Recognising feeding cues

[Eminybob]

DS is 9 weeks old and ebf. I thought I'd nailed feeding as he took to it really well and has put on weight fantastically.

However he's thrown me a bit of a curve ball these last couple of days and I'm struggling to identify his feeding cues (which I haven't had a problem with previously.)

He's started sucking his hands and fingers A LOT which he only ever used to do when hungry. I have offered him a feed when he does it and he will feed but I'm not sure he's actually feeding but just comfort sucking. They say you can't over feed a breastfed baby but I'm worried if I offer him the breast when he's not hungry and he does feed I will over feed him!

I'm getting really confused and second guessing myself and feel like all of a sudden I can't tell if he's hungry or not!

And if he isn't sucking his hand because he's hungry then what else would it be? Comfort? Teething?

He's a very happy baby and doesn't cry much. He sleeps reasonably well too. He only really gets upset if I don't feed him straight away, but it doesn't get that far very often as I try to feed him as soon as I pick up on a cue, but now I'm worried I've been feeding him too much!

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks.

congratulations on your little boy and I am glad to hear things have been going well. As baby grow so does how they are developing and as you are seeing, things do not stay the same. As you mentioned, you cannot overfeed a BF baby. They will not feed if they do not want to. Offer and they will take or not take. Your little one is still very young and will love the contact with you. Their thoughts are still very basic.

At this point, he has discovered his hands. They are magical to a baby and you may find that he can't decide if he wants his hand our you! or both as my little ones tried to do. Just keep doing what you are doing...offer and he will take or refuse. sorry I can't be more specific but sounds like you are doing fine and don't worry.

Thank you. There really is something new happening every day!

Mine did this, can't remember what age exactly, and I really struggled to tell when he was hungry, so I went on to more of a scheduled feeding approach where I fed him at regular times (around every 2-3 hours during the day). He was a pretty contented baby too so it wasn't like I was ignoring crying and waiting until the designated time, just that I would offer at regular intervals rather than trying to work out what type of hand sucking he was doing! I did find that when from time to time he started waking up more in the night it helped if I offered food more often during the day.
In terms of overfeeding, he shot up from the 0.4th to the 50th centile and the health visitors just kept telling me how well he was doing...

DD started doing this at about the same age. She wasn't in a routine as such but used to feed every 2-3 hours. I just offered a feed if it had been about the right amount of time or if she seemed upset. Within a few days I'd started to notice new feeding queues like a particular lip smacking she used to do. Of course a few months later she started to do that randomly all day too!

I agree that there is no harm in just keeping on offering and seeing if the hunger becomes a bit more obvious soon.