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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

How long between feeds for newborn?

23 replies

Jackstini · 02/04/2006 18:38

Had dd on Thurs am and she has breastfed on average about every 3-4 hours. However, after coming home yesterday she had a 4 min feed til 1am than refused any more milk until 11am when she was on for 30 mins. Have not been able to give her any since - she keeps crying on and off but just will not take the boob.
Is this normal or not and is there anything i can do?

OP posts:

Original poster

Jackstini · 02/04/2006 18:39

Oops that first line should read 45 min feed...

OP posts:

hermykne · 02/04/2006 18:45

kackstini - aS LONG AS U DONT THINK SHEs sickly then maybe she is just having a good sleep and will come round - 3/4 hrs is very good initially mine , as were feeding every 2hrs as newborns.

someone else with more knowlegde will be on ..

CarolinaMooncup · 02/04/2006 18:47

has she had anything else in that time? sounds like quite a long time for a newborn to go without feeding.

Hopefully tiktok will be along soon to advise...

lovecloud · 02/04/2006 19:03

bump

Original poster

Jackstini · 02/04/2006 19:05

Hi - no she has had nothing except a few drips on the end when I have tried to latch her on
Hopefully the evening experts will be on soon...

OP posts:

CarolinaMooncup · 02/04/2006 19:06

forgot to say, Congratulations!

saw your birth story thread, that sounded like a right ordeal - bet you are glad to be home now.

Have you tried holding her skin-to-skin (e.g. in bed) so she can just root for your nipple in her own time?

marytee · 02/04/2006 19:27

Hi Jackstini

Congratulations :)

I'm thinking that it sounds a bit too long too. Am no expert though. When i had DD she didn't feed for about 9 hours on the 3rd day - just couldn't get her to latch on, even though had fed sucessfully til that point. It tuned out that my milk had come in, norks got very engorged and she couldn't get a latch. She was getting sleepy due to the lack of milk, and this was making it harder again to latch on. If you think this might be the case you could try hand expressing, maybe with some warm flannels in the shower - try to get a bit of milk off. Then try latching DD again.

Otherwise i would probably give your midwife a call.

HTH and bumping again

Original poster

Jackstini · 02/04/2006 19:37

Thanks Carol - yes am holding her next to me. She starts shaking her head from side to side when the nipple is near at the moment but will keep trying.

OP posts:

Original poster

Jackstini · 02/04/2006 19:39

ooh - will pop in the shower and try that Marytee. Thanks

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marytee · 02/04/2006 20:49

Ok, let us know how you get on. When i used to get really engorged i found the more i managed to express off the easier it was for lo to latch on - she had something to get hold of so to speak . Hope that makes sense!

CarolinaMooncup · 02/04/2006 20:54

do you mean shaking her head to and fro quite fast, in a slightly frenzied way?

Ds did this when he was a few days old, but he could latch on ok if I kept persevering and brought him on to my nipple quite fast and firmly.

Let us know how it's going.

marytee · 02/04/2006 22:08

Have to go to bed, but will log on in the morning to see how you are doing. If you are still worried, might be worth trying to give someone a call just to reassure yourself. I know i was able to call the post natal ward after discharge with any concerns. Hope all is ok.

moondog · 02/04/2006 22:21

How are you getting on Jack??
Keep her cuddled close to your (bare) boobs and just relax with her.
Mine were very sleepy like this for the first few days.
Like the others say,give your midwife a ring if you are concerned or phone the lovely people at the Association for B/feeding mothers' helpline.

0870 401 7711

tiktok · 02/04/2006 22:59

Hi, Jack....you're right to be watchful of this situation and to seek out views on it. Hope you will see a midwife tomorrow and she will be able to see what is happening.

If she has really not fed since 11 am this morning, you really have to give the maternity unit a call. It may be ok, but babies should not go this long without a feed. As a one off, though, plenty of babies do, and then things settle down. However, this (the 11 am feed) was the first one for 9 hours, so all the more reason to be watchful.

If she is not feeding normally, you must get some fluids into her: express by hand or pump and make sure she takes what you produce, by (egg)cup or bottle.

This is me being very directive, sorry, but I have heard from too many mothers whose breastfeeding (and babies) have hit a real crisis because early signs of things not going well were not acted upon.

I hope she is weeing plenty; she should also be starting to produce soft yellow poo.

It is not 'good' by the way to feed 3-4 hourly; it might be 'ok' for some, but it's actually less often than most babies need at least at first. It's also not necessarily reassuring that she's not 'sickly'; feeding can be heading for a crisis without the baby being sick at all.

Moondog's suggestion of keeping her in close contact with your body is sensible and may help. None of the helplines will be open now, so do call the maternity unit, unless you are now happy that all is well.

Keep us posted!

tiktok · 03/04/2006 11:24

bumping this 'cos I am concerned about it

marytee · 03/04/2006 12:20

Am wondering how you are too

Original poster

Jackstini · 03/04/2006 15:17

Hi Tik Tok & all. Sorry re late post but have (thankfully) been doing lots of feeding and sleeping.
Called midwife as advised (had tried to hand express but not working as so engorged) She said to try via a nipple shield and hey presto - Scarlett took for 45 mins and I look less like Jordan! She has since fed a further 5 times and is on now as I type so every 2-3 hours. No yellow poo yet but will be watchin out for some.
Thanks so much for the support - your advice got me through [smile
]

OP posts:

tiktok · 03/04/2006 16:27

Jack, that's great......I hope the midwife will come round to see you, and help you feed 'direct' as long term use of a shield has drawbacks (mainly to do with reduction of stimulation of milk supply - not to mention the hassle! But short term in a crisis, then it has its uses :)

Original poster

Jackstini · 03/04/2006 16:49

Good point Tik Tok - hopefully when I am not as engorged will be able to try again without shield. (My nipples are not that long/hard so is hard to get them in her mouth!)

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marytee · 03/04/2006 18:54

Good to hear you are back on track. I used nipple shields for the same reason for the first couple of weeks (didn't like to suggest them last night though cause know that they have their downside and best coming from a professional i reckon). Anyway, I didn't have any problem with supply, although DD did feed a lot, with cluster feeding in the evening - this helped with supply i think. I gradually managed to stop using them by taking them off after DD had started to feed - would unlatch her after a few minutes feeding, slip the nipple shield off as quick as possible and then put her back on. It was a bit hit and miss at first but we got there eventually. It was a big day when i did a whole day without, although if i remember rightly i often had to use them in the morning if she hadn't fed for a while. The other thing that helped was hand expressing with warm flannels over the sink before a feed.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. Hope things continue to go well :)

moondog · 03/04/2006 22:46

Nice one Jack

Original poster

Jackstini · 05/04/2006 09:32

Thanks Marytee - will give that a go - all still going well at the moment anyway - she is very contented

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oliveoil · 05/04/2006 09:37

both my girls seemed to feed every 2 hours or more initially, I felt like I was glued to the sofa and always had my boobs out.

Try not to start a routine, I sent myself mad trying and should have just gone with the flow.

I found that if I was engorged, the milk would make them gag so if poss, try to hand express a bit off first, it seemed to help.

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