Combination feeding

[JesseandNancy]

Hi, I am currently breastfeeding my daughter (who is 3 weeks old) but at night time she never seems to be full. She comes off the breast and sleeps but as soon as I put her in her Moses basket she wakes up crying and wanting more. This goes on for hours each night. I'm worried she is not taking enough milk in but it doesn't seem to be an issue during the day. Does anyone else have this problem? I'm thinking of combining bottle and breastfeeding to ensure she gets enough at night to sleep. Any advice??

Sounds very normal for a 3 week old - they want and need lots of closeness with mother. You can try formula at night but don't count on it making a difference (I tried it from about 7/8 weeks and it made no difference)

As long as there's a sufficient number of wet and dirty nappies, and baby is putting on weight well then she is getting enough milk.

You're still very much establishing your supply this early on so cluster feeding is to be expected. It's exhausting but does slow down eventually.

Best thing I did was start (safely) bed sharing - we both get better quality sleep now and I don't have to get up to feed in the night.

Hope this helps, and well done for sticking with breastfeeding so far. It can be relentless and is an achievement in itself

Thank you for that, it's good to know it's normal!!

It’s completely normal. It’s called cluster feeding and it’s baby’s way of increasing your milk. All babies do it for 4/5 hours a day when going through growth spurts etc and unfortunately for you your babies cluster time is middle of the night, which is tough! You’d prob find if you gave formula baby wouldn’t even take much, it’s more a comfort thing and your hormones respond to this by producing more milk in readiness for your baby’s altering needs. Most babies cluster feed periodically until 8 weeks although my baby kept it up until 14 weeks x