Do you think its a growth spurt? DH worried my milk isn't rich enough

[MamaG]

at DH but a bit as well

DS is 8 weeks old and a big baby. Weighed 14.4 2 weeks ago, was 10.9 at birth and never dropped below birth weight.

He is, at the mo, feeding pretty much constantly through the day and more often at night too. I think its just a growth spurt but DH is doubting that my milk is enough for him as he's so big.

I keep telling DH that he's thriving, adn that its most likely to be a growth suprt, but he's anxious that DS isn't getting enough from me

What can I tell DH?!

that your body is making the right milk for your baby !! he is clearly thriving beautifully... growth spurts are frquent in the early weeks and feeding at night is integral to boosting supply to meet demand

if your boy is happy, content, weeing and pooing etc and putting on weight, sounds like you are doing just fine

your body will make the right milk for him, just as it would for twins and so on

surely the fact he is a big boy is proof your milk is enough !

Ask him to read this, MamaG

He trusted your body to grow the baby when you were pregnant - your body has clearly provided for him up till now - there's no reason it shouldn't, unless you start trying to schedule his feeding, or topping up, which will have an effect on your supply.

You're doing really, really well!

There's a chance that his weight gain will start to level off soon - maybe tell him this is the case, since it'll be another thing for him to fret you over otherwise! Imagine if he kept gaining 2lbs a month forever!

His reasoning is that the baby hasn't been weighed for 2 weeks and he's been feeding so much in the past few days, he thinks supply isn't meeting demand! He is a worrier though after DS1 lost loads of weight as a baby, was put on premature baby formula on advice of HV, continued to lose weight and after tests turned out to just be a skinnoid! HE was a bugger to get to eat as well when older, we would cook him stuff in butter just to get fat into him!

I think the baby is fine, but understand why DH gets anxious.

He is a content baby, as long as he's being cuddled

Thanks for hte reply

Thank you hunker, I'll bookmark that link for him. I htink DH has forgotten about life with a small BF baby tbh

DD, 9 years ago, was bf on demand but DS was differnet (see earlier post!)

I've explained that if I top him up I could do a lot more harm than good.

Hopefully the link will help him!

Thanks for the tip re his weight gain slowing down as well, good point

Tell him that the women on MN know more about bf than he does, and that we think it's fine .

Human milk is pretty much the same in quality, no matter what the needs of the baby and no matter who it comes from. 'Richness' ie the fat content is nor determined by the 'producer' of the milk, but by the degree of fullness of the breast (as hunker's link shows), and a baby permitted to feed ad lib, with no restrictions, will get what he needs without you having to worry about it

Sometimes, babies appetites appear bigger than usual - this is rarely a result of their mum's ability to make enough of a milk supply and almost always a result of their changing needs, and possibly a reflection of the different storage capacities individual mothers have (again, see the link). A mother with a smaller storage capacity and a baby going through a need to eat more will find her baby feeds often - and all will be just fine!

LOL

nor=not

taht lol was at csws!

Thanks tiktok, I'll tell hm. My breasts don't seem to feel "full" anymore, that huge bursting melon feeling, but the milk is there (I don't express as such, but sometimes give a little squeeze just to check!)

sorry Hijack Mamag please look at your FB messages. Thank you

As you were.

MamaG, We have a massive baby exclusively breastfed on demand and he is thriving on the 99 centile growth line. Our boy was 10lbs 1oz and regained his birth weight by day 5. He also has days of increased feeding it is just normal behaviour in a breast fed baby. We are still exclusively breastfeeding at the 4 month point (despite my health visitor suggesting that I can't continue to meet his growing needs )and aim to continue exlusively until 6 months.

Just checking that you realise the softness of your breasts has nothing to do with your milk supply. There is no need to check for milk by squeezing either, it also doesn't tell you anything. Just watching your alert healthy son with lots of wet/dirty nappies shows you that he is getting the milk he needs. Sounds like you are doing a wonderful job

Erm, so your ds has gained 4lb in 6 weeks (which is more than my dd gained in 6 months btw) and your dh thinks your milk isn't enough?!!!

What - he wants his ds to grow even faster? Really?

excellent link hunkermunker - thanks

Your DS sounds like he's doing very well, as are you! I remember almost caving in and giving up at around the 8 week mark, it seemed that DD finally woke up and started to feed constantly. It did pass though..

But if you'd like to tell your DH something, how bout 'tea and cake makes milk richer, I've read that it needs to be taken every hour for full effect'. Clearly complete rubbish (unless you're blessed with a HV like mine ) but hey!

Or you could tell him your HV recommends a Mars Bar every evening to help with those cluster feeds. A friend's HV told her this, with a broad grin, but dh fell for it and stopped off at the newsagent on his way home every night, bless his cotton socks.

The hormones in your body that you have when you are pregnant start to leave your body once your baby is around 6-8 weeks. This also effects your breastfeeding as you body thinks it does not need it anymore. The only thing that will carry this on is your baby feeding. he is doing what he needs to to tell your body he is still there and that he still wants to be fed. This constant feeding will soon settle down when he has done what he needs to do. You will go through phases like this again when he decides he wants more to eat at each feed, i.e so called growth spurts. Your boobs will have settled down now and become soft as these hormones leave your body.
The only time to worry is if baby drasctically looses weight (not if it just settles down) baby becomes sleepy and you can't wake for a feed, lookes very grey and skin all wrinkly and if you have less than 6 wet nappies. Don't worry too much about dirty ones as somes babies go all the time others go once every few days. Especially for breastfed babies. Everything in your milk is what baby needs so there is not much waste to get rid of.

Thanks very much all - DH is just anxious because of what we went through with DS1, a good sized baby 8 9 at birth who lost weight and got skinnier and skinnier - I now realise it was nothing to do with my BM, but DH believed the HV when she said it was probably becuase of my BM not being rich enough ( to HV)

Luckily my new HV is fantastic and extremely pro-BF

I have passed all your messages on and I think DH is reassured!

update

DH is now very reassured, so thank you very much to all who posted

DS was weighed today, at 9 weeks 1 day and weighs 17lbs 9, so has put on half a stone since birth - is the weight of the average 20 week old baby apparently, but luckily is the height of a 20 week old baby too - I'm pretty sure that will shut DH up once and for all if he starts with the "your milk isn't rich enough" line again!!

Bless your DH and do hope he is up to being proved wrong

goodness - my (constantly feeding) 23 week old is only 14.5 lbs!!

He's glad he's been proved wrong tiktok, he took it like a woman

@ MamaG!!!

I did put "he took it like a man" first, then realised that it was wrong, becuase he didn't try to justify himself or argue with me