Weird behaviour in 5 m/o

[TruthSweet]

Background:-

DD3 is 24 w/o and is ex.bf. She has gone from 75th-91st%ile at birth (was 8lb 10oz) to just above the 2nd%ile at 21w/o (12lb 91/2oz) due to 3 bouts of bronchiolitis which included a week long stay in hospital being tube fed 23mls an hour. When she was being tube fed she would suck her fingers in a nursing rhythm as the milk went down.

She is nowhere near ready for solids as she can't really sit up unaided for more than a few seconds, still has tongue thrust and shows no interest food even if handed to her but she has pincer grip now.

I can't give her a dummy as they make her gag due to her bubble palate which made feeding interesting in the early days due to very shallow latch and odd clicking sound during feeding (not a bad latch as was in no pain).

Weird behaviour:-

I have been trying to feed her up by offering once an hour but she's not interested very much now. She only had 4 feeds today at 5am, 9am, 11am and 3pm (all times approximate). They were all initiated by her. That seems nowhere near enough for a baby her age/size.

Even at night when she always used to feed to sleep she now has a little feed and then will pop off and jam her fingers in her mouth to start suckling on them. If I take them out and put her back on she will suck for a bit then go back to her fingers. She now falls asleep with her head up against my breast suckling furiously on her fingers.

I have never heard of a baby who will suckle fingers rather than the breast. I don't know what to do (if anything ) but I'm worried she is prefering her fingers to feeding. Any ideas?

Sorry, have no advice but my DS (15 weeks) also does that. He has NEVER taken a dummy or bottle. This has been going on for about 3 weeks. He also has a definite preference for my right boob and will only feed from the left at night It is really difficult though because I never feel sure that he is actually satidfied.

I have tried to stop worrying how much and how often he feeds as he still has plenty of dirty and wet nappies and seems to be growing well (being weighed tomorrow)

We have another finger sucker here- and five months old too.

He is also low weight (in fact he's still off the chart!) I think the finger sucking did contribute to his weight loss as he would soothe himself instead of shouting for milk.

Even now, he will feed for a bit and then stick his fingers in. I just prise them out and then pop him back on the breast.

Same thing for the weaning - he can't sit up unaided either, but we're going to wait for the 6 month mark and then start on the baby led weaning.

So, no suggestions I'm afraid, but I don't see it as an issue.

Thanks WW & CB for the commiserations.

I'm a worrier and I get fed up of people saying she looks like she's 2 m/o.....you'd think I would have got used to it DD1 was 12lb 10oz at 21 w/o, DD2 was 12lb 6 1/2oz at 20 w/o and DD3 is 12lb 9 1/2oz at 21 w/o. All small for different reasons though. I was just pleased to have a 'big' baby for once (DD1 was 7lb 12oz & DD2 was 7lb 6oz at birth). Ah hubris got to love it .

I'll just have to keep up with the prying fingers out of mouth during feeds . Milky goodness or sloppy digits, what a dilemma

I'm a big worrier too! And he's my first (so getting worked up really easily!)I keep lurking on the feeding topic in a hope that someone will give a miracle cure so that he will feed easily and I can stop worrying.

Probably not gonna happen though They are really strange little creatures though, aren't they?

No advice but similar experience here. I am tandem feeding a nearly 3 year old and my ds2 who is 18 weeks. They are completely different! Ds1 will (and always has) fed to sleep, loves bf and will suckle for ages and ages, though as a new baby he was a very efficient feeder and I could get a full feed down him in 7 mins ish. Never took a dummy (or bottle)

Ds2 is smaller baby (but 50th centile so not small), feeds less frequently, sleeps better, feeds for very short time and then loses interest (couple of mins feeds sometimes). He is a very sucky baby but doesn't want to feed to sleep and will arch his back away and cry if I try him to take the breast and he doesn't want it. LOVES a dummy, and will suck his fingers or his clothes if he doesn't have a dummy. Not really tried him with a bottle.

I would say, rather than weird behaviour, its just different from what I expected based on the first time around.

By the way, ds2 will feed better when I am lying down, when we are in a quiet room and when he is tired. During the day, feeds are bit of a write off, especially if there is anything else going on when he gets very distracted.

I tell you what's even stranger - DD1 has just turned 4 and is mainly in 5-6 clothes (though I am trying to get that last bit of wear out of her 4-5s). At 14 m/o she could still fit into her 0-3 m/o summer clothes though the skirts were a bit short! DD2 gets mistaken for a 3 or 4 y/o all the time (she's 2 y/o).

They were all at a party recently and DD2 was only an inch shorter than some o the 4 y/os!

Titchies can turn into gulumping great things before you know it and if they don't well at least you get a good price-per-wear .

Preggets your DS2 sounds like he could be my DS. Mine also feeds better at night and most day feeds are a joke. It's strange how a hungry baby can still be so distractable.

Sorry Preggers. Typing on my phone often leads to spelling mistakes.

I'm afraid I don't really have any advice but I do empathise! DD2 is 18 weeks and a real thumb sucker too. She was feeding very frequently up until the past couple of weeks and now only takes a decent feed at approx. 6am, 9.30am, 1pm, 6pm and then 8pm, 2am. I know that sounds probably like quite a lot of feeds but she really was every 2 hours for ages - and she's now using her hand/thumb sucking to soothe herself quite a lot which makes me think she's getting a little distracted by than when she's hungry and not feeding so much from me. She was born small (5lb 10oz) and has now managed to get onto and stay on the 25th centile, but I'm very aware how much she needs to keep up with her weight gain. But what I have found is that no matter how much I offer her the breast, and try to get her to feed, if she's not hungry she'll just take a couple of feeds then arch her back and want off. She has also got far more distractable recently, which is hard in the day with 2 other DCs playing nearby (or on us) all the time!!

I guess we just have to trust that when they're really hungry they will feed...and long term be fine! Easier said than done though!

sorry lots of typos there too...can't multitask well!!