Can a baby feed too fast?

[DogEars]

I'm currently bottle feeding expressed milk to my three week old baby boy to give his mum a rest. In the evening when he is ferocious and seems to want to feed constantly should I just give him all that he can eat or should I try and pace him a bit?

Thank you.

I think the advice for bottle feeding is fixed amounts per day. This is because milk comes too easily via a bottle and they can get more milk than they want especially when all they are looking for is comfort. I'm not sure how that stands with a EBF baby because obviously it's hard to know what is too much. If you look on kellymom.com there is a page to calculate how much EBM to give for a feed. My gut feeling is you shouldnt give as much as he can drink especially as they like to comfort suck in the early evening.

The constant wanting to feed in the evenings with a breast feeding baby is called cluster feeding. Is your DS still BF at all or are you only giving him expressed?

We are hoping to breast feed again, but my wife's breast/nips are so painful we decided to give them a rest. We have just tried to feed tonight but with the same results, he doesn't really open his mouth very wide. Reading the forums it seems that a tongue-tie could be the culprit, it was mentioned briefly in the hospital soon after we gave birth but dismissed, and we mentioned it to a visiting midwife at home, she also dismissed it after a quick inspection. It's just that i've now touched/taped his tiny tongue and when he tries to stick it out it does form a little heart shape as if some thing is holding the tongue back. It doesn't seem to be connected to the frenulum wrong , bit can you tell by looking? How fat should he be able to stock out his tongue?

Thanks,
A&G.

Lilham, I checked out this page: www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html , i've skimmed over it before but re-reading I noticed the fact that breast milk volume DOESN'T increase, that's very interesting, I didn't notice that when first skimming over that page! I think we may have been giving him s bit to much milk with the bottle, were getting between 2.5 and 4 at each pumping, and he just gobbled it all down, I think the answer is to pace him out a bit. The problem is when he's cluster feeding nothing but more food seems to satisfy him.I think he gets that from me:-)

The bit about sore nipples are worrying. As you have noticed yourself, your LO might not be opening his mouth wide enough and causing damage to your DWs nips. Have talked to a bf counsellor or a lactation consultant? If you google or search this forum, you will be able to find the hotlines for NCT and LLL. Give them a call and they might be able to help. For example using a nipple shield. But I learned here that if it doesn't fit well, it will essentially be baby sucking on a teat! So it's better to get some help in person.

My dd had a posterior Tongue tie which is much harder to spot. Sounds similar I was also in agony every feed. I agree with the advice to find a lactation consultant to come and see you, you'll probably have to pay but it was the best money I've ever spent personally. If you google IBCLC and your area something should come up

I think we're at the point where we'd appreciate some help, but my wife is a bit hesitant to go to one of these breast-feeding cafes? How would we access a lactation counsellor or consultant, would we go via out GP? What would these other institutions be able to offer such as the LLL? We are in Huddersfield, looking in their Web site they have a contact number for our area (ish) calderdale. what would they offer?

TinyDiamond thanks for the info, I googled IBCLC and Huddersfield and the name Marilyn Rogers pops up as a trustee of the baby cafe, and it happens she is the contact for the baby cafe in halifax which is close to us (it's where our DS was born) I feel we may drop her/them an email, it does feel like we're getting somewhere! Many thanks
A&G

The bf groups and cafes are helpful because they are commonly run by bf counsellors, as you have found out already. From your little goggling. For example where I live the NCT counsellor runs a group every week where mums can chat and she can observe you feeding in a private room. There are a lot a trained counsellor can help too via the phone. So do give the hotlines a chance.

It's a pity NHS is useless at providing real help that women need to bf. That's why I think bf rate is so low here compared to say Australia, a country we have lots in common with. I don't think they really whole heartedly support bf. It's much cheaper to produce posters and pamphlets than training staff!

In case you've not come across this on kellymom and you're still giving some bottles.

We visted the Baby-Cafe this morning and it has been confirmed that DS has a posterior tongue-tie. We just need to find someone to perform the snip [Yorkshire doesn't seem to be very well covered] Wife is looking forward to some pain-free feeding..! Watch this space.

Can you get it snipped on the NHS? I remember on this board says there's a lactation consultant who can snip and will travel. Not sure the cost. You can try searching for her number or maybe post a new thread with a appropriate title if you need it?

Good luck.

Can I just add that your wife is very lucky to have you support her like this! I hope you get the matter sorted v soon!

Lilham it seems that the surgeon may refuse to operate on a posterior tie as it's not obvious, and more impotently, we're pretty impatient now, so maybe private will be our best route! We're currently waiting on a few calls/emails.

Although any suggestions welcome :-)

Mampig I'm not sure i've really got a choice

I have seen these people mentioned on these boards a few times, particularly in relation to tongue ties. They may cover you, and even if they don't, may be able to advise on who could locally.

DogEars- how did you get on- any progress?

Ruffles Yeah, they have been mentioned, cheers.

Mampig we've managed to get an appointment in the midlands for Monday, We're hoping it will be worth the drive [hwink] We'll post back with out results, don't worry.

Update: We had the division preformed yesterday but so far we've seen no benefit, we are still very frustrated, DS still has a very aggressive latch causing unbearable pain for my wife. At this point we don't really know what to do, the baby cafe is closed this week.

And I'm back to work tomorrow so I hope things get better spoon.

Someone will come along with their own experiences but I've read on here before that after a snip some babies need to relearn proper latch, so it would be worth going back to basics with this, and getting the latch right every time. Can't remember the website but if you google videos on latch, it will come up with troubleshooting solutions too - hope things improve soon!