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Infant feeding

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

Help! Sleepy feeder, sore nipples, shall I just express & feed?

29 replies

LadyLotty · 20/06/2009 17:41

My little one is 3 weeks tomorrow and he is such a sleepy feeder. On the boob for max 10 min before falling asleep and I've tried taking him off, waking him up (nappy change, taking layers off, playing) and putting him back on again but each feed can take 90 min or longer!

As each day goes on I'm just becoming more and more stressed, exhausted, and resentful... My nipples are so painful and raw pink I joke (bitterly) they may even glow in the dark...

But more disheartening is the fact that because he doesn't take enough at his last night feed, he often wakes up 2-3 times at night (that is between mid night and 8am) which is absolutely draining for me. I'm now a walking zombie.

Has anyone else come across sleepy feeding babies, and if so how have you coped with continuing with breast feeding? Do things get better if I perserver?

I'm also thinking maybe I should just express before each feed, and then give it to him in a bottle? I can get 3-4oz of milk into him at least for each feed and ensure he eats regularly. Has anybody tried this?

OP posts:
tiktok · 24/06/2009 10:19

Cote: you think directing users to kellymom is being a kellymom groupie. But it would not have been appropriate to dissect your post and show in detail why your advice was misleading - it would have derailed the thread and not helped the OP. It's fair enough , I think, to highlight a concern and then link to another website for more info. Kellymom - more than just one lactation consultant, BTW, and referenced so it is more than mere opinion - is adequate for a fairly basic correction to misinformation like that, for people who want to read a bit more away from the thread. I tried to be polite; you came back all offended and (a bit) rude, so you'll understand my own change of tone now, I am sure

Now - why does 'separating and squeezing' (your method of checking the baby is getting hindmilk) not give us any useful information about a baby's intake? Why on earth would anyone want to do this? Why would doing this tell you anything at all about the baby's well-being or nutrition?

Where to begin?

Ok. Babies do not need to 'drill down' into hindmilk.

A breast may have hindmilk ('hindmilk' = proportionately fattier milk) readily available to the baby, if the breast is not very full. This is because the fat content of breastmilk varies in proportion to the degree of emptiness of the breast.

Even if it is very full, an enthusiastically sucking baby and a mother with a quick letdown will enable fattier milk to reach the baby quickly.

You are suggesting (I think) that in the middle of a feed, the mother removes this enthusiastically sucking baby from the breast in order to squeeze the nipple herself and then judge from the colour and texture of the milk whether the baby is getting hindmilk? Even if you were certain that observation alone would tell you.

Or perhaps you check afterwards, when the baby has stopped sucking or takes a short break.

Why?

Does it tell you if the baby has had enough hindmilk? Does it tell you if the mouthful of milk the baby had before that one was hindmilk?

You are talking as if the milk available to the baby is always two discrete types of milk, and it just isn't.

In your earlier post you said the milk the OP's baby might be getting was problematic as it was watery and low in fat and that snacking could be an issue. I hope you'll accept that putting a baby on one side only, as you advised, would not be helpful, as it would cut down on the volume of milk made...and it is volume that is crucial to infant intake and indeed, milk supply. Many women will be just fine offering one side per feed only. In the OP's case, I think one sided feeding would be very risky.

Hope that's a bit clearer now.

LadyLotty · 05/07/2009 12:54

Thanks all, just to update on things, a couple of weeks on now and he is better with sucking. I'm also more relaxed as a BF mother

Baby still falls asleep but sucks a lot harder when he is awake, and I'm just letting him fall asleep and putting him down when he does -- he doesn't like being left unattended so then wakes up right away, when I carry on feeding him. Its a bit iterative and usually takes several rounds, but if this works for him to get enough milk, then that's all I can ask for. The upshot of all this is I now have tough rubber nipples!!

OP posts:
borinbugger · 05/07/2009 13:07

this is good on sore nips
www.naturisimo.com/products_brief.cfm?type=Ointments&nme=wel&wellbeing=1

Gilby · 05/07/2009 15:25

hello- same problem and same exhaustion initially but after a lot of support from DH and mum, and from mumsnetters too am also a lot happier and am just letting DD feed when she wants to (though having to wake her for feeds if she doesn't do it herself)- she sleeps like i used to (i slept through earthquakes, on train stations etc). started expressing for last feed of the evening around 10.30 as advised easier to let DD get used to bottle teat at this stage but sticking to once only as wary of nipple/teat confusion. also lets DH feed her if he would like to, which means i can get a bit of rest. expressing actually fine- with a good book and while DD is napping- microwave steam steriliser essential.

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