Sleepy feeder?

[Hoopoe]

My dd is only 12 days old and has been latching on well and gaining weight. When she starts to feed she sucks with alacrity, eyes wide open and will continue for a few minutes, but then will start to fall asleep and her sucks peter out to not much more than a chin waggle. I've tried keeping her cool by only feeding her in her nappy (room temp is 19 / 20 deg), and tickling her toes / back to keep her awake which results in a good suck, but she quickly reverts back to chin waggling again. She's quite happy to keep this up for hours . If I take her off, she starts crying and the whole process starts over.

How can I get her to feed more effectively?

I had the same problem with my little girl she often fell asleep while on the breast. I did the whole tickling the toes etc. I know it's not the best thing but I found that a dummy helped for those times that she was using the breast as a soother. The midwife also made the point that suckling on the breast takes more effort from them than the bottle, so i found substituting one bf for a bottle feed helped. It doesn't nessisarily solve the problem of them falling asleep at the breast, but it curtainly gives you a break.

Hoopoe - what makes you think your baby is not feeding effectively? If she's gaining appropriately, and showing all the other signs of thriving, then what is the problem....sounds to me like a 12 day old who loves being at the breast, and the chin waggling is her way of enjoying sucking without getting too much milk.

Nothing wrong with any of that :)

What is wrong with 'using the breast as a soother' bubblez??

There is nothing wrong with a baby falling asleep on the breast as long as the baby is thriving.

My dd was the same, would fall asleep after 10 minutes. Tickling, cold temps would only work for a few minutes, and it took 20 minutes to wake her up for that. Not worth the effort. IAt least you managed to figure out that your dd is asleep, took me months to realise that this random "chin waggling" did not mean she was not asleep! I think the fact that she cried when I unlatched her made me think she was awake...

Anyway, what can I say? Your dd is a sleepy feeder who wants to sleep latched on. If she will take a dummy great. My dd was a purist who strongly rejected dummies and bottles. The only thing I would say about bottles at this age is it could affect your supply.

If your dd is "little and often" as mine was, I don't think there is very much you can do to change her feeding pattern. The best is just to go with the flow these early months. Get a sling so you can at least move around.

In a few months, your dd will be more alert and awake and space out her feeds gradually. It is hard, I do know

Thanks for all the support and comments - it's good to know I'm not doing anything wrong

Tiktok - in answer to your question, I'm pretty sure that she's getting enough and I can see that she's enjoying her time on the breast, but often it's for hours at a time. Last night I fed her from 8PM til 1AM with the odd 5 or 10 minute break, and it's just so exhausting.

What would be a reasonable amount of time for a feed in this case?

Cattle prod!!?

Seriously though. She is only 12 days old. She is still very very young and you are both learning. It will improve and she will stay awake longer in order to get proper feeds, just give it time, even if it feels like the most awful, exhausting thing in the whole world (we've all been there in one way or another!) Keep saying to yourself under your breath "it is only a phase, it will pass" - When you feel ready, trying expressing and getting someone else to give it a go for a change - give yourself a break - you're doing sooooo well to be bf in the 1st place!!

Sorry about the cattle prod comment, head's a bit wonky and I am in a flippant frame of mind this evening!!

Hoopoe - my dd was totally like you describe in first 6 weeks(now 20 weeks)- and I used to get very dispirited because the books and midwives all described feeds as these things which started and ended and lasted 20-40 minutes.

Whereas dd fed for a few minutes then slept - but latched off when she fell asleep, and I used to spend hours doing all that stuff to keep her awake to get a decent feed, because I was so sore and desperate for a rest from feeding.

I wish at the time I had known all the stuff I have now read here on MN from people who know about breastfeeding, and gone more with the flow and just kept her close to me letting her feed when she wanted to .... and I wish I had used a sling.

Just wanted to say - it does get better after the first 4 weeks, if you stick with it. DD now feeds really quickly in about 10 mins at a time.

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