When to give my BF 15 week old baby rice

[heathermc]

Hi I have a 15 week old BF baby boy who until recently has been satisfied with his feeds but now seems to want more milk than I can give him. He feeds ok throught the day every 3 hours but at night he starts 'cluster feeding' from about 7pm and wants to feed every hour before he goes to bed at 10pm.
He was sleeping throught the night from 10-7 but now wakes for a feed at 1.30. 3.30 and 7am. At night he takes all of my milk and wants more but there is nothing left to give him. This has been going on for the past 2 weeks now.
So I am wondering whether to give him baby rice with expressed breastmilk or a bottle of formula before he goes to bed and if so, how much / how often. The other option is my mum says maybe he is just thirsty and her midwife when she had me told her to give a bottle of boiled, cooled water. All the advice I read says BF exclusively for 6 months but surely I can't let him go hungry til then and ouch my boobs are about worn out by the end of the day!! Any advice would be great x

Oh this is a hard time, esp if he had been sleeping though and no longer is, but really, all he needs is more milk.

14-16wks is prime growth-spurt time and his increased feeding will boost your supply to match his needs if you keep feeding on demand.
Giving formula will make your breasts think he doesn;t need any more, so your supply won;t increase and you could be stuck depending on formula more and more as your supply dwindles.

Apart from anything else the very earliest you should start thinking about solids is 17wks, and he's not there yet.

Hang in there, it will get better as your supply ctaches up with him .

Oh yes, what MrsBadger just said.
Hang in there.

Yes, hang in there.

My (now 7 month) DS started sleeping through at about 12 weeks and did so for 6 weeks. Since then its been a bit like the newborn stage again - usually twice a night, if not 3 time. And its hard, but it will pass!!! He's getting better now.

I lost count of the people that said, ooooh hes just hungry, give him some baby rice. I waited though till he was 25 weeks and just gave him more milk till then.

Remember the WHO guidelines are to wait till 6 months.

But sympathies. Its hard especially having enjoyed those sleepfilled nights for a few weeks!!

Heather My DS did exactly the same around this age - at about 12 weeks he was sleeping well after his late feed, and I remember thinking he was getting the hang of this sleeping thing - then a couple of weeks later we were back to almost non-stop cluster feeding! Don't worry about 'having nothing left' - it doesn't work like that. There is always something there. As long as he is having plenty of wet nappies, and you let him feed on demand, he won't be going hungry or thirsty - he is probably upping your supply by suckling lots, and the best thing to do is let him suckle as much as he wants, even though it might feel like he is getting nothing. It will pass, I promise - my DS's demands levelled out again after a few weeks (until the next growth spurt anyway !).

Disclaimer - I am only an enthusiastic bf-ing mum and no expert, but everything I have read says no need for water at all as long as they can feed on demand. It's quite old fashioned advice. In countries that don't have fresh, clean water to hand, it would be literally lethal for young babies to drink water - so it seems that our breasts are brilliantly designed to give everything that your baby needs.

Good luck - it sounds like you are doing brilliantly, so hang in there. I know how hard it can be to resist well-meant advice from our own mums and MILs!

Thanks so much guys, I bought baby rice yesterday on the advice of a friend who started solids at 11 wks with her two but so far all I have read / been told is that I shouldnt give it to him.
Its not the sleep I am worried about, its the fact that I didnt have enough milk to keep him happy but will just try feeding on demand to increase it. Have a good xmas x

I would wait at least a few more weeks, ideallly till 6 months like recomended. If you really have to give something, you would be better off with a bottle of formula than baby rice. Breast milk is best, but baby rice/solids at that age can cause problems later on.

My DD2 stopped sleeping through at that age, but even now at 8 months and on 3 good sized meals a day, she still wakes up a few times in the night. Food doesn't really help IME.

