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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Oh dear am feeling a bit crap :(

9 replies

BouncingTurtle · 18/11/2008 20:15

Ds's sleep has been deteriorating badly over the last couple of months. Early September, he settled down to 1-2 feeds a night, and even once slept through the night!
The last 2-3 weeks though he has been waking up more frequently and being very unsettled and umhappy - last few nights he has been waking up 3-4 times. Most times he just feeds then goes straight back down in his cot, but some of the feeds are very short.
He has been teething, he has cut 7 teeth since middle of September, but I don't think it is all teething. These last couple of nights bedtime has become a battle, it is taking an hour to settle him to sleep, when it only used to take us about 15 minutes - I would feed him, then (if he was around) DH would put him to bed.
Tonight he has just screamed, would root like mad, but barely latch on before pulling off screaming. He had anubesol, Nelson's Teetha and finally calpol and still the same. Kept spitting his dummy out to. I did notice that when we gave him the calpol, he sucked madly on the syringe. So I ran downstairs, quickly rinsed off a bottle I had gathering dust on top of the kitchen cupboard and gave him some water. He guzzled it!
Am now thinking that he was thirsty and BM just wasn't cutting it! He is eating plenty of solids and we've been offering him water at meal times as do his carers at nursery. He did have a good feed when I picked him up at nursery but ever since we got home, he has beem doing the whole rooting/latching on and off thing
Is this normal? Should I now be offering water between breastfeeds and meals?
Hope this makes some kind of sense and someone can offer advice. I'm worried that this could end our BFing relationship, I was wanting to continue until he self weaned, but I think 11mo is a bit young to self wean!!

OP posts:
cazzybabs · 18/11/2008 20:21

I have read you rpost but am feeling useless as none of the dds have done this. We do have a beaker out all the time for her to get

cazzybabs · 18/11/2008 20:22

sorry meant to say evie does snack quite a bit...a minute here and a minute their...she really has only a long feed in the morning and is easily distracted the rest of the time

claireyBANG · 18/11/2008 20:26

BT has he been drinking from a free flow cup or bottle at nursery? Just I noticed that when ds has had a bottle or cup he is more impatient for subsequent feeds and doesn't want to wait for the letdown. That's when he mostly does the off/on/off/on thing, especially if he is tired.

No other suggestions I'm afraid, but ds has also been waking up more lately-we've also gone from 2-3 wakings to 4 or 5 and he is harder to settle too. It could be a developmental thing I suppose, ds has been generally clingier and has just started walking, perhaps that or another milestone is around the corner for Daniel too

BouncingTurtle · 18/11/2008 20:26

azzy - yes Daniel does that too! I just quite believe he drank from a bottle - he has totally refused bottles since he was 4 mo!!!

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Chunkamatic · 18/11/2008 20:26

No advice really other than to tell you that my DS (9mo so a bit smaller than yours) has been displaying some of the behaviour you mention over the past few weeks. I have just put it down to teething but I know that is probably not helpful...

Do you offer him any water at mealtimes? I give my LO a free-flowing lidded cup and he drinks from it himself. Well, most of the time he spits it back out and messes around but he can drink from it as much as he wants then.

I'm just trying to be patient with the BFing, I have been worried like you a few times but then things improve a little.

I hope someone with some more useful advice will come along too!

fishie · 18/11/2008 20:27

ds has always loved water and drunk loads of it. he goes to sleep with a drink beside the bed, same as i have. i did cut down on it a bit once he was out of nappies at night (about 2.6) otherwise he would be guaranteed to drink half a pint to put off the moment of sleep and then have an accident at 4am, but that was the only limit ever.

BouncingTurtle · 18/11/2008 20:28

Clairey - yes, he has gotten clingier too! He normally drinks from a doidy cup or tt first cup at nursery and during the day with me.

OP posts:
claireyBANG · 18/11/2008 21:01

Just blame it on development then

BouncingTurtle · 18/11/2008 21:13

Well I haven't heard a peep out of him since he went down, where as yesterday evening he was crying out in his sleep

Thanks for everyone's inputs they have all been very helpful.

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