Is it really in my baby's best interest for me to exclusively breastfeed him?

[PrettyCandles]

Ds2 was born very big, but not fat, and went straight into 3m clothing as he was so long. He is now 3.5m and still long - wearing 6m clothing. He is bang on the 50th centile for weight, but, I suspect, rather higher on the centiles for length. He is slender, as were all my babies. So far so good. But he still feeds 3-hourly round the clock, sometimes more often. So is he actually getting enough milk? I know that bm is nutritionally superior, but I worry that he needs more calories than he is getting. Dh, who has always fully supported breastfeeding thinks that I ought to supplement.

Water not needed! Babies of that age need feeding.

prettycandles....i just want to say, that breastfeeding every three hours through the night wears you down....i know what a tunnel that feels like.

I also know that when I started mixed feeding at 4.5 months, my life was transformed in terms of sleep and therefore sanity.

however, ds has eczema, and I'll never know if that was a contributing factor.

I think exclusive bfding is wonderful...but I also know that having a mother on her knees with tiredness is not great for a baby and I think that is downplayed on this thread.

Marslady - he baby is 3.5 months and good weight - I'd argue he'd gather up the extra calories he needed during the day. I think he'd also be aware enough to tell the difference between water and milk. If he was hungry hungry hungry, he'd protest loud and clear imo.

On the other hand, it could be the oush that gives prety candles a little more sleep - and possibly that would be the difference between bf and not.

Thanks for all your suggestions and reassurance. I've been doing a bit of research on breastfeeding websites, and have come to the conclusion that you're right - of course - and I just have to accept that he's a frequent feeder. (Maybe I could get Frequent Feeder Miles?) His weight gain has been on the slower side of normal, averaging 5oz/week since he regained his birthweight at 3w.

Tiktok, I'm puzzled why length is considered irrelevant. Surely growth in length is important, and is there no expectation that the child's weight should be in proportion to his height?

Pretty Candles - I'm sure I remember reading something like this a long time ago on Mumsnet, and someone was asking 'how can I increase my supply in order to meet my baby's demand AND express some for a late night feed. The solution proposed was a 'baby moon' (?) where, if you can possibly manage it (getting family/friends etc to help) you spend the best part of a whole day in bed, eating, resting and feeding?

(Or is it possible I might have imagined this???)

PrettyCandles, you can explore what is considered to be clinically helpful if you can get hold of a copy of the Hall report which looked at infant health surveillance in the UK, and made recommendations for what to look for, and when, and which has formed the basis of much of what clinics now do in the UK.

Length assessment has not been found to be clinically useful as a routine measure in healthy babies - probably to do with the difficulty of measuring it accurately, and if you can't get an accurate measure, it really is not worthwhile doing it, and if you don't know what is normal, then it's not worth measuring, either. Babies are naturally variable in length, anyway. Clinics stopped measuring length as part of routine checks decades ago.

No, you're not imaginging it Legacy. I had several baby-moons with ds2 in his first month, and they are indeed effective. I get the impression that baby-moons are most effective with new-borns, but I don't see why it shouldn't work even now with a nearly-4mo.

Thanks Tiktok. I came across the name Hall in citations several times yesterday, but didn't follow it up. Google here I come.

Just seen this - as you prob remember from the Oct threads, DS at 4 months is still feeding every 2-3 hours day and night - and seems to be thriving on it . The lack of sleep is a killer, but I'm hoping that things will improve once he's receovered from this growth spurt (and the pesky tooth is finally through ). He's on the 91st percentile for weight and noone has suggested ff so far.

does your dh know more about bf than you do?

formula comes from cows milk which is designed to make a big animal grow very big very quickly but less so its brains.

human milk is designed to help a complex brain grow even more complex very quickly.

this crude explanation is only one of the reasons why babies who are ff are usually put on more weight overall than bf babies.

oh, a mate of mine was coerced by hv to change her dd to formula for weight reasons.

she did at 4 months, but her dd remained long and thin. at 3 yrs she still is and that is her physiology.