6 week old feeding constantly - i mean, WITHOUT a break, is this normal?

[SydneyB]

Hi - this is my first post on Mumsnet although have been reading for ages - what a fab site. My DD is 6 weeks old and after a shaky start with the breastfeeding - jaundice, dopey, readmitted to hospital for too much weight loss in first week - she is doing great and the breastfeeding is up and running and she put on 300g last week so everyone happy. What I don't understand is all these people asking how often she feeds and trying to get her into a routine. Mercifully, she sleeps for 7/8 hours at night and has done since about 3 weeks but when she is awake, she feeds without a break - so 7 to 11 in the morning with maybe 15 mins here and there for nappy change or lying on mat - then might sleep for a couple of hours and then does the same from say 1 til 6 - and then 8 til midnight - i am literally swapping from breast to breast with no pause. I don't mind at all if this is normal as I'm just pleased she's feeding and putting on weight. In the evening I am exhausted by 11/12 and DH gives her a bottle of formula. I'd love some help/advice. Am sure the latch is fine and she is wetting lots of nappies and pooing lots of yellow poo but should she be feeding in this marathon type way all the time??

maybe just get the latch checked out at an nct or lll group? i know someone who thought their latch was fine, even had it checked by hv and mw, but when she went to the lll apparently it wasn't and thats why baby was feeding so much.

Fairly normal at this stage (sorry) - especially if you had a shaky start - she's still building up supply, and it sounds like you'e doing fabulously. I wouldn't think of routines yet. I know it's a pain sometimes, but can you make the most of the sitting down? (With a 20mo I sometimes wish myself back to the days of feedathons ). Or can you feed her in a sling, so you can move about at least some of the time?

Ignore everyone that asks about routine, she is only 6 weeks old!
Also she is sleeping 7/8 hours a night which is great.
Sounds like she's doing great healthwise though I guess it might be worth getting an expert view from a bf counsellor...

this sounds normal like building up supply. i am sure it will calm down soon. Well done for getting through on this one, i for one failed miserably and would have loved to be telling your tale

Also I'd take advantage of sitting down and get a stash of magazines or a dvd boxset on the go

So, because we didn't really get on to fully breastfeeding until say, about week 3, she's still trying to increase the supply now? Would make sense especially as for about 10 days we had to top her up with formula and ebm when i could express. This was initiated by the hospital due to the weight loss and I can't help but feel they shld have helped us more with the bf instead! Could that last bottle of formula we've hung on to be causing a problem with supply? Its only 120ml and is straight after a full 3 hour feed from me!

Short answer : Yes
Long answer: Yes

It will settle down, best to just take advantage of the TV, a foot spa or lie in bed with DD and feed in bed if you are feeling tired. xXx

I'm sorry but she is sleeping, you are pausing to change her nappy, and 15min stops. It looks like those are the normal breaks most children would have at that age.

It is indeed normal. I bet you'll find that she'll settle down a bit more in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, make the most of being able to sit on the sofa watching TV and eating biscuits!

My dd was like that - it drove me utterly mad as I could never get off the sofa to do anything, but the trade-off was she slept through the night from 6 weeks, like yours.
My advice would be to get a sling that you can bf in so at least you can do stuff.

I can't imagine a single bottle of formula is causing the problem but if you are still concerned I'm sure an NCT bf counsellor could advise.

Thanks so much for the reassurance everybody, really helps. SO hard to know what is normal and what isn't especially as you get the impression that everyone else is in some kind of routine. Arranged to meet bods from NCT the other day and a few were anxious as we were meeting at 2 and they had the 2.30 feed to do! How did they know?? Heigh-ho. I have one more question. I'd like to express but in the gaps when she does sleep is it risky to express in case she wakes up suddenly and is hungry? Will I have used her supply?

No you won;t have used her supply. Your breasts will always produce milk whenever your baby wants it.

Exressing when she's not feeding is a good way to boost the supply though.

Good luck! And it does get better, I promise!

Sydney: don't understand your nct friends either-- and surely they can feed whilst they are meeting?
Feed your baby when she wants and go with the flow...

Go with the flow is very good advice.

I must admit I have never lived my life ruled by DSs feeds or naps. I jst go out when I want, making sure DS2 (who is 4 months) has had a good feed beforehand. I have done this with both of mine right from day 1 pretty much.

Think it might be the people who follow strict routines... Actually went to baby cinema with a friend the other day - it was fab and DD fed happily through the film but my friend had to wake her baby up whilst he slept half way through the film as it was his 'activity time'. How ridiculous is that? My instinct has always been to go with the flow and not resort to some tips I've been given - give her water, a dummmy, top her up with another bottle of formula - and its great to know that she is feeding in a 'normal' way.

Oh God, SydneyB, I remeber all that from when DS1 was tiny. It used to piss me off I have to say! All that "Little Tarquin needs to be awake now, because it's time for his times tables" type nonsense.

