Constant feeding and pooing

[hirsty79]

Hi

My DD is 8 weeks old and is still feeding constantly. She has been doing this for about the last 5 weeks - my HV said she was ensuring my milk supply and would settle down in a week or two.

We have had problems with latching, she doesn't seem to open her mouth enough. My HV said everything looks fine and the same has been said at the bf support group I went too. I have managed to get a better (although not perfect) latch through looking at advice and pictures on the internet.

She never seems satisfied and will usually feed for an hour or more (both sides). She won't sleep unless I take her out and will often wake screaming, sometimes only going half an hour between feeds. Sometimes she will even scream while I am switching sides, even though I wait for her to come off by herself.

Evenings are worse as she feeds constantly from 7pm until 10pm at the earliest and 1am at the lastest.

I know bf babies tend to have a lot of dirty nappies in the early days but I thought this would have settled down now. She usually has 8 nappy changes in 24-hours - all of them dirty and least 4 of them massive poos.

I am worried that the milk is just going straight through her. She is also sick a lot (probably due to wind as I struggle to wind her when she is screaming).

I'm starting to loose my mind - all I do is feed. Some days I don't manage to get washed or dressed at all and all my clothes that fit are covered in sick. We are moving house next week and am starting to panic as I need to get packed.

Would be extremely grateful for any advice, reassure etc.

Are the poos yellow?And weight gain ok?

If so it sounds like you are doing a good job, you just have a baby who is very hard work at the moment. If not I would speak to the HV again.

My DD was very like this, I was exhausted for the first 6 months at least. She is still hard work, but having had a placid baby since I appreciate the difference

It's still very early days and won't be like this forever, even though it feels like it.

Hi. I would've thought your milk supply would be well established by now. I was told bf is establsihed by 6 weeks. I struggled with a correct latch at first but persevered with, like you said, help from the internet. I also found magazines and the literature I was given from hospital helpful.

My DS can feed for anything from ten minutes to an hour and sometimes isn't satisfied even when he comes off himself. In the evenings he feeds from 6pm onwards, half hour on, half hour off. This was 5pm until 2am when he first came home from hospital but has settled down to the new routine since he was about 8 weeks. He's now 11 weeks.

I was told by my midwife that bf babies can often have only one dirty nappy in the early days. DS would often only have one every other day. He now has several a day - seven being the maximum number reached! I wouldn't say massive though.

I can understand why you are worried that the milk is just going straight through her, especially with you saying she is sick a lot.

I was told BF babies tend to have little wind and DS rarely needs winding, if he does it's a burp and that's him done. He might get hiccups after a while too. Do you wind her automatically after a feed?

Is she gaining weight?

If you're really concerned maybe you should see the doctor, they may have different advice to HV.

Hope this has helped in some way.

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, her poo is seedy and yellow. She was 7lb 8oz at birth and 9lb 5.5oz at 6 weeks. She will get weighed again next week but feels heavier and is filling her clothes more so don't think weight gain is a concern.

She is very windy because she cries so much between feeds. Trying to wind her though is a bit traumatic though cos of the crying!

I juat feel like I can't get the milk into her fast enough. She has taken a bottle on occasion over the last few days as due to a severely cracked bleeding nipple I have been eexpressing off one side. She gulped her first bottle down from DH no problem. She will also take a bottle from me. She really isn't bothered as long as the milk is coming - I honestly feel like she would feed aall day if I let her!

I feel ready to give up. BF has not been the wonderful bonding experience I was expecting. It has been painful and I find going out stressful as I am constantly worrying she will wake up. The thought of feeding in public makes me feel sick because she is so tetchy. Now she will take a bottle from anyone I feel what is the point? Now the one thing that only I could do for her has gone.

But I feel so guilty about giving her formula (she has had a couple of bottles becasue I couldn't express fast enough). My HV constantly reminds me of the benefits of BF but isn't great with practical help. The support group made me feel so inadequate - everyone else was there with nice clothes, hair and make up done, all BF really easily with happy and contented babies who fed for 15-20 mins iwthout any screaming. There I was with no make up, dirty hair, trousers covered in sick and a baby waking screaming from her half hour nap!

As you can probably tell, this is my first baby and I constantly feel like I am not getting things right.

She sounds perfect. She's using the milk brilliantly, she's pooing and weeing a lot which is fantastic, the 'mustard seed' poo means she's getting enough fat and is hydrated.

It's so, so tough at this age. A lot of babies cry for no reason when they're this tiny, it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong.

My daughter was the same, ate a lot, cried a lot, threw up a lot, pooed a lot, the only thing she didn't do a lot was sleep! And then she hit three months, and everything got So Much Easier.

You are doing a wonderful job. These first three months, they're like nothing else ever. It's another world and none of the rules apply. But your daughter is gaining weight and having wonderful poos and thriving.

