Is the way my 6 week BF DS feeds ok,/ normal?

[TheProvincialLady]

I have been very surpeised and, I have to say, worried by the way he feeds. I thought young babies want to feed all the time but he just doesn't. Yesterday he barely fed all day (colicky) but then fed very well at 6pm, 9pm, 1am, 4.30am....then nothing so far. Yesterday he did more or less the same and would not feed until lunchtime, and then only very briefly. In fact he always feeds very quickly, just a few minutes on one side only.

He poos and wees a lot - his poo turned green yesterday but that can be normal I understand. When he was last weighed he had put on 1lb 4oz in a week, but that was 3 weeks ago and HV is coming again to do it tomorrow - I am in a terrible panic in case he hasn't put on weight. I can't see how he can thrive on this way of feeding.

DS is still a bit jaundiced (GP not concerned as it is very mild) and sleeps a lot, but is very alert when he is awake IYSWIM and still not interested in feeding.

I am beginning to understand why people switch to FF because of being able to see how much the baby is taking (I am not going to do this BTW). It is quite stressful.

Sorry for the ramble - what I am asking is, is this feeding a concern and if so, how the hell can I persuade DS to do it differently?

TPL - there is a massive range of normal when it comes to feeding frequency. Yes, the pattern you describe is on the outer edges of the spectrum, but that doesn't make it 'wrong'

You may have a very generous milk supply - the single week weight gain of 1lb 4 oz is very large, and the colicky symptoms you describe may be to do with this, too. He has learnt to be an efficient feeder to cope with it!

If you are confident in the weight measurement and in his overall wellbeing and behaviour, and having bf 'available' when he asks....there is not a problem that I can see!

my dd fed four/five hourly literally from birth - if i offered more she wasn't interested. bf is a funny old thing as what is normal for one person isn't necessarily normal for everyone else.

if lo is happy and contented, go on that, not what the scales/HV says.

and chill. try not to worry about it. most difficult thing in the world i know though

Oh Tiktok that is so reassuring, thank you I wouldn't be surprised if I had a generous supply - I exclusively expressed for DS1 and got more than enough for him with just 3 or 4 expresses a day. He splutters and chokes when I have a let down so I have taken to feeding with him upright as it seems to help him cope better.

Fingers crossed for the weigh in tomorrow. DH thinks I am mad as DS obviously filling out and growing in length.

Sorry NilD, I took ages to type! It is good to hear about other people with similar babies. Most people I know seem to have babies at the opposite end of the spectrum.

oh i know. it is so weird how your baby is the only one that doesn't do what everyone elses does isn't it?! i always felt that at baby groups. on the plus side though, when people say "oh, baby fed for 3 hours constantly, stopped for 20 mInutes then was at it again for 4 hours" i felt a mixture of smug relief that mine didn't do that. even though i wasn't sure that she shouldn't be YSWIM!

dd was a slurper - 15 mins max and one boob at a time too!

Yep, that is exactly how I feel! On the negative side, I read on the LLL website that babies like DS might wean early because of the lack of comfort sucking And I wanted to be a freaky extended BFer.

well, despite dd retaining her speed feeding and dropping to 2 feeds a day at just 7 months (despite me stuffing my boobs in her mouth at every opportunity!) we carried on til she was 19 months.

so grow that armpit hair and weave those lentils

Weigh in was fine, DS2 is maintaining the mighty centile so I will stop fussing and probably won't have him weighed again for months.

Thanks again for your reassurance. Can't believe I smell of patchouli again after a gap of 18 years

TPL - isn't it funny what iminent weighing and HVs can do to your confidence!
Round here we have to go to clinic and I've stopped bothering.

Just wanted to add that DS is a speed feeder also. We have just started on solids and he is even faster if that's possible, although not showing any sign of wanting fewer feeds as yet.
I too hope to BF for an extended period, 13 months is the minimum I'm aiming for.

In fairness, this HV is perfectly sane and has been nothing but encouraging. That was his last visit so I will have to go to the clinic too from now on - I'll try not to though I think! It was my own anxiety this time.

Why 13 months Alibaba?

My DS2 was an efficient sucker, at most 15 minutes, normally more like 5 or 10, pretty much from when my milk came in. He was so efficient, I didn't get scary conical boobs, because he just took all the milk.

The only downside was, he did suck v v hard, so it really hurt for the first little while.

He self-weaned at 3 years and 7 months, I think? Something like that. So don't rule out extended-bf. He needed comfort more when he was bigger, and went through phases of feeding for half an hour.