10 week old DD still feeding all the time!!

[kellieb7]

Hi, my DD is now 10 weeks old and is EBF. She had a rough start to life and was born at 34&2 by forceps. She was initially tube fed and suffered with jaundice. For the first 2 weeks she was fed by me and the tube when she was too sleepy to latch etc. When this all settled, I continued to feed on demand and she has always spent a long time on my boob (feeding/comfort). I was wondering whether I continue to nurse her as frequently if she still demands it as I really can spend whole days/nights rooted to the sofa and I worry sometimes that she spends too long attached to my boob! Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am a first timer and everyone in my family FF and think I must be mad to continue BF. Latch is fine and milk supply is great, DD is thriving and gaining loads of weight.

Congratulations and well done for bfing under such difficult circumstances. "Latch is fine and milk supply is great, DD is thriving and gaining loads of weight." All this is great news.

How long is she going between feeds and how long are you feeds lasting?

It all depends really, if we are out and about she will go 1.5 - 2 hours but if we are at home then she would like to be on the boob as much as possible (at least every hour). Feeds last anywhere between 10 minutes to 1 hour, she doesn't sleep very much either unless we are out in the car or pram so obviously when we are at home she only has 1 thing on her mind!

Sounds very much like my 2. Used a sling with DC2, just so that I could get on with stuff with DC1 really.

Is there anybody else who could settle her for you during the day? Have you tried a sling?

One thing that did help with both was going out whether it was a bfing support group or anything else really.

I didn't let them go more than 2 hours in the day but your LO is doing that anyway.

Is there a local bfing support group you could go to, just for a cuppa and a chat and to meet some other bfing mums?

Since she sounds like she is doing really well especially given the rocky start you don't have to change things unless you want to.

She is only 10weeks old and only 5.5weeks old if you allow for her early arrival. Going 1-2hrs between feeds is perfectly normal at this age. I think DD began to go 3 hours between feeds in the morning from about 16 weeks but she still wanted a feed at least every 2 hours in the afternoon until we introduced solids at 6 months.

Similarly feeds may well become much shorter over the next couple of months especially as she becomes more aware of her environment and begins to interact with it.

So if you do nothing this phase of very frequent feeding will pass anyway.

Is feeding a lot in the short-term a problem for you? If it is there are some things you can do to gently encourage longer naps but given how little she is these might take a while to work. If the main problem is your family think she should be going longer between feeds then maybe you need to gently encourage them to adjust their expectations about infant behaviour!

Personally I found deliberately trying to change DD's behaviour very stressful because it often meant putting in a lot of conscious effort for no obvious reward. Whereas sitting on the sofa feeding did not require much effort and I rather miss it now.

Sounds like my daughter. She carried on being like that until she was at least seven months old, I think. Didn't really decrease number of feeds much until she got to about a year old. I learned how to feed her in a sling so that I could get on with things...

Of course, I think mine was an extreme situation. My daughter was, and is, VERY DEMANDING. But I think your baby is still young, and if you want to continue ebf-ing then you may have to live with it/work around it. Sorry to be completely useless.

Thank you all for the advice, I am quite happy to continue with what she wants at the moment I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing! I have just ordered a sling so there should no longer be any excuses not to do some housework!

Hi, all completely normal. But if you come from a ff family like I do, then all you will hear is that babies should "go" for 4 hours between feeds which knocks your confidence. There is also so much societal pressure to be back in the saddle so to speak after having a baby - slimmed down, neat and tidy show house, nights out without the baby etc. No wonder so many in this country ff.

You have done and are doing fantastically well under difficult circs and are giving your lo the best start possible in life. I really admire you. Keep going and before you know it, the feeds will space themselves out. Forget the housework and if anyone if your family wants to "help" hand them the duster and hoover.

Thanks Tryharder, I feel much better now x

Agree with Tryharder there is too much pressure on women. Don't worry too much about the housework, what you are doing is far more important

Sounsd very similar to DD, except that since we realised that she was getting overtired and comfort sucking even more, we try to ensure she gets some naptime at least and this means she also sleeps better at night.

She still feeds at least every hour when awake and at home (plus often when out) but she sleeps 6-9 hours a night and 4-7 hours in naps. I like that balance!

That is a really good point japhrimel as she tends to sleep better at night when we have being out and she has slept so I might try to get her to nap a little more - Thanks everyone x