My 3 weeks old isn't feeding very much.

[purpleflower]

DD has spent almost all of her 3 weeks clamped to my boob. Last night she was worse than normal and wouldn't even give me 5 mins. She eventually went to sleep and slept well feeding on and off through the night but hasn't really fed at all today.

She has had wet and dirty nappies which are yellow, but it's just starting to worry me a bit now. She taking a tiny bit of milk then stopping feeding. I tried waking her to feed earlier and I've tried letting her cry for it a little bit when she did demand a feed but she sucked for less than 5 minutes.

What should I do?

As long as she has lots of wet and dirty nappies I wouldn't worry. They go through a growth spurt at this age where they feed feed feed then seem sleepy a lot. Next thing you know is they have grown out of their clothes!

Ditto QueenFee. It's difficult not to worry when you don't know how much they're getting. But kids are so different. Some feed for 10 minutes, some for 45. Some feed every 90 minutes, some every 3 or 4 hours. And they change to. She'll probably hit a growth spurt at around 5ish weeks, then when that's passed she'll settle into a new pattern.

Having said that there's a bit of a contradiction in your post - do you mean she's only actively sucking for 5 minutes? Cos if she's 'clamped to your boob' that actually sounds like she's feeding quite a lot..?

Not being picky, more info might give us a clue about what's going on....

Thank you both for your responses.

Mij shes normally on me most of the time but today she has been on me a couple of times for only around 5 or 10 minutes which is what is worrying me.

Babes do change their behaviour at no notice - maybe her feeding all last night was down to feeling a bit off colour, and she's just catching up on sleep? Maybe she's just not as hungry today?

Keep an eye on the wet and dirty nappy count (not too obsessively - just notice if there are wet and dirty ones!) and how she is generally in herself, and keep feeding on demand. More skin to skin contact can encourage more and longer feeding if you want to be actively doing something (and I know how important that can be when you're worried). How about feeding in the bath? It's lovely if you fancy it and can keep topping up the hot water! Warm, snuggly, all that skin contact etc etc.

Good luck!

Hey purple!
Sorry to hear that you are worried about your little one. Why dont you try going to the Le Leche LEague group in Colchester? Me and Snippety (dont think you've met her) have been going for about 18months now and its brilliant. The leaders are both really lovely and will no doubt be able to reassure you and give you some advice if needed.

I cant go anymore as im at uni, but its on every other Friday (not this Fri) at 10-12. £1.50 per adult - kids free, includes drinks and nibbles. Lots of toys for your DS to play with and lots of really nice people for you to talk to! If you go, and theres a lady with lots of tatoos and piercings and very long hair, thats Snippety one of my best mates, if you tell her you know me she will look after you and introduce you to everyone. xxx

oh, and its at the Quaker meeting house by the Mercury theatre.

If you want to talk to someone about it sooner than that, just ring the LLL helpline 0845 120 2918. Dont worry about taking up their time or anything - they WANT you to ring!!

Hope to see you, DS and DD soon

My 2 have both done that--feeding frenzy for a few days and then not bothered. I always thought it was because they'd managed to get the supply up enough for one feed to fill them up longer.

Hi Purpleflower !!

Just to say would be happy to meet up with you at La Leche. It's a brilliant supportive group and you can ask for a one to one chat with the leaders there as well. Helped me loads.

Next meet is Friday 14th November 10am

Thank you all.

Shes improved so much over the last couple of days

I'm just not very confident as I didn't do very well with bf DS and really want to last longer this time.

I think I may join you then Snippety (did I meet you at the picnic?) as DD will be 6 weeks then and thats when it started going wrong with DS. Hopefully things will be ok this time.