What do I do if my baby wants to eat every hour? Long sorry.

[CBB]

My four week old baby is having cluster feeding (I think that's what it's called) problem. She has been doing that for almost 2 weeks now. She would cry and look hungry (rooting), then suck for 5-10 min and fall asleep. I would then change her diaper, wake her up to feed her on the other breast. Many times she would refuse to eat more by holding her lips closed. Then she would wake up an hour later hungry again and the same thing happens over and over again for several hours of the day. But at times she can go almost 3 hours without eating. For the past 5 nights, she's been eating every hour from 11pm to 3am, then would sleep for 3hours from 3am until the next feeding. She does that during the day as well. I have been nursing her everytime as instructed by LC -- I feel exhausted and my nipples are sore. I'm wondering if she isn't all that hungry at times and just wants something to suck on or snack with? Because when DH gave her his finger when she looked hungry one time after eating every hour, she sucked on it until she fell asleep. But she refuses to take a pacifier repeatedly. Another time, I used Harvey Karp's 5S method (from Happiest baby on the block) she fell asleep without needing to be fed. I don't know if we are doing anything wrong. I thought maybe my milk is too thin and fed her formula last night at 11pm. She still woke up at the next hour hungry.

I have a few other BF questions. DD usually only spends 10min each breast. In a good feeding, she would nurse the most 15min each side. Many times she would stop or fall asleep after 15min on one side and refuse to feed on the other breast. Is that really enough? Should I switch her to the other breast after few minutes? Should I try to wake her up? I do know that she's gaining weigh adequately.

I really appreciate any suggestions that can help DD to feed a little less often than every hour.

[sadie427]

It all sounds very normal and familiar! Sammy ate every 1-1/2 to 2 hours around the clock till he was 8 weeks old, when he finally started getting a 4 hour stretch of sleep at night. We also had periods in the morning when he would nurse every 45 minutes to one hour. It is exhausting, but frequent feeding is necessary to establish your milk supply. He slowly grew out of this. It gets way, way better--as they get older they feed only every 3 hours or so, and they eat much faster.

Don't give formula again if you can help it, frequent supplementing tells your body to make less milk. You'll probably find different opinions on this--my ped at that point told me I could have my husband give an occasional bottle of formula so that I could get a four hour stretch of sleep, and I did do it once with no ill effects. I also started pumping at around 3 weeks, so that DH could give a bottle at midnight some nights--but some people will say that's too early.

Sounds like you are doing the right things. If you think she might not be hungry, giving her a pacifier or a finger is fine. If she is gaining weight and having wet diapers, she is getting enough milk even with 15 minutes.

HTH.

[TraciG]

it is so hard, I used to think my daughter never got full because sometimes I would nurse for 2 hours !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was her pacifier ! Maybe she is using u for that also, but at the beginning u dont know if it's that or hunger so I would be doing the same thing as u . I think if the baby falls asleep on one side after 15 minutes that's enough for that feeding, but I'm not sure what u would do about the other side then if u would need to pump, hopefully you'll get a lot of responses, good luck, I remember those days !!!!!!!

[sntm]

Your milk is not too thin. Banish this thought from your mind -- it simply isn't true.

The current recs are to continue at one breast until the baby doesn't seem to want it anymore then offer the second breast. It's the hindmilk that will fill her up the most.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03

[Rachels]

Your milk is not too thin! Your body is making exactly what she needs. Remember that formula is based on cow's milk, which is designed to be exactly what baby cows need. It is not superior to the milk you are making for her.

This all sounds VERY normal and familiar. I know it's hard. I promise she'll slow down eventually. Some babies just have really high sucking needs. You're doing a wonderful thing for her by nursing, and I promise it will get easier.

As for switching breasts, Shannon is right. The longer she stays on one breast, the more hindmilk she's likely to get. There's no rule about how long it should take. Some babies are more efficient nursers than others, and some moms let down more quickly, etc. Just follow her lead.

Let us know if you need more support!

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[Momof3Labs]

It sounds like her days and nights are sort of mixed up (though cluster feeding through the evening is very common). Have you tried waking her more often during the day (try to nurse her every two hours during the day) so that she sleeps a little more at night? She might be going through a growth spurt, too, and slow down in another couple of days.

Also, if Dr. Karp's method worked, then I would suggest doing that again! Don't worry about forming habits or what your life will be like months down the road - just worry about getting through each day (or each hour) at a time.

[californiagirl]

The advice from my doctor was that once the baby had regained birth weight and was feeding well, there was no need to let her suck at the breast all the time when she wasn't really hungry. If she's gaining weight, making wet diapers and so on, feeding formula is a lot worse for your supply than giving her a finger to suck on. I would offer fingers, distraction, swaddling, anything that works and isn't food, basically.

If sucking on a finger works, she isn't hungry! She'll eat more when she actually is hungry. Fingers aren't as easy as pacifiers, but it's a lot handier for parents than nursing. And at only 6 weeks, my DD has cut down a whole lot on her need to suck (at 4, it seemed like she'd suck all our little fingernails off!)

My DD did cluster-feeding for a while, but 1) it was only a few days 2) nothing but food would satisfy her and 3) she ate seriously every hour, not just a little bit. If she can be soothed by something other than food, and it's less than 2.5 hours since she last ate, I don't feed her.

[lizajane]

1) try a different brand of pacifier. my child would ONLY take one brand. (especially pooh from target)
2) try feeding her every 2 hours during the day, say from 7am until 7pm, then every hour until 10pm. see if you can fill her up when you plan to be awake! so 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm. my son would nap four hours in the morning, so he would go the longest without a feeding in the morning, then they got closer and closer as the day went on until right before bed he was cluster feeding. then he slept his 6-8 hours, then repeated the same schedule the next day.
3)stick to one breast so that she gets all the hindmilk. let her keep sucking even if she falls asleep.

if she is gaining weight, she is getting enough to eat. you just need to let her know that daytime is for eating and nighttime is for sleeping. if you can nursed like mad all day, maybe she will cut down at night. also, when i switched from an eat, sleep, play, eat schedule to a wake, eat, play, sleep schedule my life got A LOT EASIER.

see if you can keep her up after she eats by talking, singing, making her arms and legs dance, etc. then, after about 15 minutes or more of "awake time" let her fall asleep without nursing. i had trouble because he would fall asleep nursing because he was more tired than hungry. but he didn't get a full feeding, so he woke after an hour ready to eat again. so when i fed him when he woke up and kept him up, then he separated eating and sleeping and didn't fall asleep while nursing nearly as often.