Question:
sucky baby or forever hungry? -breast feeding problem?
Crazy_Bebe
2008-08-21 10:52:41 UTC
My 2 week old baby girl latches on very well and drinks well for 20-25 mins on one breast and then I swap to my other breast for the next feed. Shes a bit of a sleepy baby and tends to fall asleep at the breast after about 10 mins but carries on sucking and swallowing for 10 mins with breaks of about 5 seconds between each swallow. Once shes finished she often wakes up 15 mins later as if starving hungry and then latches on for 'snacks' of about 5 mins before falling asleep again. Its becoming exhausting as she gets quite distressed - sucking her hands and head butting my neck trying to find a nipple until I give her more. In the ultrasounds she was always sucking her thumb...do you think this is hunger or need to suck?
Eleven answers:
2008-08-21 11:05:28 UTC
She's a wee little baby yet. When she stops actively sucking in the first breast do some breast compressions until "you are doing more work than the baby" as my fav lactation consultant put it. Then switch sides and again if she isn't actively sucking try compressions.



It is also a good idea just to get the latch double checked by a good lactation consultant. Even a slightly better latch can improve milk transfer.



Don't worry you won't have to use breast compressions forever usually by 3-6 weeks baby is strong enough, alert enough, and has enough head control you don't need to do anything during breastfeeding except unhook your bra and lift your shirt.



You are getting enough poopy diapers (3 or more the size of a US quarter)? What colour is the poop?



Breast Compression

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/15breast_compression.html



http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/enough-milk.html

DIRTY DIAPERS: 3 – 4+ dirty diapers per day (after day 4).

Stools should be yellow (no meconium) by day 5 and the size of a US quarter (2.5 cm) or larger. The normal stool of a breastfed baby is usually yellow and is loose (soft to watery, may be seedy or curdy). More on infant stooling.



http://www.llli.org//llleaderweb/LV/LVDec97Jan98p123.html

In answer to the question, "Is baby getting enough?" a second question could be posed, "Enough of which?" In the early weeks wet diaper counts give only part of the answer. Because the nursing newborn takes in plenty of foremilk before receiving the richer hindmilk, it would be difficult for an infant to produce several bowel movements per day without being adequately hydrated.



However, the opposite can easily occur. Since feeding practices, ineffective sucking or other problems may diminish the mother's milk supply or prevent the baby from receiving an adequate portion of hindmilk, it is possible for a baby to be adequately hydrated yet have an inadequate calorie intake. Frequent urination remains one valid indicator of adequate newborn hydration from foremilk intake. Multiple daily stooling is an indicator of adequate newborn calorie intake from hindmilk. Both factors are needed to fully assess neonatal breastfeeding.



Since a lack of daily stooling may be associated with inadequate newborn calorie intake, it is also a predictor of poor infant weight gain. Early detection of this symptom can be crucial for the baby's health and the continuation of breastfeeding. In severe cases, an infant's low calorie intake may lead to weaker sucking, diminished milk supply and critical dehydration. While less serious conditions may be improved at various stages of breastfeeding, it is much more effective to establish a generous milk supply and hearty weight gain in the early weeks than to have to work to achieve them in later months.

Stooling Patterns



There are many benefits to discussing normal stool patterns with each new mother. When a fully breastfed newborn baby is having several yellow or tan, seedy stools each day, Leaders can emphasize this is a reassuring sign that breastfeeding is off to a good start. What a wonderfully observable proof allaying a new mother's fear of inadequate milk supply!



While new parents often have difficulty deciding if a baby's diaper/nappy is truly wet, there's little doubt when one is soiled. For the mother who is worried—even without saying so—that frequent stooling is diarrhea, hearing the expected frequency and significance of the normal newborn pattern is again a great relief and confidence builder. Beginning a call with this positive interaction sets a supportive tone as the conversation moves on to other topics of interest to the mother.







http://www.todaysparent.com/article.jsp?content=1266685

Lactation consultant Diane Wiessinger of Ithaca, New York, agrees. “I once led a meeting where I told the mothers — all experienced breastfeeding mothers — that we were going to write the real baby book, one that told new mothers what they needed to know,” she recalls. “One woman said, ‘New mothers need to know that newborns will nurse every hour.’ Another mother spoke up and said, ‘Yeah, and the feedings will last an hour.’ Everyone laughed, and I think that laughter meant that this is a common experience. Babies don’t really nurse all the time, but it can sure feel that way — especially at first.”



[...]



Anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler from Texas A&M University says that nursing a lot is typical of babies around the world. She cites a study done in 2000 that looked at the feeding behaviour of infants aged three to four months in three different communities: families from Washington, DC, the Ba’Aka hunter-gatherers and the Ngandu farmers, both of the Central African Republic. They found that the Ba’Aka babies nursed 4.02 times per hour, the Ngandu babies nursed 2.01 times per hour and the American babies nursed 1.6 times per hour. Certainly the American babies nursed less often than the two African groups, but they nursed more frequently than many new parents expect.



Wiessinger reminds parents that babies are growing faster in the first year than they will at any other time in their lives, and asks, “How often would you eat if you were trying to double your weight in less than six months?” She adds that breastfeeding is more than a way of getting food into the baby. “A baby doesn’t necessarily nurse to eat,” she explains. “Breastfeeding offers so many other wonderful things — skin-to-skin contact, warmth, the reassuring sounds and smells of mom, suckling — the milk is just a bonus.”





http://www.breastfeed.com/articles/newborn-and-infant-months/straight-talk-about-real-babies-2694/

The Formula Effect

In our culture, mothers have been accustomed to babies who are formula fed, who behave very differently from babies who eat naturally. Formula is an artificial food, and it causes babies to act in artificial ways. Babies who drink formula receive in very short order a large amount of liquid that is very difficult to digest. After a formula bottle and a few big burps, babies sleep for several hours before they feel hungry again. Hmm... This sounds very nice; Mom can get lots of things done. Perhaps.



However, inside, Baby is dealing with an unnatural food that is very hard to digest and takes a very long time to move out of his stomach. In any case, many new mothers have come to accept that this is the way their own baby will behave. Not so with breast milk.



Breast milk is natural and digests very quickly – usually within two hours. Therefore, breastfed babies eat often. In the early weeks, they may eat eight to 20 times a day – or more. It depends.



As a lactation consultant, I frequently hear moms say, "Well I tried to breastfeed my first child but they always wanted to eat, and my milk could never fill them up like formula did. They were always hungry." Get it? The formula makes them feel very full, but is that good for them? Not really. Formula is deficient in all immunological properties.



I then ask the mothers, "Before you changed to formula, was your baby gaining weight well and having plenty of wet diapers and bowel movements?"



"Oh, yes," they say. "That was going well." I have come to understand that the reason these moms quit is not that their baby is not growing well or that they did not have enough milk, but because they didn't want to feed as often as the baby needed to eat and felt that by switching to an artificial food, the baby would be "happier" and "more content." Their baby would behave more like TV babies. Their perception was that something was wrong because their babies ate often. Perhaps that feeling was reinforced by "helpful" friends or family members.













So I Nursed Him Every 45 Minutes

http://www.llli.org/NB/Law45com.html



"He Can't Be Hungry. He Just Ate!"

http://www.normalfed.com/Continuing/hungry.html



http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detthumb.html

Re the thumb-sucking issue -- it is certainly true that ultrasound and photography in the womb shows fetuses sucking their thumbs, but then breasts/nipples aren't available in the womb, but the suckling instinct is clearly present from an early age. Once the baby is born, however, the suckling instinct is supposed to be directed toward the breast, to get the child nutrition and immunities, and the sucking itself lowers the baby's heart rate and blood pressure. While it can be convenient for the parents to have the baby suck on their thumb or fingers or pacifier (like in the car on trips, or when mother is trying to cook dinner) it nevertheless is clear from both cross-cultural and cross-species field studies that, given complete contact with mother and free access to the breast on demand, human children (and young of our close relatives, the great apes) do not suck on their thumbs or fingers. I never saw a child in Mali sucking its thumb or fingers, in almost three years of watching/observing/studying mother-child interactions. Likewise, thumb sucking is reported to be completely absent from cultures such as the Navajo, in highland Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, the Peruvian Andes, Mexico, Nepal, India, Tanzania, Botswana, and South Africa. A number of other ethnographic studies of breastfeeding don't mention thumb sucking one way or another.



