Encouraging baby to stop 'snacking' and other BF questions

[kritur]

My DD is now 4 weeks old (first baby) and doing well with breast feeding, putting on weight like a trooper. She has a habit at the moment of feeding and then stopping (not necessarily falling asleep) and then needing more boob quite quickly (30 mins, 1h later). So she is kind of 'snacking' rather than taking a full feed. Can I encourage her to feed more deeply? Also if she does feed deeply it can take quite a long time, 45 mins to an hour. Will both these things settle down as she gets older? Or do I need to do something?

Also, I braved the breast pump today (it scared me because it's electric!). I got 2oz in 10 mins and am hoping to start with topping her up after night feeding to encourage her to sleep longer and trial her with a bottle (I have the breastflow bottles). How much would a normal feed be though? If it was replacing a breast feed?

Thanks in advance for your help, I am a newbie to all this.

At 4 mo both of mine were very easily distracted mid-feed - feeding them in a quiet (i.e. boring!) place helped them to see the feed through more often.

kritur, it's great your dd is doing so well. She does not need to stop snacking - this is the normal way many young babies feed. It's perfectly ok to feed this way :) Usually, as babies get older they don't need to feed quite so frequently all the time - as you suggest, things change by themselves. You don't need to do anything.

If you were wanting to replace a whole feed with a bottle of expressed, you'd probably find you needed to collect between 4 and 6 oz (speaking roughly) but missing a feed could mean a bunch of discomfort for you in the short term ('cos your breasts would still make the milk, for the time being, and you'd feel overfull). In the longer term it would reduce your production.

But of course you can try it and see if it makes life easier or not - remembering that sleeping longer is something that will prob come in time anyway, whether you top her up with expressed or not :) Sometimes, it is easier to accept the sleeping/feeding your baby does, because it's more of a faff to express and give the bottle.

discrete - the OP's baby is 4 weeks, not 4 mths :)

oops - sorry .

Mine were on permafeed at 4 weeks old so I can't help on that! :)

I am returning to work quite early (have 8 weeks until I go back) and don't want her on formula so want to express eventually for that. I can pump at work, they are very supportive. WIth a bit of luck there will be a place at the uni nursery for her so I can nip out and feed her but otherwise I'll need to express for nursery.

The 'snacking' is only really a problem if we're out doing something, ok if we're at home although I end up glued to the sofa!

DD did the same when she was tiny, snacking rather than taking a full feed. The Midwife suggested feeding her, and keeping her going for more than a few minutes by gently 'irritating' her, eg tickling her palms or neck, blowing on her, and making sure she wasn't too warm and cosy (MW suggested stripping her to her nappy but I thought that a bit mean!) The theory was that DD would then concentrate on the job in hand and take a full feed, rather than dropping off. And then once she had done that, not to feed her again for 3 hours, by which time she would be hungry enough to take another full feed. I hasten to add this was suggested once DD was putting on weight nicely and my milk had come in properly. It really worked well for us, from then on I only ever fed her on the 3 hour mark, and I felt I got a bit of my life (and boobs!) back again. But I know a lot of people suggest you should feed on demand, so it might not be the way for you.

As for feeding for 45 mins, for us I found in the beginning it took ages for DD to feed (45 mins sounds familiar), and as DD got a bit bigger I found that she would take the majority of the milk in the first 15/20 mins (I could hear her glugging) and then she would stay on for another half an hour, given half the chance, just for comfort, not really taking in much more milk.

Good luck!

I shall refer you to a couple of things; feeding and sleeping and sleep again.

For now, just feed on demand, big feeds and longer sleeps will come with time, there isn't really a way to make them happen sooner, faffing about with a breastpump and topping her up with a bottle of expressed is as likely to lead to nipple confusion and wind than more sleep!

As you need her to be good at taking a bottle for when you're at work, I'd gat her used to having one ebm feed in the day, rather than a sleepy top-up at night. Choose a time, say lunch time or tea time, and give her a full feed from a bottle, topping her up on the boob if needed. If the nursery is onsite at uni theres no reason why you can't combine expressing and popping in to feed her once or twice a day. I did this with both my girls when I went back to work when they were about 24 weeks. It's not easy, she's unlikely to be sleeping "through" by then, so expect a couple of night feeds, especially as young babies will often seem to want to "make up" the time, cuddles and mlk they may have "missed out on" during the day whilst you're apart, I found co-sleeping helped enormously with this. Good luck!!!!

(she really isn't "snacking", this is normal breastfed-baby feeding pattern, they shouldn't be going three hours between feeds, this is a formula advertising inspired myth)

Thanks for all the help, I actually only tried the pump to see if it would work but will work on moving to one feed a day of ebf. Good to know that what she's doing is fine though!

My dd had a similar pattern and I have carried on feeding on demand. She is gradually at 12 weeks getting into a bit of a feeding pattern (apart from growth spurts). With my ds I thought I had to schedule 3 hour feeds as I had been misinformed. It was rather stressful and as I have since found completely unnecessary. I also used to express once in the morning each day as that was the most productive time of day for me. It used to take at least 3 days to get a full feed so I used to freeze the milk in special bags. Good luck OP