How do you know when a breast fed baby has had enough?

[Cazee]

Hi, I'm new here, and I was hoping someone could help me. My 6 week old DD has never "finished" a feed, she would just suck for ever if I let her. She is gaining weight brilliantly (10 ounces last week!), so I know she is getting milk, and she is content and happy, with lovely nappies, so I don't think there is anything wrong, except that I never know if she is hungry when she cries. I know they are supposed to finish one breast before you offer the next, so that they get the hind milk, but how can I know when she has finished? She doesnt stop sucking, and I have tried squeezing the nipple to see if there is milk, but I can't really tell. Any advice would be brilliant.

bump

I used to get quite confused about this when DS was tiny, and not sure I worked it out until he was older, when he would come off the breast when he had had enough.

I think I went mostly on how much weight he was gaining & how content he seemed.

DS rarely had more than one breast at a time, but that was mainly because he was very sicky and I always assumed when he was sick after one breast, that he was full!

At that age, if he cried, I fed him. It seemed to work

OTOH it can be very tiring when all they want to do is feed.

Does she cry and seem unsettled if you take her off the breast after, say 20-30 mins? Or does she seem content?

I can't add anything hugely constructive - bumping really. My DD2 (7 weeks) has never finished a feed either. I was working on the assumption that you can't empty a breast like it's a carton of milk. (But I may be wrong ) She's also gaining weight at a rate of knots.

Sometimes when the sucking slows during a marathon feed I will move her to the other breast. She doesn't seem to mind.

Cazee,mine would have sucked forever too.
I used to break her seal when I really knew she had had enough.
Not generally recommended but like you,I knew she was putting on weight and feeding well.

I remember being really confused by this.

And all my DSs were slightly different.

DS1 never seemed to "finish" a boob, so pretty quickly we settled for just doing one per feed.

DS2 could quite cheefully manage both.

And DS3 literally never knew when he had had enough - especially in the evenings he would just want to comfort-feed and get more and more exhausted, so I got to the point when I would as Moondog says break the seal and just cuddle him until he dropped off.

What I would do is - when she's had a good feed from one breast, offer her the other - chances are she'll probably not feed from it for very long.

Thanks everyone. If I take her off the breast she seems content for a little bit, but will cry 10 - 20 minutes later, so I presume she is still hungry (as there is no way of knowing how much she drank before)and feed her again. This means that I never feel ok not to feed her, and I have eaten every meal since she was born either feeding or rocking her. I have on occasion given her a bottle of expressed milk, and it is a lovely feeling knowing she has had a good amount, so I can have a bath (or if i am feeling really energetic go to the gym!). She is sick a lot, so I wonder if I am over feeding her, but then I feel if she is sick she must be hungry again, so I don't really know what to do.