Thumb sucking is also absent from the great apes (chimpanzees and gorillas) except among zoo nusery raised animals.
sevenofus
2008-08-21 11:28:37 UTC
It is not uncommon for exclusively breast fed newborns to want to nurse every 1-2 hours around the clock and for these nursing sessions to last 45 minutes. It seems as though you have a baby attached to your breast 24/7 and some days that will likely be pretty close to the truth. In the early days, both your baby and your body are working hard to get adjusted to the supply and demand workings of breast feeding. It is not unusual for this to take a good 6-8 weeks to finally become noticeably better. Her frequent and lengthy nursings do not indicate she is not getting enough breast milk so don't let anyone tell you that she may need formula, she won't. Additionally, the difference between the first milk she drinks (also known as foremilk) and the milk she gets as the feeding progresses (known as hindmilk) are not significantly noticeable. It just gradually changes as the feeding goes on. So keeping her on one breast for a long time will not significantly make a difference in the length of time it takes her to eat nor the time between feedings. What you may want to try, when you switch breasts and she seems sleepy, is to do a bit of work to keep her more wakeful. Try undressing her a bit so she isn't as warm. Take off her socks or sleeper and rub and tickle her feet. Shift positions frequently and talk to her. It is quite likely that she is falling into slumber before having a full tank simply because it is such a comfort to be nursing from mom, with the warmness of the snuggle and the warmness of great milk filling her tummy. Being a new mom is exhausting for sure, but it will get better. There is a good reason why recovery from child birth is suggested to be 6 weeks long. This is not only the time for your own body to heal, but gives breast feeding moms and their babies time to develop a good strong breast feeding bond. What is happening with your daughter is actually quite normal and really isn't a problem at all, just a step in the process to breast feeding success. You can try a pacifier. She'll let you know by happily sucking if sucking is the problem or will spit it out and cry as a sign that an empty nipple is not to her liking at all. Keep it up and it will get better.
?
2016-10-31 15:45:46 UTC
Sucky Baby
not too creative
2008-08-21 10:58:52 UTC
First of all, let her nurse on only one side until she unlatches. If she falls asleep at that breast, wake her up and see if she'll continue nursing at that same breast. The key is to get her as much of the fatty hindmilk as possible. You don't HAVE to switch breasts if she's content to keep suckling at one. That will get her the most calories possible to fill her up. When you switch before she's truly ready to, she gets more foremilk, which isn't very calorie-rich, and she will get hungrier sooner.



Try breast compression while she's still on the first breast to get even more hind milk out. It might stimulate another letdown, or her to begin suckling actively again.



Aside from that, newborns and babies going through growth spurts are usually quite fussy and seem to nurse all the time. That's how they build your supply.



Babies also do have a very strong need to suckle for comfort.



There is no reason to even consider supplementing with formula.
Paula
2016-03-13 16:43:32 UTC
Dont stop pumping and feeding. put him to the breast and the give him a bottle, then pump after he is finished feeding. Even an ounce is good, just add it to the formula you feed him. It cant ake up to 2 weeks to get good milk in. you have to keep at it. it ill be frustrating but it will come in. Everyone is different , for some the milk comes in on day3 other day 8 other 2 weeks after. MY son latched on right awy but I didnt have much milk until week 2. I gave him formula with whatever I can pump from dy 1 he was at 3 oz then when my milk came in I just replaced formula to milk.
Olivia's Mama
2008-08-21 11:01:42 UTC
its the fact that she's 2 weeks old. She is trying to help your body establish a proper supply. Dont give up, it does get easier. my baby was like that for about 6 weeks. Though she is 8 months now and there are still days that she is constantly at my breast! You could try giving her a pacifier, though you should wait until shes a month or so. My baby never took one though, most breastfed babies dont
mommy2B
2008-08-21 11:01:52 UTC
have you tried a pacifier or your finger? If she is hungry, she will spit it out after she figures out its not your nipple and start crying. If she just wants to suck, it should content her.



The first 4-6 weeks will be tough like that and you just have to be available to nurse 24/7. Then it gets better and they start getting more efficient, less sleepy, and easier to tell when they are done eating (and have not just fallen asleep too soon).
LGM
2008-08-21 10:59:25 UTC
She might be hungry. My little one drunk that extensively too, when she was new. I hardly did anything else but nursing. The good news is, they get faster when they are older.
Pokey P
2008-08-21 10:59:40 UTC
It could be a combination of both. Do you give her a pacifier? If you do and that's not helping then she may not be getting full enough from breast milk. Some babies don't and have to be switched to formula. You may want to ask the doctor. Good luck!
2008-08-21 11:31:55 UTC
Ah, yes, the sleepy nurser. I had one of these!



http://www.mother-2-mother.com/cc-baby-A.htm#SleepyBabies

http://www.breastfeeding-basics.com/html/waking_a_sleepy_baby.shtml



http://parenting.ivillage.com/newborn/nbreastfeed/0,,3wxb,00.html

http://www.llli.org/NB/Law45com.html

http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsuck.html
ashendari
2008-08-21 10:59:30 UTC
She needs to suck. Try pacifiers - I had to cave to pacifiers too because my son would suck on and on and on....



Just don't overlean on the pacifiers and you'll be fine - only use them when the baby's already had a full meal.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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