Hello, I am in the middle of this too with 16 weeks DS, I have just had The. Most. Hellish. Week of sleep deprivation coupled with running around for elder kid's end of term stuff and 37,689 (oh, all right then, 14) relatives wanting to have their share of baby time & swap presents (few of them drive, so I have been a very, very, very tired taxi imposing a 30mph limit on myself!).

I was on my knees last night and started to make top-up with formula/baby rice noises to DH, but have just had a slightly better night and am going to take each day as it comes.

I remember this with DD - the advice then was to wean at 4 months, and I thought baby rice would be the answer to all my prayers - it didn't change a thing in fact, just made for smellier nappies and made me feel even more "WTF can I do?"

So I am going to surrender, do a lot less, and watch loads of Christmas telly with DD while I breastfeed DS. You must do what is right for you, but if you decide to carry on, please know that you have a virtual partner out there sitting on her bum eating mince pies

Lol thanks, i must say a few mince pies have been consumed today!
I am new to this so I have read all the advice everyone has given me and it makes a lot of sense, but what the hell does DD and DS and DH mean? I can't figure it out - am I being totally dense? And IME???
I spoke to my health visitor today and she was of the same opinion just to feed as much as he wants to and my supply will increase to match it. She is coming to weigh him and do some check ups tomorrow, roll on my 18 pounder breaking her scales!

DD dear (or darling) daughter, DS dear son DH dear husband. IME ... dunno!

And Mrs Badger is spot on. He's upping your milk supply, hang in there, you're doing a fantastic job!

IME is 'in my experience'

useful acronym list here

thanks mrs badger and hinnypet!

agree with all of the above, keep feeding and no to baby rice !
Only other thing to add is to make sure you are getting plenty fluid and calories in order to make the milk. Yes the human body is amazing and mummy milk just keeps coming but you need to be putting fuel in as well.

yeah i agree i haven't been eating a huge amount the last couple of weeks, my hubby been on night shift so i have been existing on cereal and toast so prob why milk was running a bit low. what a great excuse for him to take me out for dinner!
milk seems much better today, starting squirting him in the face again lol and last night he only woke at 4am. clever boy

heather, I'm right there with you, DS is 17 weeks and starting to wake earlier and earlier, and I fear he won't be sleeping through anymore soon! I'm betting on spending most of Christmas on my PIL's sofa feeding him.

Heather (and the other ladies in the same boat) - I too am experiencing this at the moment. Ds is 15 weeks and had been sleeping from either 7-4am or 7-7am from about 10 weeks (lucky I know!) but in the past week he's all over the place - last night was the worst with me feeding him at 11pm, 2am, 3.30am and 5.30am

I have no more advice than has already been give (feed, feed and feed some more, eat and drink plenty and rest up as much as possible)..just wanted you to know that you're not alone in all those night time feeds....good luck, hope it will pass for us all soon

thanks guys, always good to know you are not alone. here's hoping you all have a good xmas and when they are 18 we can remind them of what we went through when it's their turn to make a cuppa!

How was your Christmas, then? Mine was very busy, and I was on the receiving end of a LOT of advice, but I managed to retain a sense of humour!

If you really have to give something, you would be better off with a bottle of formula than baby rice. Breast milk is best, but baby rice/solids at that age can cause problems later on

sorry lovey - evidence?? i know of no evidence whatsoever that baby rice has any disadvantage to formula - and giving a bottle can cause latching problems. pretty much all the studies into breastfeding done prior to the 1990s will have been on babies weaned at 12-17 weeks to solids - and still showed them to be substantially healthier than their solely FF counterparts.

i would recommend bmilk mixed with rice above formula anyday. spoon fed. from personal experience (not scientific fact i know) this went down well, did not cause constipation (mixing with formula did!!!) and did make them sleep better.

if you take a look, you will note most studies compare EBf babies with mixed fed ones, and some lump in babies fed solely on formula with babies largely Breast fed but supplemented with solids (the 'mix fed group)- i don't think this has yet been studied properly.

IME=In My Experience