Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Baby feeding for long time on boob

4 replies

AngelaChasesBestLife · 23/01/2022 19:31

My daughter is nine weeks old. I intended to exclusively breastfeed but she wouldn't latch at first. We had crap support in hospital and in the community when upon discharge when we came out she lost ten percent of her birth weight. We're now in a better place. I'm still breastfeeding and topping her up with formula and her weight has been improving. However, the last week or so her behaviour while she feeds has seemed to completely change. We've been told by various midwives / health visitors that a normal breastfeed is between 5-45 minutes. My baby had been doing that since birth but over the last week her feeding habits have changed. She is now feeding on one boob at a time for an extended period - up to about an hour and a half at time. She will come off the boob, relatch herself and continue feeding. She gets very distressed if I try to burp her or stop her from relatching only resettling when she goes back on. She also seems to pummel my boob while she's latching as if she is trying to eek more out! Is this normal? I'm waiting for an appointment with a lactation consultant and will ask their advice but wondered if anyone had any advice / experience in the interim? She feeds on average every 1.5 to 2 hours, so I'm spending my life trapped on the sofa!!

OP posts:
seaborgium · 23/01/2022 22:27

Sounds like tongue tie. Your supply may be a bit low as well - if you try pumping to up your supply then her feeding behaviour might improve a lot and it will be much easier to get her off the top-ups later on. Don’t worry if you can only pump a few dribbles at first - persevere with it for a few days and you should start getting significant volumes.

I suspect that she is unlatching as soon as the initial letdown slows and latching back on so she can trigger another letdown - babies do this when they can’t latch well enough to generate suction and are reliant on the mother’s letdown to squirt the milk out for them.

rattlemehearties · 23/01/2022 22:30

Sounds like she's feeding to up supply before a growth spurt.

You can try and unlatch and give her and you a break if you think she's comfort sucking after 45 mins or so. But prepare yourself for the sofa with a drink/snacks/something to watch.

rattlemehearties · 23/01/2022 22:32

I used get the pummelling when I had a fast letdown... Very hard to tell by what you've written so hopefully your lactation consultant appointment can shed some light

WTF475878237NC · 23/01/2022 22:37

You can get some good advice from the NCT breastfeeding helpline for free too. Some babies with reflux like to stay on the boob a lot too because it soothes it.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread