Is it possible to overfeed with BF?

[digitalgirl]

My son is nearly 12 weeks old and seems to have been going through a growth spurt for the last 4 weeks (which I guess is technically not a 'spurt' but a phase). He seems to feed constantly - cluster feed? - from midday till bedtime (approx 7-9pm) or till DH gets home from work and can give me a break. In the last week he's dropped his morning nap in favour of another feed, so now I feel like all I do is feed or hold him while he catnaps for 5 minutes between feeds (he wakes up and cries if I try to put him down too soon after a feed, so I wait a while, but then he wakes up before i out him down and wants another feed again). I try to go out at least once a day to break this monotony up, but as soon as we stop moving he cries/grizzles and the boob seems to be the one thing to guarantee his happiness?

He was on the 9th centile and has begun to creep up to the 25th centile, so he's not particularly overweight yet, but I seem to be permenantly feeding him so am wondering if I'm setting up some sort of comfort-eating association that will be hard to break as he gets older.

Am I being lazy by constantly comforting him with the boob? Should I persevere with other distractions (longer walks/car rides, more nappy changes, baths, pacing up and down the house). Or is this a baby-led phase and will he eventually tire of being permenantly attached to me?

I worked so hard to establish BF that I'd be happy to continue this for a while if anyone could reassure me that there is light at the end of the feeding frenzy tunnel.

DD has done some truly amazing puking - astounding that so much milk can come out of a ten lb baby and no idea where she puts it before she brings it back up!

Just keep offering the boob when its wanted, yes they can get overful and up chuck...so what, they soon learn.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, but you will get cluster feeding around growth spurts. My DS2 is nearly 7 months and is 25lbs and has not yet started solids and feeds all the time.

He has started to feed and then come off and go to sleep on his own, because thats what he has decided to start doing.

Trust your baby and your body.

digitalgirl,

Just to put in the opposite view, I don't think there is anything wrong in comfort nursing. After all mummys are what babies should be attached to for comfort. There is nothing wrong with lovies, blankets, dummys etc, but they are all mummy substitutes.

As you said you were happy with how things are going, there is no reason to introduce a substitute, unless you wished too.

Be reassured that as your baby grows up, he will grow more independant on his own, in his own time.

My ds did this for ages, although I must admit i did use a dummy to stretch times in between feeds e.g. when we were out and about - he was and still is an extremely sucky baby, sometimes he just wanted to suck as he would reject the breast as soon as let down occurred, but loved the dummy. I don't see any harm in it, since it gave my poor nipples a rest, and meant we could go outside for some lovely walks. I guess a dummy is personal choice, I never had any problems with nipple confusion or anything, but my ds is very laid back and never been fussy about anything. Sounds like you're doing all the right things.... I would highly recommend you get into bed to feed though, and rest as much as you can - it's far better than daytime TV, and if you need entertaining, stick the radio on! In all likelihood you'll fall asleep anyway, which wouldn't do you any harm, I'm sure!!