Cluster feeding 6 week old

[Anne8888]

I have a 6 week old little boy who’s EBF from breast and bottle. He seems to be going through a phase of cluster feeding most evening for 1-2 hours, basically constantly feeding and becoming really frantic at the breast. I have an evening out planned for when he is 9 weeks and now I’m starting to feel really anxious that he won’t settle for his dad due to the cluster feeding. He does usually settle quite well for dad (more than myself) because he can smell me! He is also very used to the bottle as I have an expressed from week 1.

Sounds very normal. But they also change week by week and get more awake and more fussy as they come out of the first couple of months. Personally I would either cancel the night out now or be ready to pull out last minute (depends on the event I guess) but you could see how it goes.

It does sound fairly normal, especially at 6 weeks when they generally have a growth spurt.

You could try bringing your daytime feeds a little closer together so he’s getting plenty of calories in during the day.

Arranging a night out when you have a breastfed 9 week old at home is very ambitious and frankly, not realistic.

At that age (also breastfed) I took mine out with me to dinners and to see friends, you're not at the 7pm bedtime stage so take advantage of it. I look back at those times very fondly!!

I appreciate he also takes a bottle, mine had expressed milk too, once a day, but the evenings he really wanted me. It was much easier to put him on the boob.

@BoyBoyBoy889 I know, it’s a Christmas party night which I bought tickets for months ago and I really didn’t expect to be still breastfeeding at this point tbh but it’s going really well.

Glad to hear it's going well. Before breastfeeding, we all think "oh will just give a bottle, surely they'll be fine for one night" and then the reality hits, so you're not alone in this.

Personally, I was fine with it the first 3 months but then had several breakdowns about being stuck breastfeeding all the time between 4 and 6 months as I thought I'd have more freedom by then. My baby turned out to have CMPA so I couldn't move to formula when I wanted. I was going back to work at 6 months so was gutted and it made my life quite hard as I had to pump 3 days a week.

However, he's now 15 months and looking back, I am happy I stuck with it. It made weaning much, much easier. When you start making purees and cleaning a high chair 3 times a day, BF becomes the bit that's easy. Travelling is easier as well. We have done two long haul holidays and BF is very, very handy. And now he's a toddler, he doesn't want cuddles anymore except when BF and it's such a lovely thing to be able to do (especially as I only have to do it 2x day).

Breastfeed or give formula whenever you want, just wanted to share my experience and say there is light at the end of the tunnel. And there will come a point, even when you're still BF, that you can go out on an evening. My 1 year old goes down without breastfeeding if I'm not there.