Finishing a breast feeding session

[cookiemonster100]

Hi,

My LO is a month old and is ebf.
He can feed between 40 mins to an hour at a time. Sometimes he comes off the boob but sometimes I take him off & effectively finish the feed. Should I be doing this or just letting him decide when to finish?

Thanks xx

Hi,
I'm not an expert but all the advice I've had is to let him /her finish, though people will say that baby will use you as a human dummy - guess it depends on whether he's still sucking. Cant say that part bothered me. Also, some of the sucking is apparently to increase your supply, so you may want to keep going for that.
Seems to be quite a few opinions out there, sure someone else will be along shortly

I was told by the bfing clinic at my hospital that you should let them decide when to come off but I have to admit I didn't do that as much like your son he could be on the boob for 40-60 mins easily and when I de-latched him he'd be fast asleep and not even seem to notice I'd taken the boob away. I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

When you say you are finishing the feed is he awake at the end of the feed or asleep?

If his weight gain is fine, then you've obviously been getting it right up until now so keep doing what you're doing.

40-60 minutes on one breast is at the long end of the feed spectrum so it's probably unlikely he's actively feeding for a full 60 minutes. He might have moved to non-nutritive feeding and is hanging out.

If he doesn't seem to be doing a huge amount, you could try some breast compressions to pick it up a bit (google Jack Newman and breast compressions).

You've been following your instincts to take him off and that isn't necessarily wrong at this point. You may be sensing he's no longer feeding and actively swallowing. Some babies will pull themselves off and others may stay on and hang out. That kind of feeding has a value too (breastfeeding isn't just about milk) but sometimes you might choose to end it. If weight and nappies are good, that's a perfectly valid choice.

40-60 minutes seems quite long to me. When he stops actively feeding/starts dozing I'd try swapping to the other side.

I normally do 25 minutes one side and then delatch my dd - she'd be there for hours if i let her I think! I then offer the second breast however, more often than not, she refuses so she's obviously had enough from the first breast. She was 8lbs 6 at birth and had gone up to 17lbs by 12 weeks!