Very hungry 19 weeks old - it is time??

[Velvetcu]

This is my first baby as you will probably gather from the desperate tone of my post!

From 11 weeks, DD was sleeping through 7-7. For the past 2 weeks she has started waking once, sometimes twice for a feed at night. She is also very very hungry during the day. She had gotten into a routine of going around 4 hours between feeds (ebf), now it's every hour and she's having each boob at least once but more often two or three times each sitting!

I have read the guidelines and I know that the advice is wait to wean until 26 weeks and I understand the reasons for this. I have also read about "the signs" and she meets all of them.

I tried her on a couple of spoonfuls of baby rice. Her mouth is wide open before I've even dipped it in the rice, she sucks it straight of the spoon, swallows and opens her mouth for more. 2 spoonfuls makes her very angry as she wants more so I have given her up to 5 spoonfuls but she it still hungry afterwards. She has a milk feed before and after the rice.

It's frustrating because I cannot get anything done during the day because she wants me almost constantly, I feel as though I've gone back to having a newborn. I can't keep up with the amount of feeding she wants, I'm so tired and I feel as though I don't have enough milk for her. If this is just a normal part of her development, I will persevere with just ebf because I don't want to cause her any problems by weaning too early but how do I decide what to do for the best?

4 hours between feeds and sleeping through the night is pretty unusual, so maybe you were just exceptionally lucky for a while

It's up to you really, but since you have already started weaning her isn't it a bit of a moot point?

There are more calories in milk than baby rice. If your baby is getting hungry the answer is more milk.

Could it be a growth spurt? There's some info on growth spurts on kellymom here, which suggests to me that it could be (although your DD doesn't fit the exact timings, she won't have read the website)

4 hours does sound like you've been lucky for a while and two wakings a night is what we were getting from DD at about the same age (if not more) and she was FF (which some people mistakenly think helps them sleep longer!)

To be honest, from everything I have read on MN and elsewhere, if your DD is hungry then the best thing to give her is more milk, simply because it is the most calorific thing you can give to her. If she's feeding every 4 hours, it might be that actually it's just not often enough for her right now and that she wants milk more often than she did. A couple of spoonfuls of baby rice isn't going to fill her up any more than your milk.

You've provided her with plenty of milk until now (look at her - see how she's grown since she was born? You did that!) so there's no reason why you suddenly won't be providing her with enough now.

If you think she's ready for weaning, then that's fair enough, but if you're not sure then there's no reason for you to carry on - you can just put away the baby rice and persevere with EBF for a little bit longer. Have you spoken to your HV or a BF counsellor?

I'll probably go against the grain of other posters on here but if I were you I would think she is totally ready to wean! I know all the theory about milk having more calories etc but if you have already tried her with baby rice and she gobbled it up seems a bit pointless to stop just for the sake of a few weeks imo.

You know your baby best, go with your instincts not some blanket policy, one rule does not fit every baby in my experience!!

When mine were small the perceived wisdom was that you kept them on BM or bottle till four months, then if you felt they were ready started with the baby rice for one meal for a week or so then slowly start to introduce plain fruits & veggies then proteins after 6 months.

The theory behind changing it to 6 months before starting (as I understand it) was that they were starting to see a rapidly increasing age group with early renal failure thought to be from the introduction of proteins too early in babys life, hence the new guidelines.

I can see the reasoning but now you have very hungry babies going from nothing to 3 meals a day in quick succession!

This doesn't mean you can't start ANY solids if like the OP's baby you are exhibiting signs of hunger. She could start on one meal a day, say tea-time which would help with the sleeping,hopefully & lots more milk the rest of the time. Then over the course of the next month or so sloooowly build up the meals till they're on 3 a day & 2 snacks.

The more milk does assume you have plenty of milk to give, and if ebf it could be that you're not actually producing as much as she needs - is your diet good and getting enough calories? (no massive weightloss etc.)

Baby rice isn't going to help much, formula or more calorie dense foods might, but then you're struggling at the earliness of your weaning and appropriate foods.

Rita I've only given her baby rice 4 times so I wouldn't technically say I've started weaning, just trying it out to see what she thought of it since my friends who have babies who were born the same week and who are weaning in earnest say that they have to semi force the spoon into their LOs mouths, which I definitely don't agree with! I do wonder if I have been lulled into a false sense of security by her early sleeping pattern.

Chub I don't think I have any more milk!

Thankyou Flisspaps I suppose I do forget that I've grown her myself, she has even doubled her birth weight already (which is impossible for an ebf baby at this age according to my hv, so I must be lying!)

Girlie she definitely likes it even if it's not making her any less hungry!

Formula then, there's nothing wrong with mixed feeding.

