Am I overfeeding my newborn?

[babyjellyfish]

DD is two and a half weeks old. Breastfeeding is going well but sometimes (especially in the evenings) she just wants constant feeding. An hour after her last feed she is crying and sometimes contorting herself so I wonder whether she has tummy ache, but the only thing that seems to soothe her is more feeding.

Am I overfeeding her and causing a vicious circle? Or is it genuinely true that you can't overfeed a breastfed baby?

I don't remember my son being like this!

Thanks.

Sounds like cluster feeding to me! very normal

This is cluster feeding which is important for establishing your lactation. Its hard work but it will probably have settled down in a few weeks.

Cluster feeding.
Perfectly normal.

You can’t overfeed a breastfed baby but remember that all babies are different - just because she isn’t feeding the way your son did, doesn’t mean it is wrong. Just different.

Wait until you compare their sleep patterns! 🤣

Congratulations on your fabulous new DD @babyjellyfish

Agree with the others, she's cluster feeding, in other words tanking herself up before a sleep. All perfectly normal.

Have a read of what to expect in the early weeks from Kellymom

Congratulations! My breastfed baby doing the same especially at night, it's cluster feeding. My health visitor said our milk is richer at nighttime too, maybe its tastier for my nocturnal little baby hes 2 weeks old today!😂

Feeding on demand is really important for establishing your supply, so don't stop! It's possible your latch isn't ideal so she's not getting fully satiated and getting hungry again quickly. There are some great tips for getting the best latch possible on YouTube. You want as much of your areola in her mouth as possible, not just your nipple, so you want her mouth open as wide as possible and a big 'biting' movement of her jaw rather than just sucking with her lips. It could also be that your latch is just fine though, and she's cluster feeding.

Normal! My five-week-old is a monster for it: I get a thirty-second trick sleep at the end of each feed before he’s up and roaring for more. He fed solidly 5pm to 11pm the other evening 🤪

You can’t overfeed the baby. You can underfeed you! Much hydration, much cake.

Thanks everyone! 😊

Absolutely normal. Especially from around 2 weeks. I remember a pretty brutal cluster feeding session of constant feeding between 6pm and 4am. I almost died. Was crazed.husband said I was like some kind of rabid wild animal. I really felt like some kind of wild animal. Absolute exhaustion and crazy hormones and extreme after pains. Awful. One of the worst nights of my life.