Confused about amounts and lengths of feeds

[lovecloud]

Hello my dd is three months and bf.

I thought it was all going great until I had her weighed last weeks and was told she only put on 6 ozs in two weeks and was told to feed her more. I was feeding her five times a day and she slept through the night. She was feeding roughly every 3.5 to 4 hours. She naturally fell into this routine, so I kept to it. I dropped the feed in the night which was about 4.30am at 7 weeks as she showed no interest in feeding at that time.

Anyway I was really disappointed to hear she was not putting enough weight on so I have now started to feed her every three hours in the day 5 times and feed her about 4ish too. The health visitor said I must feed her more. I cant fir any more feeds in as this extra feed is already having a negative effect.

Problem now is she is not feeding for very long at most feeds sometimes just wants 5 mins on one breast! Also she does not have as much as she use to have at her first feed at 7.30am. That was her biggest feed of the day. Generally she seems less content now and has been struggling with wind and been trying to poo for a few days.

Not sure what to do, she needs more milk to put on weight but is not interested in taking more. She actually pushes my breast away.

Old routine was:
8am - roughly 20 mins feed
12pm - same
4pm - 15 mins
6.30pm bath and massage
7.30pm - 20 mins
sleep through or if woke would settle with dummy

New routine: She feeds for 10 mins or less
7am
10am
1pm
4pm
6.30pm - bath and massage
7pm
4.30am

I always allow her to feed as long as she wants on one side until she comes off and then I offer her the other side. And start with that side the next feed.

I am just confused now and dont know what is best for her.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

x

any bf professionals around?????

helloooooooooo?

I would follow her lead. Do what she is happy with, she knows how hungry she is and she'll drink enough milk.
is she having regular wet nappies? if so then she's getting enough milk. BF babies can go up to 10 days without pooing, so don't worry too much about that.Oh, and ignore your health visitor. If you're worried though it might be a good idea to speak to a local breastfeeding counsellor who can check your latch and make sure everything is ok

Hi, lovecloud.

I think it was sensible to start offering feeds more often - the slower weight gain may well be fine for her, but most babies this age do feed more than 5 x a day, so it does no harm to offer more. Placid babies sometimes don't 'ask' when it would be good for them to do so!

What you're doing now is fine. Shorter feeds do not neccessarily mean less milk goes in. More frequent removal of milk stimulates the supply. Stop if she's actually fighting and telling you 'no thanks'!

Does she stop because she's too sleepy to carry on, or does she just seem to have had enough? I had the same situation with DD at 8 weeks old when her weight gain slowed right down. She was falling asleep at the breast though so I gave her one side then changed her nappy or something to make sure she was awake before offering the other side. Obviously is she just isn't hungry that won't help. Tbh your original routine sounds pretty much textbook - any chance the scales could be wrong?

thanks for all your replies

hairymclary - she has plenty of wet nappies and did with the old routine.

tiktok - can she really get to the hind milk that quick? im just worried that the reason she has more wind this week is because she is just taking the foremilk? can this first part of the milk fill them up and leave them content until the next feed? if so how will i ever know how long it takes for her to get to the hind milk, i cant physically hold her on my breast.

i know its a good idea to offer her the breast more but if she is feeding more but less amounts, isnt this the same as feeding more but with longer intervals?

CMac - no she is not asleep when stops, she just comes off and if i dont remove her straight away or sit her up she cries and arches her back so i think she has wind, pat her back for ages and out her back and then she really gets cross. its like she is saying "I DONT WANT ANYMORE!!!"

I guess I will have to wait and see if this new routine makes her out more weight on when i get her weighed next week.

Its strange as up to week 10 she was putting on 6ozs a week so I wonder what slowed the weihght gain down?

bump

hi Lovecloud,

Maybe keep up the more regular feeds during the day, but it does seem a bit mad to me to be waking her and yourself up in the middle of the night if you don't need to, and she doesn't want to?? you might find she then takes more when she first wakes up and at the rest of the feeds in the day time if you go back to dropping the middle of the night one.

hiya... there might be a problem with her latch abd maybe not taking in alot and just not bothering anymore. Have you tried expressing and giving it to her that way for a bit? Then you have the reassurance shes getting it in. I was told by GP that they get most feed in first three minutes, and it goes down from there. HV told me on the other hand, after DS was jumping up the curves on growth chart, that it would trail off with breastfeeding. Id say try expressing, feed on demand (think you are already). My DS feeds quickly sometimes in about 15 minutes, sometimes hes less efficient and takes an hour or so.

Maybe it is the latch - dont want to go to hv as everytime i am getting dd weighed I hear her telling a first time bf mum to top up with forumla if they make any kind of complaint about their baby. she has already said to me that I am "obviously" not giving dd enough and i should consider formula. my dd is not starving and i dont deprive her from food and never make her wait she just happens to be hungry at regular intervals except when its hot she wants more.

if it is the latch, how can i get it sorted? how do i get to see a breastfeeding councellor?

this evening when feeding she was making a funny sound when feeding like there was a gap bit i checked and it looked like she was on right, fish lips pressed down, chin in, all nipple covered and i could feel the let down which is quite strong and the pulling of the milk but she fed for about 8 mins and that was it!

Lovecloud, my DD2 is 18 weeks and has slowed her weight gain dramatically, dropping from the 50th to 25th line (tho have only had her weighed a few times). Anyway neither me nor the HV are concerned and we are happy that she is lively, happy and still putting on some weight. In fact she has big fat thighs.
I say to try the feeding more frequently but also try not to worry and def don't go down the top up route - I did with DD1 and always regretted it.
Good Luck

Crossed posts LC but glad you are against the top up!
DD2 only feeds for about 5 mins usually tho has a longer feed at bedtime. DD1 fed for ages so guess they are all different eh? My mum fed 4 of us on a strict 4 hourly 6 mins each side routine as taught back then. We are not of us weedy!

BreastFeeding Network run a breastfeeding clinic where I live (Berkshire) but im sure they are dotted around ... try their website. (I dont know address, but google it) good luck x

thanks, my dd has chubby thighs too when compared to my friends babies she is slimmer though they are formula fed so usually are chubbier.

my dd is on the 91st centile for length so i think that is why the hv is worried about her weight she is now in between the 25th and 50th centile, when born she was on the 75th centile and reg put on 6 ozs a week until recently, so maybe she had a growth spurt but my milk did not increase to accomodate her? just thought that now...

Thanks Quootiepie - will try now x

lovecloud, babies do slow down their rate of weight gain about now (esp bf babies) and b abies don't have to be on a certain length of time to get the hindmilk - if you look at websites like kellymom.com and in the MN archives you'll see loads on this. It's really nothing to do with time on the breast at all - the milk is creamier when there is less milk in the breast, and waterier when there is more milk in the breast. There are huge misunderstandings about foremilk and hindmilk. A baby who feeds efficiently can get what he or she needs in a short time. Obviously it makes no sense to deliberately shorten a feed - leave it up to the baby

It's the frequency with which milk is removed that drives the supply, and not the total sucking time, as long as the feeds are effective. 10 feeds of 10 minutes actually produce more milk than 5 feeds of 20 minutes.

My guess is your baby is just fine, but it won't hurt to offer more feeds if she accepts them, just in case she is too placid for her own good

Thank you tictok

Makes me feel better!

I will offer her the breast more through the day

Hi all,

I have an 8 wk old baby who wats feeding every 2 - 3 hrs. i have already moved him onto stronger milk for hungry babies but to no avail. is this normal. im scared i'm overfeeding him and he is too young for weaning.....
Please help!!!1

gem, I think you would be better off starting a new thread....this one's a bit dead

how do i do hat i'm new to this?????

Go on 'click here to start a new conversation' at the topof the page.
Don't know about bottle feeding myself but someone will have advice I'm sure.