3 Week Old- Poor feeder?

[Kneeuv]

Hi ,

My LO is 3 weeks old today. She was born 3 weeks early, and was small-ish 5 pounds 15 oz, and had a touch of jaundice which has cleared. However, I am still struggling with BF. She won't latch or very long, anything from 1 minute to 10. So each session can take well over an hour, and all I will manage is to get her to suckle for about 12 minutes. In between which I am trying to wake her, stimulate her, will change her, tickle her etc.

We are due to go to the health visitor on Monday, so she will be weighed then and I am hoping her weight will be increasing.But I was wondering if anyone had advise on encouraging her to suckle for longer? She does have a little cold at the moment, so I am wondering is that affecting her, and perhaps once that clears she will feed better?

Ask HV or a lactation specialist to check for tongue tie. You LO sounds so much like my DD's baby - he was found to have a side tongue tie, despite been given all clear at pre discharge checks in hospital. After weeks of struggling to BF once that was fixed (very minor quick procedure) it was amazing how his latch improved and he was feeding well.

Kneeuv, it's hard to say if there is something wrong....what have her previous weights been, and how many times does she feed? Sounds to me that you would benefit from more input before next monday, which is a long time to wait to check all is well. Is there a clinic where you can have your baby weighed today, and a chance to speak to the HV?

she does seem to be putting on weight. She went from 2.7kg at birth weight, to 2.62 and then back to 2.778. She can feed up to 15 times a day and I am getting plenty of dirty and wet nappies. But I think I will talk to the HV sooner.