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Infant feeding

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

should i let my ds stay on the breast when .....

3 replies

smk84 · 22/07/2012 18:30

hi, DS is 6 weeks old, and we have been doing ok with EBF. Over the past 72 hours, he has had a cold. he has been taking slightly shorter feeds, but nappies have been still full etc. I always latch him on on demand, but today I have sometimes latched him on and he has taken the initial let down, then started beahving very strangely, a variety of... - pulling around, falling into a deep sleep quickly, waving arms around, pulling off, grunting, writhing. I am used to all of these behaviours at different times, and don't let them worry me usually (anymore!), but he is doing this so soon into a feed, I am not sure what to do. Several times today he has gone on, fed a minute or so, then the above behaviours have started, usually resulting in him falling asleep soon after then letting go. He then realises he has come off and starts screaming (a different sort of scream from hunger I think), then we try again and the cycle repeats itself. I then wonder if he's not hungry at all, but wants to suck to sleep, which is fine if he stays asleep, but the cycle goes on time after time - feed a couple mins, fall asleep, come off, cry, go on, fall asleep .... over and over again. In the end we did just try a dummy and he fell off to sleep (for over an hour) after sucking on it for quite a while (he didn't complain at all about there not being any milk coming from it!). I plan to continue offering the breast whenever he seems to want it, but I am not sure whether to let him carry on the cycle of on/suck a bit/get uncomfy or fall asleep and come/pull off so many times. thanks very much for reading (another of my!) long and rambling posts !!

OP posts:
tiktok · 22/07/2012 18:39

Goodness knows for sure what's happening, smk, but most babies do this at one time or another, and it often happens with a cold because the baby's nose is snotty and he cant co-ordinate breathing and feeding and swallowing. Hence the fussing and struggling.

You can get snot-removers from the chemist if you think it's really bad for him, but it should sort itself out in a day or so :)

NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown · 22/07/2012 18:58

I'm not sure with the cold but DS used to do this when he just wanted to suck for comfort and got cross because milk was coming out (I had an oversupply at the time) - if he's happy to take a dummy my gut reaction would be to say he's not hungry.. Interested to see what others have to say

smk84 · 24/07/2012 16:54

thank you both, not needed to consider the dummy again so glad about that. he is still really snotty but it is def drying up !

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