Baby falls asleep within ten mins of putting on the breast

[weeblueberry]

She's still suckling (for about twenty to thirty mins) but always closes her eyes and looks like she's asleep about five mins after putting her on. She's only 5 days old so is very sleepy anyway but just wondered if this is normal? :)

My DD used to do that - the MW said to gently pinch her toes, or run your finger up the sole of her foot to keep her more 'with-it'. It used to work

Congratulations on your baby! I can only comment on my own 3 babies, but 10 minutes for them at that age would have been extremely good going!! My babies always fed for shorter times than my friends babies, BUT they also fed more frequently. Is she re-gaining her weight? If she is, I think that is fine. You could try all the usual tricks to wake her up a bit like tickling and undressing and nappy changing half way through but at 5 days she will definitely still be vvvv sleepy! personally I wouldn't worry about it as long as her weight starts to go up.

Yes, it's normal, and you don't need to do anything about it. No need to pinch or tickle or undress....this is only needed if the baby is too weak to feed properly and has no energy to stay awake.

Just let her decide for herself :)

Thanks everyone. Very reassuring. :) I'm blowing very gently on her face if the stopping seems longer than the natural pause the midwife mentioned and it normally does the trick to refocus her.

She has regained her birth weight but after a shakey couple of days we've spent in neo natal (she had jaundice and suspected infection which came back negative thank goodness) where she had to be supplemented with formula because she wasn't interested in feeding at all.