cluster feeding - can anything be done about it?

[satinandsilk]

I have a two week old baby girl who was diagnosed with reflux at five days old after losing a lot of her birthweight because of vomiting up her feed. She is now cluster feeding - frequently taking only 30mls of milk (one scoop of formula) at a time, then falling asleep/losing all interest, until about half an hour-an hour later, when she acts as if she's completely starving, and the whole cycle starts again. I am just going along with it, as the priority is for her to put on weight, and in any case, it is better for her to drink 30mls and keep it down, than for her to wolf down three times that amount and vomit. However it is very frustrating and tiring, especially when it happens during the night. (If I were bf, I'd be going insane with exhaustion by now.) Are there any tips to reduce cluster feeding or do you just have to wait for them to grow out of it/the phase to pass?

It's a normal and natural part of it all and it soon passes. Yes it's exhausting but in a few days it will settle.

My bf DD fed for 15 hours straight with a few 10 min breaks once when she was tiny. I think it was easier that she was BF as I just stayed in bed with her on the boob and DP brought me drinks/food.

Hope you get some rest soon.

You poor thing, it will pass but not much fun. My DD clusterfed every night until she was 12 weeks but as with hairytale, for me the only thing that would've made it worse was if I'd had to get up and make bottles [lazy emoticon]
congrats on your newborn and enjoy the cuddles, before you know it she'll be crawling

Thanks for the responses; I guess I'll just have to get through it best I can...!

I just go with it. Its probably better she's doing this with reflux anyway.

My DD who had reflux was always less sick when feed little and often, although she was breastfed so I didn't know exactly how much she was getting I could never offer her more then one side at a time or she'd throw it all back up again.