Length of feeds

[tinton]

hello, sorry if this has been covered somewhere else and quite long. My DD is 3 weeks old today and has been b/feeding ok after a slightly shakey start (my milk didn't come in for a bit,she lost too much weight and had to be cup fed for a few days as top up). She generally feeds 8-10 times over 24 hours but often for only 15-25 minutes and then falls asleep/loses interest so i remove her and she settles ok. i am paranoid that this is not enough, although she has wet nappies every feed/is alert when awake. She also seems to have really explosive poo (yellow, liquid, after every feed) even though i have been eating very blandly. Is this normal?! . finally, if we want to start expressing, what is best time to introduce bottle?

I am no expert (but there are many on MN who are) but have bf both my dc.

Can offer a bit of reassurance, I think...

Wet nappies = great, means she's getting milk and is hydrated.

Explosive, thick, mustardy colour poo = very normal! Again, she must be getting plenty of milk.

Alert when awake = great

Length of feeds = not sure, think every baby is different. Mine were v.quick but frequent feeders, never more than about 15mins at a time. Some babies have mammoth feeding sessions, this is normal too.

I don't think I'd introduce a bottle just yet, not until bf more established... maybe 6w+?

HTH!

tinton - all this sounds absolutely normal I take it your baby is thriving and growing

I wish I could personally destroy the books that tell mothers their babies 'must' have a certain amount of time on the breast or else it is not enough (or 'the baby won't reach the himdmilk' -aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh). This is so illogical, when you think about it - no one makes milk available at exactly the same predictable rate all the time and no baby needs the exact same amount all the time and no baby's intake can be measured by the time he is on the breast!

It's up to you, but do you really want the hassle of expressing just yet? You've had a shaky start - lots of mums prefer to just enjoy the normality of it all for the moment.