If you had a sleepy baby that fell asleep at the breast

[Bubblebox]

How long did it take to improve and what helped?

Ds is not gaining weight and constantly falls asleep as soon as he has my nipple in his mouth.
At the MW's suggestion, I am switch feeding and expressing to top up, using breast compression and doing all that I can to keep him awake.
Can anyone give me an idea of when he will start feeding better on his own?

Have you had your baby checked for tongue tie?

Yes. He had a tie which was clipped last week. Forgot to mention. Thank you.

Took a couple of weeks for mine. I would undress her for each feed so she was a bit chilly which helped. As PP suggested she had a tongue tie but stretched it out gradually herself. I topped up with expressed milk or formula but was exclusively breast fed by 12 weeks, and I carried on til she was 18 months. I hired a lactation consultant too who showed me different holds until we got one which worked for her and hired me a proper pump to ensure I didn’t lose my supply.

Keep hope. All the NHS breast feeding nuts and midwives that visited told me that a. If I gave her a bottle now she’d never feed on the boob again and b. That breast feeding doesn’t hurt if you did it right. Neither were true, it just takes time.

Hope you’re okay x

Blow on his face to wake him up again, and shake his hands or feet. I used to shake DD’s hand or blow on her and she’d wake up and start sucking again.

Tickle their ear by stroking- it's a bit kinder than blowing on them! But yes, do wake them again so you know they're having a full feed.

Thank you all. I am doing all of the annoying things suggested but he is so sleepy.
It's lovely to hear from other mums who have been through this and come out of the other side. Especially as I know that I am going to have to set an alarm to wake us both up in 2 hours!
I really struggled with ds1 and gave up at 4 weeks after a horrid time and lots of conflicting advice.
I would really like it to work out this time.

Thank you again.

I didn't breastfeed so not sure how helpful this will be to you but my DS would never latch in a bottle would just sleep with the teat in his mouth. The MW actually showed me to massage the test on his palette and the next thing I knew he guzzled the whole lot. Not sure if that's something you can try with your nipple?

Teat*

I don't know if this is relevant or not but just in case it does resonate or helps in any way, here's my experience.

My DD (now a teenager, so a while ago!) was very sleepy, sometimes falling completely asleep, and would be at the breast for hours with a very weak latch. All sorts of issues with weight gain and I ended up combination feeding. A lot of blowing on her face and tickling her toes went on! It was a stressful time and I felt terrible about my lack of ability to get breastfeeding right. Roll on a few years and it turns out she has benign congenital hypotonia. It's very mild but was enough to affect breastfeeding. I sought the advice of midwives, GP, health visitors, a paediatrician, went to a number of breastfeeding support groups and hypotonia was never mentioned. I'd certainly never even heard of it. I have no idea if it could have been diagnosed at such a young age anyway but it would have been helpful to know that such a thing was a possibility.

I'm sure it's not the issue with your DS but just putting it out there. Try to be kind to yourself if you can. I know from bitter experience there's nothing to be gained from beating yourself up about it.