on nipple, off nipple - finished feeding? 3 - month old bf

[buddy79]

My 3 month old is ebf on demand. Recently he tends to start a feed and suck hungrily for first 10 mins or so, then spend ages latching on, sucking for a few seconds, then latching off. Bf counsellor said 'just keep offering' so this is what I do, and EVENTUALLY he seems to get kind of a second wind and stay on for a good few minutes and come off all sleepy and full. However this means that each feeding is taking at least 40 mins up to an hour - he feeds every 1 1/2 - 2 hours, he is also often posseting, although this doesn't seem to bother him! Am i doing the right thing? Or is coming off the nipple / lots of sick a sign that actually he is full up? I don't think it is an issue with my flow as i had this in the beginning, and he is content ( not coughing or frustrated or anything) when he comes off. Thanks for any advice!

Neither of mine fed for longer than 5-10 minutes so he could just be very efficient or if feeding so frequently he might like little avd often.

As long as gaining weight and is happy and well I would follow his lead!

Around this age feeds do get shorter as they become much more efficient at extracting the milk and your milk supply is established. DS also fed for 5-10 mins which was quite nice!

My dd pulls off and on like this when she has wind, I sit her upright and see if she has anything to bring up, leave her for a few minutes then see if she's interested in any more milk. If she fusses again but seems happy just sitting I stop trying and she normally just takes a longer feed next time. She seems to feed for much shorter periods now I assume they do get more efficient around 3 months. He will scream if he's hungry.

My 16wks old does this usually means he has wind or needs a poo.
Other times I think he's just waiting for next let down and getting frustrated waiting for it!

Do you swap sides after the first ten mins?

Hi, thanks for all the replies!
@museumum no I usually keep offering the same side, as I was worried about him getting the hind milk, however different bf counsellors have told me different things about whether this is important or not so I'm a bit lost there too! What would you suggest?
@superbfairywren thanks I will try that and see how we go!

Hi there my little girl only every feeds for 5-15 mins at a time - she has recently started doug similar to what you describe and usually a sign on wind :-)

I'm no expert but I'd say if it's your flow slowing then he'll be excited and interested in taking the other side.
If he's not that into the other side either then maybe he's just had enough.
My ds only fed for about ten mins at a time at that age.
However my ds was also really distractible at that age so I had to feed him in quiet just as he woke from a nap and was still dozy.
Try some things, find out if he wants more fast flowing milk (the other side) or if he's getting distracted (the quiet room).

Thanks so much for the advice @museumum, I have tried swopping sides abs this definitely helps at least some of the time, I think he is distracted at times aswell so I'm really watching his behaviour to work out what is going to work best, giving him a little wind break etc and this has really helped, things are better these last few days so thank you everyone!

Buddy I had this same issue with DS about a month ago (he's now 16 weeks)... I thought he'd developed a breast aversion, I kept putting him back to the breast after he fed well for 5 - 10 minutes and he'd fight it.

I evntually figured out that he'd just got more efficient and a full feed for him was no more than 10 minutes. That was a month or so ago and he's been doing fine on his 5 - 10 minute feeds. I did bump up the regularity to 2.5 hours (from about 3ish hours) in case he was hungry but he's started fighting that too and is now on more of a 3.5 hour cycle.