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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

Milk supply

24 replies

NoTeaForMe · 14/02/2011 20:44

Hi,

I am mixed feeding my 17 week old baby. She currently has 3 bottles of formula a day and the rest I breast feed. The last couple of days she has been struggling at the breast and grunting, seemingly in frustration, she has also become very nosey - it's getting to be a struggle to feed her out and about now as she comes off to have a look around and leaves me quite exposed!!

How do I know for sure that she is getting enough milk from me and that the grunting etc isn't from her getting frustrated that she isn't getting enough?

Thanks

OP posts:

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 14/02/2011 21:11

Anyone?

OP posts:

flickor · 14/02/2011 21:16

My 14 week old is doing this. I just take her off the breast - wind her and then put her back on. I think its just the baby getting more aware of everything.

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 14/02/2011 21:24

The being nosey I can deal with. Not great but fair enough I guess! It's the grunting and crying that makes me wonder if she's getting enough.

Thanks

OP posts:

gaelicsheep · 14/02/2011 21:26

I think this age is notorious for them becoming really fussy and it's a real pain (literally). How's her weight gain?

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 14/02/2011 21:32

Her weight gain is really good. She's put on 1lb 1oz in 2weeks. She's now nearly doubke her birth weight. Because she has 3 bottles a day though I didn't know if I could rely on looking at weight gain quite as much?!

OP posts:

gaelicsheep · 14/02/2011 21:36

But if you weren't feeding her yourself she'd need 5 bottles presumably. So your milk must be making up the difference just fine or she wouldn't be gaining so well.

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 14/02/2011 21:41

I guess so, it's just in the last couple of days I feel like she's not having a satisfying feed. And although I understand the nosiness it is a pain!!

OP posts:

gaelicsheep · 14/02/2011 21:46

Is she waking more at night? Looking for more when she's finished a bottle? I'm not an expert, but I have mix fed.

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 14/02/2011 22:06

After a bottle she's fine, after breast she doesn't seem totally satisfied.

She has been going through a period of waking more at night. Then it calmed down a bit. Then recently she's been waking up at around 4am (and once before that) and not really going back to sleep, either crying and needing settling or just lying awake chatting to herself (well gurgling anyway!!) and she's loud so I can't sleep through it! I've been shattered and not feeling well so last night we made an extra bottle and my husband did that feed. She drank the lot and slept soundly til 7.30. Tonight I fed her and an hour later was hungry and drank 6oz in a bottle.

OP posts:

organiccarrotcake · 14/02/2011 22:19

Sounds quite normal. There's a growth spurt around this time and it often coincides with sleep regression - a baby who previously sleep well, or better, not sleeping so well.

Is there any way that you can spend some time just with your baby, cuddled up somewhere quiet and letting her feed when she wants to? If you can do this for 2-3 times a day it may be enough to get you through. Can you sleep with her at night? Again, allowing her completely free access to the breast will allow her to build up your supply. She may also just suckle herself back to sleep so you can get through those early morning wakey periods more easily. Can you feed while lying down and just go back to sleep?

She is getting so stimulated during the day as she realises that there's a fun world out there that she needs to get her calories at night. If you can go with it for a few days or a week you should find it gets better pretty quickly.

organiccarrotcake · 14/02/2011 22:20

Incidentally, I totally sympathise. I remember this stage soooo well and it's just so exhausting. But it will pass :)

gaelicsheep · 14/02/2011 22:23

Weeell it is major growth spurt time. I think you might need to see about breastfeeding her more in the night, rather than giving extra bottles, or you will probably find before too long that your supply won't keep up with her needs. That may be OK with you, or it may not be?

gaelicsheep · 14/02/2011 22:24

X posted with OCC (watching OBEM - took ages to type post)!

organiccarrotcake · 14/02/2011 22:25

Yes, gaelic hit the nail on the head.

It depends how you feel about continuing to breastfeed really, as to how much you want to work through this. Have you any thoughts on this?

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 14/02/2011 22:32

I know we shouldn't really have given her that bottle in the night but I was feeling really rough and needed a good nights sleep! We don't do it a lot though!

To be honest organic I'm surprised I've breastfed this long. I didn't have the best start to it and was counting the days for a long time. Mixed feeding has got us this far. Breastfeeding for a long time is definitely not for me, even if it had all gone well I don't think I'd have done it for much longer than 6months ish. Do you think it sounds like my supply has dropped a bit then?

