My DS is 9 days old. He was born 2 weeks early and we had some feeding issues to start with which meant he dropped quite a bit of his birth weight, had some dehydration and is a bit jaundiced (no treatment needed). In order to catch back up on his weight and flush out the jaundice, I've been advised to feed a lot. He is no longer dehydrated and is gaining weight again tho is not back to birth weight.
Initially we were bf'ing plus cup feeding EBM. We have now dropped the cup feeds because he is feeding so much better. We are currently aiming for 2.5 hourly feeds in the day and 3 hourly at night.
I have to confess I am really struggling with this amount. Obviously I understand how important it is to get him back on track, but I wanted to understand what might happen when the jaundice is gone.
Right now I feel like I am feeding him outside of his natural rhythm - I think if I wasn't waking him he'd feed more but less often. As it is I usually have to spend 10-15 mins rousing him for a feed then often do a nappy change halfway through to wake him up/ get him interested. That means that the feed often takes 60-90 mins and so by the time I've finished, changed him and put him down I have an hour before I start again. It's killing me!
The few times he has been left longer between feeds he latches straight away and then feeds well and usually faster. I then might have 2 hours between feeds but he'd only be getting 8 feeds a day which sounds far lower than the 10 recommended.
Anyway, what I'm really asking is - am I just being a lightweight? Is having zero time just normal at this early stage and do I need to man up? Or am I trying to squeeze too many feeds in and could I be cutting back without doing any harm?!
Advice please!
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Infant feeding
How often are you feeding your newborn?
13 replies
BonaDea · 29/03/2013 17:13
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TwitchyTail ·
29/03/2013 17:28
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Welovegrapes ·
29/03/2013 20:48
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