baby's routing of eating asleep, sleeping intermittently

[Ele2013]

I began having problem with my baby of ten weeks with the routine. She was not a "textbook baby" to begin with but now it's more worrisome.

She sleeps through all feedings now and it is impossible to keep her awake (tried suggestions to keep her awake but it only works for a minute). So she is on and off, but mostly off with max eating of 15 min and only sometimes a full feed.

She was trying to follow Gina Ford routine (trying to get on it with some flexibility and some success) but now it's all over the chart and no routine at all, she sleeps when eating, but eats for fifteen minutes, she sleeps shorter periods at nap times, may be 30 min or one hour but cries in between (although her eyes seem closed), then she wakes up very hungry and again eats for fifteen minutes. Even If I succeed to wait out three hours to pass between feedings, she will still eat fifteen minutes and fall asleep. At night - for her 10pm feeding she has close to four hours gap between feedings and it's again a fifteen minutes feed.

I am wondering if it's a period that will pass or if I should be doing something differently.

Tangential worry is that her fifteen minutes feeding will dry out my milk.

I am by no means an expert, but 10 weeks seems tiny for a rigid Ford-type routine.

My DD is 18m and we never really had a routine as such until 6 months when we started weaning. Even then it was quite fluid and we are still pretty flexible apart from bedtime.

Wrt feeding, does she display hunger cues in between the 3-hourly feed times? I fed DD on demand (still do!) and while it was exhausting and brutal at times, it worked for us.

Disclaimer: I am not a routine person at all!

Good luck with your little one.

It sounds like your daughter hasn't read the GF book properly! 10 weeks seems very young for a rigid routine.

At 10 weeks my daughter wanted feeding every 2 hours but I fed her whenever she was hungry, which was sometimes more often. She often fell asleep during feeds, still does sometimes at 32 weeks. Even now we have no set routine for naps or feeds, although there is a kind of pattern.

If your daughter is allowed to feed when she's hungry you shouldn't run out of milk!

Perhaps have a couple of days feeding on demand and watching her closely to see when she's actually tired?

thank you, I am not in favor of feeding her on demand any more. we had that period and she began spitting like crazy and having all sorts of stomach problems, until we figured out it was over feeding.
I definitely prefer some sort of routine with reasonable flexibility (and allowing for growth hunger, which is clearly not it), that's no question. importantly, she is less happy these unpredictable few days and what I might read as her feeding demand is not every 2 hours, more like every hour.

also, just to clarify, eating for only fifteen minutes at a time no matter how long or short the period between feedings is alarming.

She may well be getting enough in that 15 mins to sate her. Babies get a lot more efficient at feeding around now.

How are her nappies? Are there lots of wet and dirty nappies in a 24 hour period?

yes, there are a lot, you are right! same as before. but then she gives hungry cues more often (I don't always reward them with breast, because of my fear) and has short naps (which I read can be due to hunger and she eats if I offer breast).

She may be going through a growth spurt and developmental leap. At 10 weeks I don't think you should be thinking in terms of "rewarding" your baby with your breast. If she's hungry, she's hungry.

For what it is worth, both my boys breastfed for only 5 - 10 minutes from birth and only ever took one side at a time. Both put on weight well and followed the 75th percentile line. I did have a good supply though and I was feeding every 1.5 to 2 hours for the first 3 months, so the amount of time she is on the breast is quite good in my mind! Also a HV I saw once said to try and increase feed times for my boys to 15 mins as that is 5 mins of foremilk and 10 mins of hindmilk. I could never get them to feed for that long!

At 10 weeks i'd give on demand feeding another go, especially as if you might upset your supply by trying to follow a routine. Bf babies don't tend to overfeed.

I don't think it's 'alarming' that baby only feeds for 15minutes. My dd used to only feed for 10minutes max, even as a newborn. The midwife said to try and get her to feed for at least 20 minutes but she would either fall asleep or vomit everywhere. She always gained weight fine, some babies are just more efficient at feeding than others.

As for 'rewarding' her with the breast, if she's showing signs of hunger you should feed her. A tiny baby won't understand the concept of being rewarded.

DS1 is 7 months now and I breastfed until he was 4.5 months. From birth he onky fed for 6 minutes one side. Would drain my boob in that time. He was on the 50th centile from birth until recently. If he fed for 15 minutes I'd be surprised.....

And if I were you I'd put Gina Ford back in the cupboard and just go with the flow. Feed when hungry,, let her sleep when tired. Shes too young too be worrying about that stuff.

My 6 month old is still breastfed. At 10 weeks she was feeding every 90 minutes or so for about 10-15 minutes a time. I found her milk requirements so changeable over the weeks a strict routine would have been impossible. I would ignore the book and feed on demand, bf babies don't over feed.