Please help (breast feeding) LO is feeling hungry

[jorhat]

Guys my LO is crying while breastfeeding,clusterfeeding today happened at night 4:30 am till 12pm (7 hours straight) in the end my breastmilk was lowest,he was crying while strongly sucking... does that mean he is not getting milk now and he cant have more patience for little milk... what should i do ? Should i give him top feed ? Or i should just go on like before please help me

Sounds tough on you. Are you okay? IMO I would top up to give you a break. How old is DC?

It means he’s doing what he should. Breast milk production adjusts according to demand. So by him feeding lots the last few hours, your body will produce more the next few days to meet the higher demand. If you can it’s better not to add formula as then you will start producing less again.

Babies also feed for comfort.

How old is LO?

That sounds really tough, I’ve been there, all I can say is hang on. How old is little one?

They kind of have to keep strongly sucking when the milk is at its lowest, it’s how they demand more. Your supply will catch up. I found the first bit of bf really hard but it got so so much easier from about 8 weeks then a breeze by 12 weeks. Baby is now 8 months and it’s easy I’m so glad I kept going.

How old is the baby? What do you mean your milk is low? There’s no way of knowing while breastfeeding, and cluster feeding is designed to build your supply: it’s your baby “putting in their order” for the next few days – could be a growth spurt is about to happen. And depending on age, some babies are just tiny hellbeasts who are going to clusterfeed and cry and generally be a pain. If there are plenty of wet and dirty nappies, low supply isn’t the problem.

Crying could be wind, too.

Do you have a partner to give you a break? Has the baby been checked for tongue tie?

@Caspianberg

It means he’s doing what he should. Breast milk production adjusts according to demand. So by him feeding lots the last few hours, your body will produce more the next few days to meet the higher demand. If you can it’s better not to add formula as then you will start producing less again.

Babies also feed for comfort.

Agree with this, it feels terrible but they are stimulating more milk and by introducing formula you will disrupt supply. I know it's shit but hang on in there, not sure how old your LOis but my 2 month old EBF only wakes up once a night !!

@Bigoldmachine
@GeoffreyGeoffreys
@burritofan

(One month,5 days) passes stool 3 times or two times... wet nappies are good too does urine more often but dont know exaclty how much..
Weight was 4 kg when he was born
Current weight dont know

@burritofan so if hes awake 7 hours and still hungry wants to keep sucking i let it happen? I just want to make sure that he is not in pain or starving..

You don’t have to keep going for 7 hours; you need to wee, eat, hydrate! If the baby has plenty of wet and dirty nappies, putting on weight, pink and thriving, they’re getting enough milk.

Pain: could be a comfort sucker. Could have reflux, where they keep wanting milk because it’s soothing on tummies, but also causes a bit of a cycle; could have wind. Could just be a tricky baby – it does get better! Make sure you do take a break: it’s ok to put a crying baby down somewhere safe while you eat and drink lots of water etc.

Yep, agree with the other PPs given he’s only a month. Formula may disrupt your supply. Only top up if you think you don’t have enough milk and he really is hungry. Make sure he is changed, burped etc. He may be going through a growth spurt, so this is normal. Things will settle down at 6 weeks.

Take the PPs advice on keeping yourself fed and drink lots of water.

Yes he can feed as long or often as needed. But you also need a breather.
So if he has fed on and off for an hour, I would be tempted to try and put him in sling or pram or bouncer and rock or walk him to sleep. Then try and eat, drink and rest yourself

@Freddiesgirl the thing is he is awake from 4 am to 12 pm (8 hours) and sleeps all day long takes feed two times and im full of breast milk at that time but hes sleeping and when he is awake i am at my lowest milk supply probably after 2 feeds im dry
What should i do i want to change schedule... should i wake sleeping baby up after every 2 hours ? Feed him so he doesn't cluster feed ?

babies can't do much to fix their discomfort. All they can do is try to nurse.

if the nappies are soaking he's getting plenty in; it can't come out if it didn't go in.

