10 minute feeds?

[CommanderShepherd]

Just been passed over to the health visitor 2 days ago. She was asking about ds feeding, told her he could be on for 30+ minutes. She told me that after about 10 minutes he will be full or take him off and offer the other side for 10 minutes. She basically said after that point he is using me as a dummy. Just curious if anyone else has been told this. I've been doing the 10 minute feeds for the past couple of days, ds seems ok, dirty nappies are up etc

Sorry, ds is breastfed

How old is ds? I wouldn't take off after 10 mins if still little...

Yeah I was advised NOT to do that by my HV (in the early days, I inly BFdnfor 4mo).

Argh the varying advice pisses me off so much.

He's coming up 2 weeks

If I give him both sides that's 20 minutes of feeding, she said his belly will be full after that

And anything after is for comfort (posted too soon)

IMHO that's absolute rubbish! How can she possibly know?! My elder son would easily feed for 35-45 mins at a time (generally only on one side per session though). And even if he is using you for comfort, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Why do some health visitors talk such bollocks?

Feed your baby for as long and often as he requires it.

I believe that is very old fashioned advice. It means he won't be emptying either breast properly, which could lead to supply issues later. DD fed from one breast at each feed. Have you had a look at Kellymum?

The current guidance is that anything from 5 minutes to 40 minutes can be a normal feed. It varies from baby to baby and from mum to mum.

How do the feeds feel, physically, for you?

(Does anyone else feel tempted to go around to the HV's house with a stopwatch and start removing her food abruptly?)

Let him feed from the same breast for anything up to 40 mins- that is a 'normal' feed. I am a health visitor we don't all talk bollocks!

At out NCT class, the BF advisor told us that the ten minute rule was developed by a NZ cattle farmer! DS was a quick feeder, and I had fast flow, but he occasionally fed for up to an hour, averaging about 20 mins. I was lucky to have a Mum who breastfed - she taught me to listen for the gulping/swallowing noises. When you feel the let down, listen to the sound baby is making as he swallows. When that sound stops, they've finished. The beauty of bfing is that babies moderate their own appetite. Our HV was equally misguided... Good luck - do what works for you!

What a load of rubbish. You know your body, every baby is different.

In any case, Babies do use you as a dummy sometimes, it's natural for them to suckle for comfort - health visitors do spout some nonsense at times.

Disgraceful rubbish and in some case could lead to under feeding, loss of supply and certainly loss of confidence (actually, that last one worked with you, commander :( ).

It makes NO sense. Since when did time eating equate with volume of food or drink taken, anyway?

It's shocking that an hcp still thinks that way.

The nz cattle farmer was dr truby King, in the 20s.

He wasn't the only one to come out with the rubbish, though.

He was especially concerned with babies being 'spoilt' and over indulged.

These rules with tiny babies should have gone out with the ark.

God forbid a baby should get comfort from its mother.

:( :(

Sharon - 'let him feed from the same breast for up to 40 mins' is equally dogmatic and misleading.

What happens at 45 mins? Or 50? Some babies like to hang out there for ages!

You can't tell how much he's getting just from timing how long he feeds. Some babies take much more/less milk in a given time than others, some mothers will be producing more/less in that time. And who cares even if he is just 'using you for comfort'? He's tiny, the world is big and scary, you're all he knows!

I had the opposite 'problem' - baby feeding for less than 10 mins a time at first meeting with HV. Baby happy, putting on weight fine, coming off by herself when finished, but HV said this wasn't enough minutes and I must be "taking her off before she's finished". Made me really worry and doubt myself for a while despite huge chunky baby clearly doing fine

HV is giving you outdated advice. All babies are different and there isn't any set formula for speed of milk transfer.

You can see when they are ready to come off by watching their body language - read this to see what the issue is with artificially setting length of feeds.
www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2010/07/foremilkhindmilk-and-lot-of-confusion.html

I do think once they are doing little fluttery sucks and not really swallowing it's okay to take them off if you want. If you needed to go somewhere or do something or just wanted a break for example. But it's not true that he's "using you as a dummy" in the sense that he won't be getting milk - even those little fluttery sucks get milk and are beneficial. And as Tiktok and others have said - it's okay for him to feed for comfort and nice that you can give that comfort to him, too.

Tik tok- my baby frequently fed for over 40 mins. I thought this was normal. It wasn't he was feeding inefficiently due to tongue tie. A baby should not be coming off the breast after forty minutes unsatisfied, especially at 8 weeks as was my DS

Sharon agree, I found it VERY unhelpful having everyone say 'oh newborns feed all the time, its normal, if you're going to BF you'd better get used to it'. There is normal BF 'feeding all the time', and there is tongue tie 'feeding all the time', which is a whole other level. As a new first time mum, I followed the 'it's normal' advice, and therefore by the time my DS' tongue tie was diagnosed and cut (90%, thick, posterior tongue tie, checked repeatedly but missed for 8 weeks), we'd missed the important first 6 weeks of BF and my supply was shot.

And DS was 2nd centile (born at 75th) and an official failure to thrive!

Sharon, the baby must feed effectively, and comfortably, and satisfyingly, and pain free for the mother, and be enabled to grow and develop healthily. Timing has very little to do with this. In your post you said babies should feed for up to 40 mins. I said that was dogmatic and misleading . It is!

I'm sure she said that the excessive feeding would lead to clogged ducts thrush etc.

It's quite easy.

A baby feeding for more than 40 mins and thriving, feeding happily and growing well, with mother pain free, and no misery or distress on either part = normal.

A baby feeding for more than 40 mins and being fussy, causing discomfort, maybe not thriving, not being satisfied,maybe not growing well ( though sometimes babies thrive even when they are not feeding well) = not normal.

The 40 mins thing - or the 20 mins thing or the anything related to a specific thing - is dogmatic and misleading.