Hi Girls,

Well as the title suggests, I have a 5 week old and up till now have had a love/ hate relationship with BF'ing! Basically he had to go back into hospital at 2 days old where they made us top him up with formula due to a huge weight loss. We continued this when we got home but found that he was constipated and full of wind so I have tried to go back to exclusively BF'ing (after many many tears and to-ing and fro-ing about the benefits/ disadvantages of BF'ing I can tell you!)

My milk supply seemed to be a bit on the low side (probably due to him being 4 weeks prem plus the topping up) so I've been prescribed medication to try and get that sorted but Ollie still seems to just 'snack' rather than have a full feed. Is this normal? I don't know if it's because I haven't got the milk for him or if it's because that's all he wants....

It's getting me down because it is literally every 30 mins- 1 hr, so as you can imagine I am pretty much housebound now! I've tried making him wait a bit longer for a feed but I swear to God he screams the house down!

Any help/ advice/ experiences will be gratefully received cos I am at the end of my tether but I REALLY don't want to formula feed him if I can help it xxx

hiya hun,
i dont know the exact answer to this especially with your lo being a bit prem and having had the formula top ups, but my lo fed almost constantly for at least 8 weeks. I dont know if thats what you want to hear or not!!!
she used to feed sometimes 30-45 mins apart and i was shattered as sometimes i knew it was for comfort but i just went with it as she was gaining weight so i knew i was doing something right! she did eventually start to space them out a bit and slept longer at night and she developed mre of a routine without me even noticing!
its hard to remember those days now but i know how hard it is.
My advice would be to see how the weight gain is going, and base it on that. if your lo is gaining weight and seems happy, dont worry about the constant feeding- just go with it til he decided to change it. Trying to get into routines and time things isnt the way to go at this early stage as you will just get bogged down with trying to get lo to fit in with what he is "supposed" to be doing. He will settle down hun, promise xx

Hey Bert - how's it going ?

Have you tried a dummy? DS would snack all day if I let him - whenever he's awake he sucks at my arm as if he wants to eat ... yesterday I started to give him a dummy and this seems to settle him for a while. If he is really hungry then he won't take his dummy and I know to feed him - but from what I've seen today - a lot of it is comfort sucking - which the dummy seems to satisfy him.

I've been trying to get him in a routine but whereas yesterday it was all going to plan, last night he decided to cluster feed and today he has started feeding every 2 hours (whereas yesterday was 3/4 hours) - I wonder if he is having a growth spurt !

K x

I reckon your baby is being really clever and feeding so frequently to increase your milk supply! The more he takes, the more you will make. So this behaviour shouldn't last for ever - once he's got your supply up to where he needs it, he will slow down a bit I think. Sounds like hard work though hon! You are doing a great job .

Hi Girls,

Firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to reply... unfortunately though it got to the point where Ollie was screaming all the time and throwing up his feeds- he has now been diagnosed with having silent reflux so is having to go on SMA staydown.

It's been bloody hard for me to admit that I just couldn't breastfeed him and believe me, I have shed more than my fair share of tears about it! I tried to express to keep up the milk supply (just in case!) but that was getting to be a bit of a faff and I think today is the first day where I haven't felt the need to do it (ie- I've had no leaks!) so I think that the BF'ing is definitely a thing of the past now

xxx

Hi bert666,

The main thing is LO is healthy and gaining weight. BF is so much harder than i ever expected and is such a huge commitment as no one other than you can do it. I understand the tears and the shal i continue feeding or not feelings.
Dont take it to heart and let it upset you. You cant predict reflus and sounds like you have really given it everything partic with being prem and the weight loss. At least now when he has cuddles from mummy they are cuddles for fun not just cuase he wants to bite your nipples off lol xx