How much breast milk should my baby be feeding on...

[KalaNewForest]

Hi all,

Started new thread as suggested...

My baby is gaining weight but is constantly hungry! I asked the question if adding baby rice to his bottle of mbm that is given to him at night by his Daddy was a good idea... MrsBadger and others have suggested this would not be a good idea seeing as he's only 7 wks today.

The bottle of my expressed milk is only really o give me a rest, as he's feeding with only a 30-60 minute break. Occassionally he's using me for comfort but I break him off when that occurs.

Many thanks, Kala

I was told that babies have growth spurts at 3 wks, 6 wks, 3 months and 6 months- it may be that your baby is hungry because he's trying to grow.

Baby rice is NOT a good idea- firstly, your baby will get more calories from a similar amount of milk, and secondly the baby's gut isn't ready to digest rice at 7 wks- you could cause damage by giving him rice too soon.

Have you tried a dummy? Maybe he needs to suck rather than feed.

Baby rice is not recommended under 4 months , preferably 6 (WHO policy), due to potential allergy risk with an immature gut, if offered at all, and should not be served by a bottle due to choking risks. Sorry think you may have to ride this out as it is probably a short term growth surge and your supply will be stepping up to match his appetite by the repeated feeding and/or get advice from a bfc in case he isn't feeding efficiently. Hope it settles down soon.

Hi Kala,

Well done on BF so far! Unfortunately no one tells you exactly how time consuming BF can be. There's nothing wrong, it's totally normal. It doesn't matter how much your baby is taking in, it doesn't mean your milk isn't satisying him, it's just that breast milk is much easier for him to digest than formula hence the needing to feed more often.

I know it can be hard work, but just keep up the feeding and please don't put rice in his bottle! Most counsellors don't promote expressing but to be honest I used to express every day and get DP to give at least one feed which gave me a couple of hours to get my head down or a bit of "me" time.

Can you get people to help you so that you can take it easy, put your feet up and focus on the feeding? It can be tiring but it's so worth it and these growth spurts do pass.

HTH.

Kala - frequent feeding and needing to be close to mum for comfort is normal behaviour in a young breastfed baby. It passes.

I'd confirm all the info here about rice - this is actually potentially quite dangerous to a baby of this age, not just because of allergy and damage to the gut, but because of the risk of overloading the kidneys by disturbing the fluid balance. Your health visitor will confirm this.

Hope things are more settled soon for you.