hand chomping in a 3mth old = hungry??

[Caz10]

kellymom says chewing a fist isn't a reliable indicator of hunger after 6-8wks - my dd has started chewing madly on her hand ALL of the time in the past 2 weeks (she is 13wks). She does it immediately after a feed so I think she's hungry and put her back on, but she doesn't really feed. She is contended and can often be seen giving big gummy grins with her hand wodged firmly in the middle! Is it just the fact that she's found her hand? I don't think she would be so content after a feed if she was still hungry?

Caz - boy oh boy, I wish I could parcel up some confidence and send it to you! : )

Kellymom has told you chewing a fist says nothing reliable about hunger. Your own baby is telling you - by smiling and not 'asking' for food when she's chewing.

Babies do this. It's how they learn about texture and their bodies, and how if they do something to their skin, they feel it on their gums and on the skin itself....it's normal, natural, welcome and cute

If she were hungry she'd be telling you!

She's just found her fist, clever girl, it's a comforting & interesting.

my dd used to suck her fingers at this age-til she found her thumb. it was a comfort thing for her.

Caz ds does this too and dribbles everywhere in the process! It's so cute, especially if he manages to get a thumb or some fingers in and suck them!

ds ( 12 wks) does this too - dont worry

I agree clever girl has just found her fist and like to chew on it because she can.

phew, thanks!

I know tiktok, paranoid wreck of a bf-er, moi?!

I think the thing is for the 1st few weeks I thought nothing of bf-ing - it was easy, enjoyable, dd gained weight, it wasn't sore, etc etc - it was a breeze or so I thought.

Then at about 5 weeks it all went arse up (or tits up should I say?!) - dd lost weight, it hurt so much, found out my latch was wrong etc etc. Still can't work out what caused it to go so wrong. So I just don't have the faith in myself as far as this is concerned anymore.

But i think i can relax re the hand chomping - she is very dribbly and I can see wee white bumps under her gums at the bottom so maybe something is going on in that department. Eek!

Thanks all!

this is us!!! we are 12 weeks and dd has started fist sucking. mummy thinks baby hungry, baby gets upset when positioned for feed,looks frightened when i try to put nipple in mouth and she cries. take her away from boob and sit her up. sucks fist and smiles. cries when goes near boob. she can go longer between feeds now too and seems more efficient at emptying breast. Mummy upset and worried as baby feeding less frequently, for shorter periods and upset at breast - worse because of slow weight gain! thanks for this post

oh liz are you me?!!!

it is so difficult isn't it! How is your dd's weight gain now? I'm getting dd weighed tomorrow as she goes for her jags - 1st weigh-in in a fortnight or so - I am so worried...

she has only been a bit slow but enough to fall across the centiles. she has done 7oz, 7.5oz and 9oz the last 3 fortnights. the 9oz stopped her crossing a second centile (25th) but she is on it. she has to be weighed this time in 1 week not 2 in case she veers over it. the above isn't helping. now i find that all the swim nappies are too big so we can't go swimming which i was looking forward too. this just reinforces the fact that i have a tiny baby almost feel guilty for bf her and not wanting to ff her, i want to be proud of myself but slow weight gain doesn't help

I think your baby chews her hand because it is there, she has found it and to her it is a new toy. She is smart enough to know it doesn't give her food - just fun.

caz, liz, I have a small one too (was born on the 50th is now on the 9th), I've stopped worrying about her. She started chewing her hands at 3 months too, it is the start of them putting everything in their mouths...don't get freaked that they are so starving that they are trying to eat the remote control

With regards to the swim nappies I have found this too, I went to Boots and found a reuseable swim nappy which resembles a normal reuseable one ie with velcro tabs and a string tie. It is really good as you can adjust the nappy to fit and it works well for the more petite baba!

Try not to worry about your babies, easier said than done I know, there are smaller babies around but I think so many people get spooked into formula feeding when their breastfed babies don't conform to the charts, that this is camouflaging the stats a bit.Adults come in all shapes and sizes, so do babies

xx

oh and I went into Mothercare the other day and one of the sales assistants told me about a mother who wanted to buy potty training pants for her child but she couldn't find any to fit him as he was too small for them...guess some children are naturally smaller than others

thanks laska! and i'm sure you're right - probably not many teensy babies stay exclusively bfd because of these damn charts and scales! so then they chub up on formula. i'm going to stick to my guns unless dd actually loses weight - slow gain ok so far - although it's hard to keep your nerve isn't it?!

re swim nappies - we go to waterbaby swimming lessons and they recommend a non-gel filled nappy like Tushies under one of these: happy nappy x-small fitted dd when she was less than 8lbs (not that she's much over it now! )

I have a funny feeling dd is going to lose weight this week as she has a nasty cold and has not been feeding too well, she's also at the age where they start to slow down on the weight gaining front But I am resisting the urge to panic and fill her up with formula...she's just started to learn to crawl and I keep telling dh that we should tie her down so she can't move and burn excess calories

xx

thanks everyone. think i will purchase a happy nappy

yes i read a fab book alled the socail baby when dd was about this age and it enourages you to help your baby to find her fist so she can self soothe. dd then moved on to finding her thumb.

Caz, just read some of your posts (sorry, I know this was last week) and just wanted to comment on the sudden bad latch out of nowhere. I had this with DD and was wondering if it could be that you haven't adjusted your position as DD is growing? A slight shift in where you are holding her might help things.

I know you probably have it all sorted now but I saw what you said about losing confidence and hope that you can regain it again. You are doing a great job!

thanks bumper! i thought about that too - having to skip the bf group this week but am going to ask the bfc to take a look at us next week. for all dd's teeniness she is v long and it can be quite hard to arrange her lanky legs etc when feeding. she is def still compressing my nipple but i can't figure out how to sort it! (her latch not my nipple! )