FF ten days old. Can anyone advise/reassure?

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

DD2 is ten days old, and her feeding is all over the place. I feel really clueless. DD1 was textbook every four hours so this is all new!

The first few days were a nightmare as she was starving but wouldnt feed. Then brought most of her feeds back up with quite a bit of mucus.

Then she settled and kept her feeds down. But they are all over the place. Mostly every two hours. She doesnt poo everyday either. One MW said to give her 2tsps of pure orange mixed with cooled boiled water and I could give that everyday. Todays MW said not to give every day and to dilute it in an ounce of cooled boiled water.

She also had a big vomit on wednesday evening but is keeping things down since.

Is all this normal? The varying times between feeds, not pooing everyday etc?

Also, at ten days old how much should she be taking?

what milk is she on? some are more constipating than others. It is normal for feeds to be all over the place - my 2 went somewhere between 2 and 3 hours when very young. I wouldnt give orange juice as citrus juices arent recommended before 6 months.

What is the poo like when it arrives? If it is soft them that is fine but if it is hard and dry then that indicates constipation - a little cool boiled water and cycling her legs can help.

All her poos have been soft, the last two were mainly green, but had some yellow bits...could that be diarhea (sp)?

Shes on SMA. The MWs havent said about changing milk. Should I? She has gained 8oz.

Im not keen on the orange juice tbh. I dont think I will give her it again.

doesnt sound like diarrhoea as that would be very watery and smelly. Anecdotally (previous threads on here and other sites) SMA can be more constipating than other milks but if they are soft then that doesnt seem to be the case. She must be getting plenty milk if she has gained 8oz so that is good. I would just continue and see how she gets on - if you feel she is bunged up then consider a change of milk.

Thanks! Shes just had another vomit but I suppose as long as shes gaining weight and isnt constipated thats the main thing.

I wouldn't give her oj so soon she's very young still and does seem to be pooing!!

What weight is she? You can ff on demand

Shes 8lbs 6oz. She was 7lbs 14oz at birth.

The MWs keep saying about routine and letting her cry to stretch the feeds out. But I havent the heart. So we are feeding on demand. Sometimes she only goes an hour. Others 3. Mostly shes around every two hours.

Its the not pooing everyday and the vomiting thats worrying me most I think.

I fed my son when he wanted. He hardly ever goes the four hours. I def feed on demand.

Also I started out on the sma milk but changed to aptamil as he was sick all the time and he wasn't settling well. But he is great on the aptamil.

How do you change their milk? Do you just start using the new stuff? Does it upset them at the start?

Are these midwives straight from the 1970s or something? Making her cry, routines for newborns, orange juice

There's no harm in trying another milk, and nothing wrong with feeding on demand. Babies were designed to have small, frequent feeds.

Yea I just bought the aptamil and started using it straightaway. It never upset his stomach and he seemed better straightaway. Which I was happy about.

Your midwives do seen very old fashioned. Just go with the flow with your Lo,

Re: the juice I was told by my Hv that for one part orange/apple/prune juice you use 8 parts cooled boiled water. If you understand that. But I haven't needed it yet.

Both DS's didn't like SMA. I changed to Aptamil and they were both fine. SMA was too rich and gave DS2 greasy skin and terrible wind. I just swapped and it was much better

oh and absolutely fed on demand, however much or little they wanted

They also told me that DP wasnt allowed to give her any feeds as it would disrupt her bonding with me. I know that if I was breast feeding he wouldnt be. But the way she said it made me feel she was saying dads arent important.

I would just feed as and when for now. Routines will come later. I wouldn't bother with orange juice either. I swapped my DS from SMA to cow and gate as his poo was always green. His poo is now better :) . Just feed when needed :) xx

I have been thinking all week that her hair looked quite greasy. But I never thought it would be the milk.

Shes now going mad for milk even after just having 90ml. I dont want to give more because I dont think she could still be hungry and the last time she did this she vomited loads. She has wind but burping wont bring it up. I think shes trying to do a poo but cant.

I think I will just change the milk.

My DS was on sma with no problems and never ever went 4 hours without a feed he went 2.5hrs until 14 weeks then up to 3hrs until we started weaning he would not stand for longer intervals but he was a total milk monster and still loves it at 11mo. I went by the instructions on the carton, it is difficult as my hv said that once they finished all bottles up them by an oz but mine always finished every one of them even 2.5hrs apart so worried about doing that. Could it be comfort sucking what about a dummy? I didn't use 1 except for instances like this very rarely when I knew he couldn't be hungry and he never really took to it thankfully.

Your hv does soumd quite draconian Let your Dh do a feed it'll give u a break and your baby will bond quite fine with you but I would limit it to him for now the GPs will get their turn later.

I wrote down feeds for DS for the first few weeks pfb and found the book the other day. It was ridiculous how much/often he was feeding to be honest, occasionally he would bring it all back up but more often than not he would keep it down. I know it's more expensive but I used the ready made stuff for the first few weeks to save arsing about with all the powder. But definitely feed on demand, MIL and SIL were obsessed with DS going four hours between feeds and giving him a dummy - he soon got in the swing of things at his own pace. We had a terrible time with SMA, green poos etc, switched to aptamil and he was instantly much better.

I have used SMA with no bother either for my 3 children but I know some people who didn't like it and switched.

All mine fed on demand and were definitely on 2 hour feeds for the first few months and we didn't have poos every day, they would also have a good old spew up at least once a day!. Mine also cluster fed, usually in late afternoon/early evening.

We try to give her a dummy but she hates it. Spits it straight out. The only thing which will pacify her is my little finger. But obviously thats not ideal.

We have just had a good night. 3 hours and then 4!! Thats really saying something. Her body clock is all messed up and nighttime is awake time to her. Then she sleeps all day. So for her to be that settled is a breakthrough!

Oh, cluster feeding. I have never heard that term. But that is definately what she does. It was late evening, some nights it went on until maybe 3am! Last night it stopped a bit earlier. We thought that she was being greedy. So good to know its normal!

Thank you all. I feel much happier about it all now and just letting her decide when shes hungry! I love MN!!