Anyone breastfeeding? Help needed!

[Princessintherosecastle]

Hi,
I have a five week old son who
is exclusively breastfed , the thing is he seems to want to be attached to the boob constantly, like literally he feeds nearly every hour. He has small feeds and falls asleep, I try to wake him up to have more and sometimes it works but a lot of the time he has lots of little feeds.

I don’t mind doing this when I’m at home but friends and family are keen to spend time with him and it’s awkward because I spend all the time feeding him sometimes in the other room( depends on who is there). I can’t dare go outside as he cries within ten mins for a feed.

Am I doing something wrong? Does he need topping up with formula?

My HV said as long as he is pooing and weeing and gaining weight he should be ok. His poos are greenish in colour- is that a sign of food intolerance?

Please help! 🙏🏻

Same position with my 6 week old! They're cluster feeding just now so this is totally normal! Hold on and will send some info!

Totally normal newborn behaviour 🥰
At this stage, he’s still establishing your supply, and breastmilk is digested a lot faster than formula, so little and often with bouts of cluster feeding is totally normal. Hang in there, you’re doing great.

https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/

Lots of good info here, I've given up wearing a bra at the moment as less hassle even when wearing a 'proper' bf one!

DD was totally the same - were 4.5 months now and she feeds every couple of hours now with the very occasional cluster feed, much more manageable! You’ll get there!

So you'll see we're in a cluster feeding stage! Are there any bf groups around you locally you could go to?

This is normal. So normal. He's so tiny. This is time to be attached to you. They'll get their chance. The early weeks really are about the two of you together, bonding and meeting his needs. Unless you're desperate for a break, then keep doing what you're doing

Perfectly perfectly normal. Just follow your babies cues. If you plan to EBF you'll soon get used to little and often and eventually they will become longer and more routined but not for a while yet.

Have a read about cluster feeding and the fourth trimester :)

Just to echo everyone else. They are cluster feeding. It should ease up (hopefully) by 8 weeks.

Keep on doing what you are doing - those that want to spend time with your baby will just have to take a slight back seat until feeding is more regulated.

Totally normal. You can try to keep them awake during feeds by keeping them cool, having loud music on, putting a cold flannel on his feet.

But yes it's normal and will ease up eventually. I had a very greedy boy who fed every hour until about 8 weeks.

Totally normal. He probably needs more milk, so by feeding constantly he signals to your body that he needs more and you body starts to produce more. Then it settles again until he grows and needs more.

Completely normal tiny baby behaviour

why can’t you feed him al fresco? This all sounds very alienating for you.

I saw a lactation consultant who called my ds a tapas man and sounds like you’ve got a similar one on your hands. Newborn establishing milk but also mine still has a preference for little and often! When I saw my lactation person it was 6-7 weeks in and she said I’d done all the hard work and she was right. It gets better very soon. Hang in there.

Handhold. My son fed for 45 min, then swapped to the other side for another 45 min. Then he'd have a break for about 20 min before the next feed began.

I think we got slightly bigger gaps at about 3 months old!!! The final feed of the night was always a good hour and a half, even as an older baby.

Feeding is still very new for you. I had a cover for when people were round or if I was out and about - I know it's socially acceptable to feed in public, but quite frankly I was far more comfortable when not exposing myself.

You've got this!

As others say, this is normal and it'll level out.

Green poos also normal for BF but can be a sign they are getting more of the foremilk (especially if it's explosive!) so worth checking your breast is drained before switching to the next one, even if that means doing a couple feeds from that breast before switching over.

With breastfeeding it's all so different for each baby and there's so much figuring out as you go along!

Le Leche is a good resource on all things breastfeeding too.

Green explosive poops could be a sign of a gripe tummy, lo could be comfort feeding. My dd did this, was super colicky and would comfort feed a lot. It improves around 6-8 weeks

Agree with all those who said this is normal newborn feeding.

As for green poos - also normal - as long as no other issues and gaining weight well. My DS had green poo until he was about 4 months old.

My baby was exactly like this and I started to think it would never end but it gradually started to slow down from about 11 weeks onwards and now at 5 months I have to distract them into actually feeding as they're so curious about what's going on around them! Hang on in there ⚘️

Mine was the same, hang in there! Would echo PP suggestion of too much foremilk, try feeding on the same breast for a couple of feeds before switching. After the six week growth spurt my DS calmed down a bit and he's now a really efficient feeder so doesn't feed for very long and has good gaps in between feeds.

Completely normal I'm afraid. They establish your supply for at least the first 6 weeks. It's hard but it won't be forever. Soon a 1h feed will be done in ten minutes with a nice gap afterwards, until a growth spurt is imminent. It's so hard but it doesn't last forever x