As for the formula - at that age, my Edie didn't seem to care how she got her milk either, but as she got a bit older, breastfeeding became a really nice experience for us both. A great way to reconnect.

Hang in there, love. You're a great mum.

I second tortoise's post, I was at my wit's end feeding an endlessly hungry DS for the first 3 months, he was like your DD except the vomity bit and I felt like you too. It is exhausting like nothing else. But please hang in there, you are doing everything right and it WILL settle down soon, I promise, and it'll become more enjoyable too. Big hug.

The perfect types at the BF workshop will be having other problems, believe you me!

Hirsty, she's obviously getting milk and growing from it so you are doing really well. But it does sound like hard work. Do you think she may have reflux if she is vomiting after feeds? My DD has it, and she wants to feed a lot - I think this is to counter the acid coming up and to replace milk lost through vomiting. I saw the doctor about it, why don't you google reflux and see if the symptoms sound familiar. You then need to see your gp if so as they can prescribe medicines to help. I find that a dummy helped my dd, as some of the
'feeding' was actually comfort sucking and a dummy seemed to soothe the reflux symptoms. Obviously being careful to ensure it wasn't replacing feeds.

Congratulations on the birth of your baby. It sounds like you're working very hard at ensuring you continue to breastfeed, and having quite a hard slog with it.

I'm afraid to say a cracked bleeding nipple means your latch is still problematic - maybe just on that side, if only one side has nipple problems?

Could you go back to the BF group, or try another?

The good news is, bad latch can cause gas (they can suck in air), long feeds, an unsettled baby, pretty much all your problems except the quantity of poo.

You're doing so well. I'm sure it will settle down soon. I completely know how you feel - the clothes and hair thing really resonates! Some babies are just much harder work than others but it's not forever even though it feels like it.

Have you tried using a dummy just while you're winding him? Sometimes they get themselves in such a state crying that they get even more wind.

There's no need to feel bad about giving her bottles but it doesn't sound like you need to - you've worked hard to get a good latch and she's putting on weight well. You're doing a fantastic job and she's still very young so things will change.

If you feel she wants to feed all day (and lots do at this age) why not have a bit of a duvet day - snuggle up in bed with some DVDs and treats and just let her feed while you snooze.

How is her sleeping? DD used to wake up screaming if she was still tired and didn't really want to go to wake up. Can you settle her back off by feeding or rocking?

Honestly - you're doing great and in a few weeks things should be a lot better.

Second the advice on here - you're doing brilliantly.

Mine was exactly the same - took hours and hours to feed, only half an hour breaks between feeds, would only sleep if latched onto me or being pushed in the buggy outside. Oh, and the puke! After every feed, for hours afterwards, couldn't work out how she was managing to get any milk at all. And she seemed uncomfortable and restless.

By god it was hard work, nothing felt right and I worried constantly. Like many others you will find on MN, I eventually decided that the problem was reflux and got Gaviscon from GP. Did it help? To be perfectly honest with you, no, although at the time I was just desperate to try something - I couldn't accept that her behaviour was normal! Looking back now it makes me shudder to think how much medicine she had in her first months - infacol, gavison, calpol etc - all totally unnecessary. The puking stopped at 6/7 months, which is when it would have stopped anyway naturally.

But the stuff that really, genuinely did work for me was:

• finding a wonderful BF support group, with brilliant counsellors and mums all having the same sorts of problems as me. Unlike my NCT group, where all the mums constantly were trying to get one-up on each other with bullshitty stories about how much their DCs slept

• Learning how to BF lying down. When I cracked this, I felt so stupid having wasted 2 months valiantly sitting up all night to feed.

• Getting a sling so I could carry her around all the time, which was the only other way she would sleep during the day. Sadly, it took me months to find the right sling - again, could have saved myself so much hassle ...

Good luck, we've all been there before and can reassure you that this time will pass quickly!

Oh sorry, I forgot 2 other vital pieces of advice - wish I'd discovered these earlier:

• Force everyone around you (DP, parents, whoever else is around) to take responsibility for literally everything else while you concentrate on DD. Shout loudly for your right to do this. Please, don't lift a finger to pack. You should not need to get involved. Don't let people come round and coo over the baby while you make the dinner or put laundry on. Don't do anything!

• Get yourself a comfy spot on the sofa, a good supply of everything you need (drinks, snacks, muslins, tissues for everyone's tears , laptop etc) and most importantly, a very big stock of lovely comforting DVDs which you can watch while she feeds. I joined LoveFilm and also ordered a load of DVD box-sets.

Have you asked your removal firm how much extra it would be if they did the packing for you? It's not as much as you'd imagine - and may remove what must be an enormous source of stress just at the time you don't need it...

Thanks so much for all the words of comfort and reassurance.

Being a mum is so tough in the early days and no-one tells you the realities of bf. I think if I had been made aware of what to expect I would have been less anxious and we would have avoided a lot of problems.

Your advice and reassurance really helps though so thanks everyone.