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Infant feeding

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

help on bf reqd. mears are you there?

78 replies

edgarcat · 07/05/2003 11:38

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Hughsie · 09/05/2003 18:05

I'm struggling too edgarcat - see Am I giving him enough ? thread.

pupuce · 09/05/2003 18:07

Hey - he is 6 weeks old... growth spurt time....
Don't give up.... he may have had an unsettled night. I was -myself- with the 5 weeks old baby and he did a 4 1/2 hours stint (probably would have been longer if the mum who woke up didn't ask to feed him as she was engorged).... when his mum contacted me she didn't get more than 2h 1/2 in between night feeds...

Hughsie · 09/05/2003 18:23

Pupace - you seem to be a miracle worker!

pupuce · 09/05/2003 19:18

I wish

Actually I am getting to the -personal -conclusion that most babies get fed when they wake because they wake.... not because they are hungry. I would never deny a baby his food (breast) but when I talked to this baby's mummy this AM about how she fed him, I asked (nicely) if there could be a case of giving him the breast as a means to keep him quiet... i.e. everytime he starts whinging/crying... she feeds him... and she said that was quite true.
This does not mean to say that

  1. she is doing something wrong
  2. everyone is the same

It was an observation of her and the last mum I worked for. As they both had babies who did not last more than 2 or 3 hours between feeds.
With this current baby - as I was saying to Edgercat - he is not getting a breast out of me so he has no real problem settling back to sleep if he wakes 2 hours after a good feed... so I just cuddle him, rock him, etc and he goes right back to sleep.

mears · 10/05/2003 09:39

You are so right pupuce - I gave assistance to a struggling B/F friend of mine by taking the baby away for a few 4 hour spells so that she could get some sleep and regain some sanity. I never gave the baby anything elso to eat - he just went back to sleep after a bit of cuddling. Mum then realised herself that feeding is not always required immediately. She successfully exclusively fed for 6 months and is still feeding at 14 months

beetroot · 10/05/2003 10:50

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edgarcat · 14/05/2003 10:09

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edgarcat · 14/05/2003 18:22

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Gilli · 14/05/2003 19:29

Edgarcat - I have been following your posts but not contributed as I felt there were others who could give you much better advice than I could. However, here goes with two contradictory theories My third child was exactly the same, and in the end I gave up and went to bottles and she settled almost immediately. Why? Who knows: HV's view was I was just too exhausted to feed properly (i'e for long enough at a time) and so the baby was unsettled. With No4, a bit of a surprise 7 years later, I was terrified that the same thing would happen. However, I found GF's book a godsend(please don't scream) because for the first time I understood what I was trying to do. I understood how much I needed to get in between 7 and 7, and boy!, did I make sure I did, even waking the baby if I had to. All I can say is that it worked, and she is the only one of mine to have been breastfed successfully (i.e to 5 months). To be honest, both approaches worked wonders, and so it depends how strongly you feel about breastfeeding. I know that 99% of people will encourage you to persevere, but don't beat yourself up if you decide that at 7 weeks its time to move on. The best of luck with whatever you decide.

edgarcat · 14/05/2003 19:33

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pupuce · 15/05/2003 09:34

Edgarcat, Gilli is not suggesting to express.... or did you read something else between the lines?

edgarcat · 15/05/2003 11:58

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wiltshirelass · 15/05/2003 12:30

I agree about the not feeding until they are hungry bit that you all have brought up. I do think that if they have a bit of milk every time they whinge in the night they never get a really good big meal, but are just snacking. If you try and settle them if they are just whingey and tired so they go to sleep, then when they do wake up they are very hungry and have a big feed, which in turn keeps them going for longer so stretches out the feeds at night. Then make sure you get as much milk into them as possible during the day.

In my experience a few week old baby who has had a really good feed when hungry at night very rarely needs another one before 3 hours is up. With the odd mad growth-spurt day exception.

edgarcat · 15/05/2003 12:30

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wiltshirelass · 15/05/2003 13:16

North. Near Wootton Bassett. You?

edgarcat · 15/05/2003 16:31

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edgarcat · 15/05/2003 16:31

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wiltshirelass · 15/05/2003 16:41

ah well, I shall think of you and your night feeds on the other side of the plain then.
reading your posts has brought back to me the first few weeks post-birth, in all its knackering, clockwatching, nipple-agony glory. Oh how I can't wait for the end of august when I have to do it again.
Now, where was that maternity nurse agency number?

edgarcat · 15/05/2003 16:44

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wiltshirelass · 15/05/2003 16:50

i've just spent my maternity nurse money on a private midwife so i can have a home birth anyway, so glad to know it gets easier. this is my third.
I could have used a community midwife, until i discovered that i would get one of a pool of 26 midwives (of which I would have met one), who collectively did 30 births a year. I personally think doing one birth a year (max!) classifies you as a rank amateur, not a professional. I'll stick to using them for their more practised skills of prodding funduses and checking episiotomy stitches, thanks!

pupuce · 15/05/2003 19:40

Edgarcat.... GF says to express mainly with the purpose of increasing your supply for growth spurt time... 3 and 6 weeks... basically you would have used the 1 pr 2 oz of expressed milk to gve when baby was extra hungry... so you are passed that... so expressing a la GF does not apply anymore

Wiltshirelass.... what about getting a postnatal doula... far cheaper and much more flexible?
Some nanny agency have them... or check www.doula.org.uk

edgarcat · 15/05/2003 19:45

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pupuce · 15/05/2003 22:10

Not that amazing.... yesterday you said he was 7 1/2 weeks....

Gilli · 15/05/2003 22:23

Edgarcat - no, I wasn't suggesting expressing - I hated it and never really managed it: I used the first book, Contented baby, which really helped me, as it's easy to look up the age of your baby and see roughly how many feeds between 7 and 7 she's suggesting: compare with what you're doing and see if that helps! I found that by keeping an eye on the book once every 4 weeks or so, and by making sure that I fed as much as possible during the day, that about 8pm (so not quite GF!), the little darling would then crash out until 11pm when I would WAKE her, feed and then get through from 11 to 7 on just one quick feed which she rapidly dropped. To be honest I don't like her 2nd book so have ignored it, but the earlier one did help me.

edgarcat · 16/05/2003 10:33

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