OP posts:

gaelicsheep · 14/02/2011 22:39

Well FWIW, I think your supply hasn't dropped it's just that your DD is having a growth spurt and demanding more.

I went through something a little similar with DD. I gave her bottles overnight for the first 3 months for a range of reasons, and around 3 months she started waking more often in the night looking for food. At first I was giving a second, even a third bottle, until a friend pointed out to me that she was looking to increase my milk supply. I really wanted to breastfeed so I took a decision to stop the bottles and go back to breastfeeding exclusively. Different situation, but the principle is the same. If I hadn't taken that decision my milk supply wouldn't have increased enough and I'd have found her taking more from the bottle. That's the slippery slope people talk about.

My first was properly mix fed and it was about this time (17 weeks ish) that breastfeeding really started to drop off. I was OK with that because it still bloody well hurt (undiagnosed tongue tie).

It's just about making that decision really...

Sparklyboots · 14/02/2011 23:04

Have you considered expressing to increase your supply? You express after a feed (as soon as you get the chance. You can then use the milk to boost difficult or fussy feeds, or to take out, or store it in preparation for growth spurts...

goodkate · 14/02/2011 23:13

I'm putting my tin hat on for a battering here but wasn't there recent evidence that suggested weaning from 4 months.

I did it with my third, (was battle weary with breast feeding by then)so I started giving DD baby rice with formula milk. seemed to work. Soon stopped breastfeeding after that too.

And bugger me if she isn't the tallest 7 year old I've ever seen, so obviously it wasn't a disaster.

Anyhow I've added armour plating to go with my tin hat.

Incoming!!!

organiccarrotcake · 14/02/2011 23:17

notea gosh, I know what you mean! The point is not that you "did the wrong thing" but that IF you want to continue to BF you do need to keep your supply up by getting her to feed through this growth spurt.

Your supply will drop as you give more formula - and increase as you BF more. It's not a done deal, you see. Your supply at this stage won't just start to stop unless you do, so the choice is yours. I'm not sure what you feel you really want to do, though? Do you have an idea of when you want to stop?

But to answer your question, it will seem that your supply is slowing during a growth spurt, whereas actually it's not that, it's that she wants more than you have right now. By allowing her to continue to feed, you'll quickly increase your supply to her needs. If you instead give formula you're not giving your body that "make more milk" message so it won't know to increase it.

You can trust your body to make the milk if you allow your baby to nurse. But only if you want to nurse :). The choice is yours, but you have the choice - you can BF through this if that's what you want to do, and then keep going until you're ready to stop.

gaelicsheep · 14/02/2011 23:27

goodkate - no there was no such research/evidence. An opinion was expressed that it might be worth doing some more research into whether some babies might benefit from weaning before 6 months. That's all. Not a battering, just a fact correction.

organiccarrotcake · 14/02/2011 23:41

goodkate putting the recent media stuff to one side (which, as gaelic says, was not research, just a review of existing data by people paid for by formula manufacturers - loads more to it than that but not the right place here), 4 months is sometimes a safe time to start weaning. Not always, but sometimes. However, evidence does show that weaning at this stage does not affect the 4 month sleep regression period - it's just that as solids are introduced the regression passes, so it SEEMS that it's the solid's that helped.

organiccarrotcake · 14/02/2011 23:41

:) BTW.

goodkate · 14/02/2011 23:48

Thanks I must admit I'm getting tired.

Plus I like the idea of sleep when one has been sleeped deprived for 4 months.

I think your right it depends on your baby, mine grew at a rapid rate (still is the monster) so it was logical to wean her earlier than my other 2.

Having done it 3 times I've learnt that its best to go with yours and your babys rythyms and there is no wrong or right way. If you feel you can't feed any longer then you shouldn't feel guilty.

However, I do draw the line a breast feeding 4 year olds!

organiccarrotcake · 14/02/2011 23:58

I don't .

Human milk for human babies. I wouldn't nurse my dog, after all, so I don't see why a cow should feed my babies .

But that's totally separate. What I am happy to do is irrelevent.

Sleep deprivation is horrific, and there are many ways around it. Finding the best way through for each mum is what Gaelic and I (and many others here) want to do. That's not necessarily the same as what's best for me, or her. As you say, every baby is different and every mum/baby combo is different, too.

What I'm trying to say is, you won't need your tin hat with either Gaelic or me, but also we reserve the right to respectfully correct inaccuracies.

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