I am wondering if he's over tired, so basically I'd be trying (give it 10 minutes) walking around to settle him after an hour of good feeding. Or if he can doze off in a bouncy seat as others suggest. You need sleep & he needs to get into a different pattern. His sleep-awake patterns will change constantly in the early days, though. Rest when you can.

Cluster feeding is normal and some do it for quite at long time, I’m looking at you DD. They also like to feed in the early hours. If you think it’s comfort sucking you could try a dummy, sometimes.
My 7 month old dd feeds through the early hours so my breasts feel empty but barely feeds in the day so I’m full all day. I feed at night laying down so she can feed and I can sleep.
It does get easier soon.

@jorhat hang in there, it does get easier 🤞🏼 If he’s actually awake for 8 hours straight then he’s probably very overtired and looking for comfort more than a feed. My DS used to just stay latched on while sleeping and would just do those little flutters for hours if I let him. It was purely comfort. I ended up having to give him a dummy while he sleeps.

As everyone else has said, cluster feeding is his way of increasing your milk supply. As long as he’s doing plenty of wet and dirty nappies (I believe 6 or more wet is the right amount) and is pink in colour then he’s getting what he needs and will increase your supply as he needs it. I had terrible problems with my DS pulling himself off the boob crying and screaming and refusing to feed and it turned out to be because of reflux so watch out for anything like that. That didn’t happen until 3 months old.
At that age baby doesn’t know day from night I’m afraid so it’s just a case of doing what they want when they want 🤞🏼

Oh you poor thing, you’re right in the thick of it.

Every few weeks you will get a few days of cluster feeding. Absolute hell at the time. If I was in your position with the timings you’ve mentioned, I would give up at about 9am and head out for a walk. LO will almost certainly fall asleep in the pram (or sling if you prefer). Once they’ve had a bit of sleep (and more importantly, your breasts have had a rest) hopefully it will be a bit if a reboot.

I know you will be desperately hoping they will sleep so you can sleep, but sometimes you need to just get out for a bit.

Agree with others that there is no indication currently that you need to be topping up with formula. Might be a good idea to weigh LO though (I just stand on the scales with them, no clothes or nappy for them).

That said I know plenty of people who either mix fed from an early age or gave the odd bottle of formula with no adverse impact in their supply.

You say he's awake from 4am- 12pm then sleeps the rest, without waking up between midday and 4am? At 4 weeks old he needs to be feeding every 3 hours to keep his blood sugar levels up. I would definitely be waking him regularly during the day.

Completely missed the update where you said he only wakes twice from midday to 4am @jorhat
As @Winterwaves has said, you need to be waking him regularly to feed. Every 2-3 hours is normal for that age. You might find that you can just wake him enough to get him to latch on then he’ll feed while half asleep. I used to have to tickle my little boys feet while he fed to keep him awake enough to feed. He’s not getting enough calories in the 12-4am stretch so he’s trying to make up for it by cluster feeding when he wakes!

If baby is hard to wake to feed then my heath visitor advised us to take baby's clothes off to his nappy and tickle his feet. He really is going a very long time without feeding for his age. Have you had him weighed recently? Would be good to gauge how his weight is doing

Echo PPs saying wake him as he's going a long time without food.

Buy scales to weigh him to check he's gaining on track. I got these for my DS as we had no HV weigh ins due to COVID

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01080AHNQ/ref=cmswwrcppapifabcc_4NCYMCHREHKNJ5VKEN5W

Yes at that age I would wake regularly.

I always fed then at least every 3hrs daytime ( more like 90mins-2hrs). Daytime would be 7am-10pm. So if they fed at 7am and then went to sleep, played and then slept were still asleep at 10am I would wake and feed again ( although I don’t think mine naps more than 1-2 hr max at that age)

Only after cluster feeding session he sleeps for four hourse other that that he wakes up for feed after two to three hours max,sometimes takes 2 feeds in 2 hours

@Winterwaves again cluster feeds despite of taking in feed after every two to three hours