Baby constantly nursing!

[NM1819]

DD is 12 weeks old and since birth (literally within 10 minutes of being born) she lives on the breast. During the day she constantly feeds. All. Day. Long. DS fed every 2-3 hours day and night so I could do stuff throughout the day still. DD does however sleep from 10pm through till at least 5am usually now which I am extremely grateful for! How do I get around this? I don't want to stop breastfeeding, did wonder about expressing so once a day DP can feed her a bottle (if she'll take one)? I just don't know what to do! I am fine with not being able to leave her, that's not the problem. Just being able to put her down and wash up or hang the washing on the line or play with DS without her screaming for more milk. Sorry. Think I just needed to vent! 😂 Any advice appreciated.

At 12 weeks she shouldn’t be feeding constantly as you have explained. Would expect at least going 2 hours between feeds. Babies have times of cluster feeding but not for the whole time since she has been born. What’s her weight like have you contacted HV or infant feeding team?

Have you had her checked for tongue/lip tie? The constant feeding sounds to me like her latch isn’t fab and she’s not getting a decent amount of milk to satisfy her.

See if you can get in touch with a breastfeeding consultant and get them to check. They’re usually better placed than gps/health visitors to diagnose a tt.

What's her weight gain like? Absolutely you could try expressing for a bottle, but she might not take it. Otherwise hang in there and soon she'll be ready for solids! Plus she may become more distractible (toys, games etc) over the next few weeks. What's she like if you're not there? Could you go out for a while after a feed and see how she goes? She may be fine with her dad.

Thanks, I had a lot of pain with latch in the beginning but was assured by both health visitors and midwives it was perfect. I spoke again to a health visitor about a clicking sound when feeding which she developed at around 6 weeks but she said as it wasnt during the whole feed to not worry but nobody was willing to actually check her tongue/lip. The clicking had now stopped. And the health visitor also said that as she was gaining weight then she wasn't concerned about it. I will try to get to the library this afternoon and weigh her. All services in my area are very stretched - can't get a GP appointment till the end of July! So don't know how much help I'll receive anyway.

Can you afford a private consultation? It’s around £250 to have it diagnosed and snipped roughly.

Sorry your healthcare workers have been so awful about it! They are all classic tongue tie symptoms.

I mean it’s roughly £250, not having it snipped roughly! Terrible wording sorry 😂

😂😂 I have just contacted my health visiting team - they should be calling me back at some point. I thought it was perhaps because she was going all night without feeds now but I guess she would wake in the night still if she needed to - I would rather if she did! In regards to what she's like without me - she's alright for 10 minutes then she'll scream until she's fed again!
We can't really afford private help at the moment. I would like to make it to a year feeding her so really want to try to sort this. Thanks for all of the advise😊

Argh - advice*

Did you speak to a health visitor op? How are you getting on?

@Ostryga yes, she said as she sleeps all night to let her get on with it. She's following her centile line nicely so they didn't want me to change anything. She was very helpful and said if I decided I wasn't happy with our conversation I was welcome to call back and they'd refer me to get her tongue checked. Since I called she has actually decided she likes napping in her pushchair, I don't have to be pushing it she just likes the darkness with the hood up I think. I'm going to start trying naps in the cot upstairs with blinds shut and see if that improves it. Thanks for checking in and sorry for not updating the thread!