feeding for 3-5 mins only

[MaElsie]

Hi,
My baby is 4 months old and about a month ago started getting really fussy over feeding. Even if she's manically gnawing at her fists, she'll guzzle for 3-5 minutes, then require winding, but then turn her face away and wail if I try to get her to eat any more. Then she often goes back to gnawing her fists.

She's generally like this at her morning and lunchtime feeds and only starts eating properly (ish) in the afternoon. Any thoughts. Is this something that all 3-4 month olds go through or do you have any ideas about things I could try / what could be wrong?

About a month ago she started getting fussy over food, I think because the flow seemed suddenly too fast for her, then she got windy. But that doesn't seem to be the problem now.

Thanks for any ideas!

It might not be a problem, she might just be a very efficient feeder, my dd, breastfed for 11 months, she never spent longer than 5 minutes feeding. At 3 months this was about once every 3-4 hours. My ds spent a good 45 minutes on there, I couldn't believe how slow he was! Is your dd still putting on weight and appearing satisfied after the short feed? If yes don't worry, if no then worth looking into further.

I think the gnawing at hands is a precursor to teething although we haven't started teething yet.

My daughter (6m) has also got much more efficient and her feeds take a lot less time.

I've heard breast compression can help with this - often they're complaining about a slower flow. Here is a page on it.