I remeber just being gratefukl that DS1 was asleep and quiet for a change so I could rink my coffee in peace.

By the time you have your second it'll be a different kettle du poisson. I always say that DS2 thrives on neglect, bless him, not to mention all the prodding administered by DS1

LOL at 'activity time'...
Your philosophy sounds spot on!

remember, even.

My typing needs attention

SydneyB - is your dd definitely actively feeding for all that time?

my ds sounds like he was very simialr to your dd, but fortunately I got more support from the hospital.

His jaundice came on within 2 days of birth, si it delayed us getting discharged. He also lost a lot of weight in his foirst week, and was sleeping through by 2 weeks, which didn't help his weight gain. With good support from the hospital, who alos lent an electirc breast pump, I was able to get through, waking him up during the night and also giving him alternate feeds of EBM.

Anyway, even once we had decided he was just following his own growth curve (seen by the consultant paediatircian at 6 weeks, who encouraged me to continue breast feeding and to "stop the faff" of expressing), he was still a marathon feeder - my bum used to get sore just from sitting for so long!

Eventually I realsied that a lot of it was "comfort feeding", ie I could easily unlatch him. I started to follow the plicy that if I could unlatch him without "breaking the seal", ie I could easily pull him off my boob without it hurting, then he didn't really need to be feeding. I'd then put him down and get on with something (which might have included some sleep or a bath or something else for Me).

ANd as an aside, despite the counsultant's supprt - I did continue expressing. It was quite a useful "skill" I had acquired (although I gave back the electirc one and used an Avent hand one, which I found less painful), and as I was going back to work at 4 months, it was useful to build up supplies in the freezer. It also meant that if I did want an early night, or to go out, thne dh was able to give the feed instead of me.

In the event, I continued to feed ds for 13 months. He is now 6 and a skinny but healthy averge child.

I can sometimes placate her with my little finger when the sucking just gets too much but not for that long and I am sure she just comfort sucks from time to time. But isn't that just as important to her as feeding time? I've always had to wake her since Day 1 so am used to the wet flannel, undressing tricks and although she is better I do have to watch for her dozing off on the bosom. It is so hard to trust that the bf will eventually just work properly especially as the tyranny of the scales beckons every week and you've had alarming weight loss to begin with. But going to try and hang in there.

is someone telling you to go to the weigh ins? if you like going then fine, but you don't actually have to go. i thought i had to go cos every time the HV would say, see you in 2 weeks. so i kept going every 2 weeks.

Sydney - I haven't read the whole thread but this is what my ds did. If I unlatched him, he would cry to get back on, and yes, he did seem to be feeding all this time. He never once finished the feed himself and rarely had that "milk drunk" look that people talked about. He didn't sleep for long either before he was crying to be fed again, although he did sleep 3 hours at a time throught the night. If I had known then what I have since learned about breastfeeding (mostly from MN and Kellymom.com) then I would have been straight to a breastfeeding counsellor to have them check out the latch as it seemed to me that he was getting enough milk but it was taking him all day to get it! I am not saying that this is what is happening in your case, but it's maybe worth investigating even though you think the latch is ok.

My ds was 8lb 15 and lost voer a pound in the first few days. It took him about 6 weeks to regain birthweight, and only ever gained at most a few ounces a week.

He dropped form near the 91st centile to under the grwoth charts. However, during all that time, he was happy, healthy and alert. We did indeify an early problem - that becasue he's been a sleepy baby, he'd learnt to "pretend" to stuck to stop the hassle, (the cold flannels, the wet cotton wool on the feet, the water being dropped into his hear (). But even once we'd sorted that, and were giving him alternate feeds of EBM and able to "quantify" how much he was getting, plus worked hard on his latch, it still made very little difference to his slow weight gain.

But I did do all of this with the support of the breast feeding counsellors at the hospital, who did also double check with a refrral to the paediatrician (who did give him his due, was very supportive of the breast feeding and never even mentioned formula).

You do need to try to "wean" yourself off (forgive the pun! ) the tyranny of the scales and gain more confidence in your own observation of the child in front of you.

Easier said than done - I didn't manage to until ds was over 3 months old - and then only 'cos it was Christmas! I had a sort of morbid fascination with what weight he was - even though I wasn't actually worried aobut him anyomore.

It was easier for me too, as my dad was a (retired) consutlant paediatric radiologist. As my dh used to say 0 he wasn''t going to worry unless and until my dad was worried. He knew that my dad wasn't got to leave a sotne unturned h=if he had 8any* concerns about his first and only grandchild!

I also avided all contact with HVs other than the required ones (the formal 3 month etc checks, immunisations, hearing) and got all my support via the maternity hospital which ran a breast feeding support group and also meant there were specialists "on tap".