Growth spurt or not getting enough?

[suntodayplease]

Hi can anyone advise...

DS is 13weeks old and ebf, our bf journey has been difficult from the start (tt poor latch and slow weight gain) after dropping centiles eventually after a second tt snip and me just constantly feeding (minimum every 2 hours) he picked up in terms of weight gain and HV were happy again. This was physically really draining as poor latch has given me blisters which never have a chance to heal so I'm having to take regular pain relief to help.

A couple of weeks later and he's back to constantly feeding day and night and sleep is totally out the window unless on me. Most recent weigh in showed he'd not gained as much in the last week and dropped down the charts slightly but HV wasn't concerned and suggesting seeing how things are in 2 weeks time. It seems like he is just about doing ok but he just seems constantly hungry, as soon as he's fed he's chewing away at his hands. He would feed all day long if he could.

We have tried giving a bottle to top up with v limited success so I'm at a loss as to what to do, if this was DC1 I would just go with it and try and catch up on sleep during the day etc, but I am absolutely shattered and DD is a busy 3yr old who of course needs my attention during the day.

I'd love DS to take a bottle or two a day to give me and my blisters a break but given the troubles we've had of him taking a bottle I can't imagine he would happily switch between the two.

What would you do?

Before having DC1 (11 weeks) I would without hesitating say I would switch to formula. You have clearly tried so hard to make bf work, but overall as a family it seems to not be working for you. Logically I'd say that sounds like a good thing to do.

But now with DC1 I understand all the emotions tied up in bfing, and honestly can't say what I'd do. I really think you've done amazingly to persevere this far though.

There's a growth spurt now for him.

Could he be teething? Hands in mouth? My ds was at that stage and found it hard to latch as his gums were so sore and so I often have him bonjela few mins before feed.

Re bottle, ds favourite is still ( he's 6 mo) the bottles in the aptamil starter pack. Nice and small and Angled. We just sterilise them after formula is used from them.

Have you got a sling to carry him round - might sleep on you rather than feed?

Does he nap day times? Have you considered naps on his stomach?

Thanks for your replies. I think things always seem so difficult after a night if v little sleep and constant feeds. I'm not sure about teething, we've no other symptoms that DD had when she was teething. I do have a sling which we have some success with, other times he just gets really frustrated as he can obviously smell the milk! I've just managed to slide him off me and he's currently on his stomach snoring away but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with him sleeping on his front when he's still so small.

The aptimel starter bottles were one of the only ones we haven't tried so I'll give those a go - was so gutted that the MAM bottles which had such good reviews were rejected along with the others!

My LO is the same, dropping centiles, feeding for hours and seeming unsatisfied and rooting straight after. We're going to ask if he can be checked for tt.

Our HV advised to feed from the boob and offer expressed BM, then if he still seems unsatisfied to offer a formula top up (met with controversy on here!). We've done it for one day and LO seems much more satisfied and is zonked after feeds. We've only needed to top up three times yesterday (was twice but my OH did a night feed).

I see you have issues with the bottle...we were fortunate enough that my sister had amassed quite a collection to find one her LO would drink from, so we tried lots of different ones from her collection...we found Dr Browns to be LO's preference, but every baby is different. Its expensive finding the right bottle! I'm not sure what to suggest but someone may have some advice.

In terms of sleeping, LO is also the same and wakes up when we put him down...we seem to have resolved it by letting him fall asleep on us, waiting at least 20 mins for him to be really zonked and in deep sleep, then transferring him to the pram. It seems to work. Along with loose swaddling (and white noise used sometimes!).