Dozing off on the boob

[MrsHD]

DS, 17 days, is having a really bad day for this today. I had been trying to make him go an hour between feeds as he fed so much better that way, but it's kind of fallen by the wayside. He feeds a few mins, dozes off then wakes up really cross up to 10 mins later. We risk getting into the 'too tired to feed to hungry to sleep cycle', and this is when he's likely to be given formula (probably later in the day though when we get to the narrow end of our tethers with the crying) as he can take a decent sized feed without much effort (from a syringe), when he's really tired. He can then sleep and when he wakes we can get back into a proper BF cycle again.

Any ideas about how to break the cycle without formula and without sitting on the sofa for 24 hours feeding a baby ever 10 mins? He's very cross just now as I have him next to me in his bouncy chair, but 10 mins ago he was soundo and had spat out the boob. HELP!

Have you tried keeping him awake by tweaking his ears, blowing on his face, that sort of thing? DS was terrible for this when he was tiny and I used to have to poke and prod him all the way through the feed to get him to keep going.

He soon grew out of it though, but I do remember how hard it is. Ears seem to work well, just twist and tweak the lobes, or poke his cheek gently.

good luck!

Sorry to disagree, but I really don't like this blowing, twisting, poking and tweaking..though I am sure it would be done gently

It is normal for a baby of this age to doze off at the breast. If he dozes and then wakes 10 mins later, it is fine to feed him. Yes, this might seem like feeding every 10 mins for 24 hours (!) but it is actually not anything like this. Babies of this age want to feed little and often, and if this sometimes means a break of 10 mins to catch a few zzzzz, then in a healthy baby who's thriving, this is what they need.

Honestly, babies cry less if they are fed responsively without attempts to make them go an hour between feeds if that is not what they want....when the baby is snuggled close, cuddled up, next to the milk supply, and fed (and not put down to sleep when he just wanted a few minutes nap), he is happier and calmer.

Formula undermines breastfeeding, as you know And I doubt what I am suggesting is harder work than trying not to feed him and then giving a bottle when things get too much....

Babies who want to be close to mum do get cross when they are in a bouncy chair, 'cos how else are they going to tell you something's not right? They can't talk, phone, send an email All they have is crying

(If babies are very weak and unable to wake for feeds, then of course it is fine to try to keep them awake for a little bit, to get more milk in).

Tiktok gives very sound advice Mrs HD - and is vastly more experienced than me, so I would listen to her rather than me!

The period when DS would doze off the whole time was fairly short and early on, and I normally found that there was a point at which he was properly asleep and I had to declare the feed officially finished, whereas the times he dozed off before in that feed he just needed a little nudge to keep going, so it was really a judgment call on my part as to how much to poke him, iyswim.

Just a thought - have you tried a nursing sling, so that you can let him feed and doze and doze and feed, whilst you actually move around a little?

big vote for sling here...and remember that dd was like an amazing eating thing from about 2-4 weeks.