Should I give top-up feeds?

[IWishIWasAFrog]

Hi,

DS is 20 weeks old have been excl BF since birth. I always had lots and lots of milk - he has never managed to drain a breast- and he has never fed more than 10 or so minutes at a time, with soaking wet nappies and at least 4 or 5 dirty ones a day at predictable times. The last couple of weeks my breast have gone 'soft' (still quite engorged in the morning till after the first feed), I suppose it is my body adjusting to how much he really needs, but the last few days his nappies are not as soaked as they were with only 2 or so dirty nappies a day. He is also sucking on his hands and kind of fussy. Is he hungry? I offer the breast loads but he doen't latch, just fuss. Breast totally soft in the evening and it feels empty. We co-sleep and he feeds on demand at night, but I have no idea how much as I kind of sleep through it, if that makes sense. I just know that, at some point in the night, I swap sides. Should I top him up with formula? Weight gain good since birth, born at 4.3 kg's and gaining well on the 50th percentile. I just don't want my baby to go hungry, but am worried that if I start top ups, it will be the beginning of the end for BF... thanks if you managed to get this far.

My goodness...beginning of the end? I don't think so Everything you describe is perfectly develomentally normal -

• softer breasts are something almost every mother who bf more than a few weeks experiences, and usually before 20 weeks (prob testament to a copious and generous supply that you have waited this long!)...it's breasts adjusting more closely to the needs of the baby plus the replacement of fat in the breasts by milk making and storing tissue.

• sucking on hands and fussy - teething, baby finding hands, going through a developmental stage of exploring mouth and textures, in a learning phase which means the need for more loving reassurance...whatever, very normal after the first months

• reduction in wees and poos: normal. Older babies don't wee as often as newborns (the amount of urine may be the same overall, but it doesn't get released every 30-45 mins which is more typical of newborns), and their guts start to mature as well, with less freq. pooing.

He's healthy and gaining, and sounds fine.

It might help to stop trying to insist on him feeding as often, if he indicates to you by fussing he is not in the mood at the moment...just trust yourself and him to work together well

Hope this helps - a call to any of the bf helplines will echo what I'm saying, I think, that nothing you;ve said here sounds remotely like a baby who needs formula

thank you tik tok, I was hoping you'd be around... will weigh him tomorrow at the weekly baby clinic and see how this week went, sometimes it feels like he is living on air and air alone