New mum, worried that not BF correctly. Need advice

[Ready]

Can I overfeed my baby with BFing? A friend has said that I should not be feeding as frequently as I have been. I really don't know what to do as this is my first baby.

I basically feed on demand (she is 17 days old) and I thought that I had cracked it, thought I knew when she was hungry and when she was just wet/hot. But now my friend has caused me to doubt everything.

How often should I be feeding?

Could overfeeding be the cause of her wind? The last 2 days she has really suffered with wind, and screams a plenty.

Another one saying ignore the books and keep doing what you are doing.

I so wish I'd had this advice and support with ds1, who I tied myself in knots over by reading the books and wondering why he didn't magically fit a pattern.

Ds2 is 5 weeks old, BF totally on demand, hardly cries, sleeps brilliantly...in short a very contented baby (no pun intended ) because I haven't even opened a book.
The books do not know your baby, neither do your friends and family. You do!

I myself am in favour of binning all clocks in houses with a baby.

They always make me feel bad, for either being too early or too late. Apprently bf rates are highest in countries where homes are least likely to have clocks

Don't ask me where I read that [here? Tiktok? research somewhere?]

I love MN... it got me through the years of failing to conceive my beloved daughter, and I know it will get me through any tricky times as she grows.

What a fabulous community. Makes me smile.

Thanks so much everyone.

You sound like you have it pretty well sussed - WELL DONE Wish i had had everything sussed as quickly as you (even with DS2)

I was the only one from my NCT antenatal group NOT to follow Gina Ford and I ended up BF the longest. They all said similar things to me as your friend did.

Read books for general info but use your instincts for everthing else (routines, feeding etc) And have the confidence to go with your insincts.

Every baby is different, and so too is every mother!

Love the Ah-Yes but mine would be AH-Yes-nudge-nudge! (nudge them awake gently before putting them back down to sleep)

The friend is full of balloon juice. Just keep on feeding every time your baby seems to want more. You can't overfeed a breastfed baby. And the gas will eventually sort itself out too, once the baby can raise her own head and keep her back a little straighter. Cut back on broccoli and cabbage if you're eating a lot of that.
It's stressful to have everyone weighing in on what you're doing wrong with the baby, and hard to sort out the good suggestions from the bad. Breastfeeding seems to stir up such strong and raw emotions among people and all that comes at you from all directions. Try to figure out people's motives when they're giving you advice. If there's anyone not supporting you or undermining your confidence try to limit your exposure to that person so you can relax. My mil fed all her children on a homemade formula of reconstituted condensed milk, water and sugar, and then orange juice even for newborns for the inevitable constipation. She poohpoohed breastfeeding -- glad to say she lives in another city so I just got on with it.

Hello Ready

A bit late to be of much use thought I'd tell you that I went through exactly the same thing with DS, now 15 weeks. Evenings were particularly fun as he cluster fed. I would basically sit down and apart from brief periods when DH would take him to wind him or change his nappy, that was my evening. My mum was quite , convinced he couldn't still be hungry, each time I fed him!

The rest of the day I also fed on demand, which was sometimes as often as 1.5 to 2 hours apart (think some of my NCT group felt sorry for me but DS seemed to thrive on it). It's really only in the last two or three weeks that I've actually had to remember to feed him

DS started evening colic around 3-4 weeks. I actually took him to a cranial osteopath a week or two later, though that was partly as he'd had a forceps delivery. DH was quite sceptical and I wasn't sure it would make any difference, but it certainly seemed to and our evenings got much better.