Fredfred I am eating but I am also losing weight - I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight already but I don't know if that is unusual or would be described as rapid, it's certainly not on purpose. Maybe I do need to up my calorie intake whilst she's feeding this often, I hadn't considered that stupidly

Bossy I think you're right about starting with a little and building up. The problem is she isn't sated at all by baby rice.

Probably not much help but i'll tell you what I did.

My ds was the same although he never went more than 3 hours between feeds (day and night!)up until he was 9 months old! He had doubled his birth weight by 3 months.

I carried on bf him until i weaned him at 24 weeks. It was tiring, hard work and I was drained but I was uneasy about weaning early being a first time mum and having all the weaning talks by the hv and reading the WHO guideline so I decied just to carry on.

I used to eat loads (and i mean LOADS!) of food, I was back to pre-pregancy weight by 6 weeks which i put down to his hunger!

Sorry its not much help but I thought id let you know your not the only one.

Try baby rice & banana?

You need to give her something more filling then baby rice! Either more bf or bananas or avocados. The latter two are the only calorie dense weaning food. (not sure about potatoes but personally i found it quite filling). Though be warn that they don't actually pace out their time between feeds once they are weaned. You have been lucky with 4 hour feeds. My DD was 2-3 hours at that age and now at 11mo it's still 2-3 hours. You simply replace some of the feeds with solids. And it's a lot more work then lying on sofa watching tv feeding.

OnAQuest I have a very hungry DD too and I was back at pre pregnancy weight at 6 weeks as well. I attribute it to all the bf too. I'm actually now one dress size smaller than before I was pregnant . I can't seem to be able to eat enough for two.

I would suggest formula - weaning is about transitioning to foods other than milk, in the early days it provides very little calories - your 5 spoonfuls would've had maybe 10 or 20 calories at most, yet DD is probably needing 7 or 800 calories a day. Even if it was all digested, but young babies can't digest it fully, so their belly's are full, but the calories don't arrive.

I have no problem upping the amount of bf if that's what needs to be done but that will bean she is constantly attached to me and nothing will get done. I already have dh in my ear about the house not being up to standard and dinner not being cooked on time so that will obviously be worse if I'm increasing her feeds further!

I know that weaning presents it's own difficulties I'm merely trying to work out if she's telling me she's ready or not!

You're on maternity leave, not housework leave. Tell him to fuck off

Don't worry about your calorie intake, it won't have an effect on your milk.

I have done chub many a time, he doesn't seem to understand what it means though!

And I think that's making things a lot worse because as soon as I'm able to put her down I start rushing around like a loon trying to get things done in the hour I have before she wants feeding again. I'm really exhausted

That makes me really angry. really angry. I am on maternity leave, I also have a five year old. My Dh is somewhat unreconstructed but even he acknowledges that I am currently working harder than either of us have ever worked.

And he pays for a cleaner twice a week.

Can you pop her in a sling for a bit?

Also is she always feeding for hunger? If she's teething, she might be needing your comfort too.

That age there is a big growth spurt (baby rice isn't very calorific) and developmental leap so baby needs more calories. A lot more. I remember DS eating loads, screaming his head off for more boob all the while. It did pass though.

You should post on the bf topic but I want to point our that you will have enough milk unless seriously malnourished, and this extra feeding is your baby's way of upping your supply. Just drink to thirst, eat well and rest when you csn.

You need to push back against your DH and do the minimum. What happens when you go back to work?? Hours not a 1950s housewife FFS. Saying that, a sling will mean you can do the bare minimumif you must and your DD might go longer as you're closer (DD is happier waiting if I'm holding her).

Well I could start a whole other thread on dhs behaviour but I was recently told that I was unreasonable for going out (which I did to try and get dd to sleep for a bit because she'd been screaming all day) when I hadn't tidied up all week and there was ironing to be done. But I can't keep battling with him, especially whilst dd is feeding at this crazy rate!

fredfred I'd really rather try to avoid formula if I can although I do have a couple of cartons here which have been calling me this week.

Formula has the same number of calories as BM by the way.

That makes me really angry too. Looking after a young baby is very hard work. You have been so lucky with a good sleeper that doesn't cluster feed at dinner time. I commonly don't have anything cooked when DH arrived home when I was on maternity. The house work seldom got done. It got worse with weaning because I was cleaning the floor and the high chair three times a day.

Back to weaning. It's ok after 17 weeks as long as you aren't forcing the spoon down their mouth. But here's the NHS guideline on weaning to help you make an informed decision.

iggly I do everything house related even when I'm working full time. I've tried a sling, dd will not wait, no idea where she gets that from

Tell your DH when he can breastfeed you'll do the housework and cooking. Until then he can lump it!!

Formula might not make a huge difference and it could be a growth spurt. Both of mine had them at about 18-20 weeks.