3-month old hunger cues?

[sorpresa_bea]

Hi all, for the past week or so my baby's hunger cues have become less and less obvious. He used to clearly let me know when he was hungry: smacking lips, rooting, licking hands, and eventually fuss and cry. He's now 13 weeks and all these seem to have gone away except the hand sucking. However, he sucks his hands most of the day, even right after feeding. He's drooling quite a lot so the PD thinks he may have started teething.

Problem is that I struggle to tell when he's hungry now. He used to show hunger pretty much like clockwork every 3 hours. But now he can easily get to 3.5 or 4 hours without any signs of hunger. So I end up feeding him just in case!! Maybe he's at the stage where he can feed every 4 hours?

Also, He's a bit more distractible when feeding at the breast and gets frustrated when the milk flow slows down. I suppose that's developmental but I think it's causing a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance because his poo today came out a bit green and mucousy. Any similar experiences?

 

[tinselcat]

Hi sorpresa

My baby's cues have changed too which is quite confusing. The noises he makes now sound like mumumumum. He has taken to scrambling down my front and licking my chest/clothes when I hold him standing up over my shoulder so I use it as a test when i think he's hungry. It has taken several days to adapt.

My baby is older but small for his age - we're just moving to a 3.5 to 4 hour cycle in the last couple of days. before it used to be exactly every 3 hours. If baby doesn't appear to be hungry then I'd leave it til later. May help you move to a more spaced out routine overnight xx

 

[TTT]

I have been suffering with very similar problems. My baby has his hands in his mouth all day. He is bf on demand and will vary between 2 to 4 hours between feeds, 14 weeks atm. I was struggling to adapt and constantly offering feeds, stimulating milk production and too had a foremilk hindmilk imbalance.

We have an order/routine in a morning when he feeds as soon as he wakes, poos, has 20 mine in his cot playing while Iget dressed and have breakfast tthen he has a walk and a nap in his pushchair. He was having a second feed and poo just before his walk but he has dropped that.

Then he has a feed when he wakes, then play time, then its a guessing game for when he has his next nap and/or feed. He generally goes from having his fingers in his mouth to his whole fist. When he starts to grumble I decide whether its a nap or a feed he wants by putting him in the feeding position without pulling down my top, he will open his mouth if he is hungry or he will turn away if not. If he gets distracted at feeding time, I stop feeding and have a calm 15 mins before I offer again.

I now only feed from one breast per feed and offer the same breast if he wants a top up within a couple of hours.

 

[sorpresa_bea]

Thanks TTT, that's a good tip. I used it today. Also, I made sure just to keep him on one boob for the whole feed. Trying to leave him there until the breast feels "empty", which is hard, cos they're never truly empty.... Tricky to judge I guess.... ?

 

[TTT]

Apparently they're never truly empty cos they are making milk all the time, but I know thefeeling you mean. If tthey'rea bit engorged, express a llittle before you feed. Glad I could help a little: )