know now, cos I just thought it was all normal newborn stuff and that I was just a weak individual and a bad mum for not being able to cope with the no sleeping, constant crying and feeding!

Can you guys advise me on how you feed your dcs? I am ebf, dd is 6 weeks would rarely last 3 hours between feeds, usually 1-2 hours at the most. Before it dawned on me that she might has reflux I was trying to stretch out the time bewteen feeds in the hope that she take bigger feeds and sleep for longer at night etc and I thought this may correct green poo issue as she would be draining breast and getting enough hindmilk etc. Now obviously I realise this probably isn't best thing to do. Do you stick to a feeding "routine" at all, or do you purely demand- feed? Thing is dd seems to have stopped demanding food! Today she has hardly fed at all and seems happy, every now and then I put her to the breast but she has a small amount and starts screaming! I reasoned that stretching her out between feeds was that she was gaining massive amounts of weight (15oz a week) but now I realise that was proabaly down to clusterfeeding/comfort sucking. Advice anyone?

I have found that gripe water worked really well, I gave it to her when I thought she had colic, infacol didn't work but gripe water instantly stopped her crying. Probably because it has an antacid - another clue that her symptoms were down to reflux rather than colic. Thing is I noticed she developed a rash when I started using it that went down when I stopped so I stopped using it! I have now found that infant gaviscon works just as well!

Funnily enough she doesn't like her swing much, but is instantly soothed when put in her vibrating bouncing chair. I have also put a folded blanket under the head end of the mattress in her moses basket to elevate it. Before, the second you laid her down in it she would scream and wouldn't settle at all. Now she settles straight away, but admittedly still only sleeps for about an hour at a time, but I think that is down to habit and she is waking for comfort/food rather than due to reflux symptoms. Wine

Has anyone tried and elimination diet to indentify potential triggers? Is it worth doing?

japhrimel · 14/02/2011 14:53

I had to start co-sleeping during the day to get DD to nap as feeding her to sleep in our bed was the only way I could get her to nap for a while. Meant I got a rest too though!

The sling helped too and with the Babasling I can sometimes wear her down (put her in her pram still in the sling and then tuck it in).

She will now nap in her pram, but DH is still far better at getting her to sleep in that without taking her out.

IME an overtired baby means lots of cluster feeding as she doesn't know what she needs and wants comfort.

MsScarlett · 14/02/2011 14:56

I'm sorry I posted on completely wrong thread Blush

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