Not feeding enough...

[SmallPurpleCat]

I don't know... I'm worried Isla is not feeding enough. She is breastfed and tends to feed every 2-3 hours in the day but only takes from one side each feed. She normally does about 10-12 minutes but the last few days has been doing less than 10 minutes - sometimes only 6 or 7 minutes.

She was weighed on Monday and only put on 1/2 lb in 2 weeks so I'm worried that she isn't getting enough. The HV didn't seem concerned - said she looked happy and alert.

But I spoke to a Breastfeeding Counsellor from La Leche League today and she made me feel worse! She said it sounds like she's not getting enough and I should try and feed her more often.

She has a bottle of expressed milk every evening before bed and takes 4oz and then normally sleeps until 1am/2am. The Counsellor suggested waking her up at 10pm for a feed but I'm not keen on this idea.

She also said that because Isla only feeds of one side each feed, the other boob isn't being used/stimulated for up to 5-6 hours each time and therefore gets overfull which isn't good. She suggested trying to feed Isla more often during the day. I've tried feeding her when she's sucking her hands etc but often she's not interested (screams at the boob!) and I think she's sucking her hands because she's tired, not because she's hungry necessarily.

Now I don't know what to do for the best...

 

[ZMD]

Haven't really got any advice for you Hun put i hope isla starts feeding better soon, the most Tegans ever put on is 10oz in a fortnight. how do you feel about topping up with formula? xx

 

[xxbeckyxx]

Lizzie only ever feeds from one boob and normally for about 5 minutes. Hardly ever any longer than 10 minutes max. I haven't had her weighed since she was 5 weeks, mainly cos I don't like my HV, but she's definitely growing and she looks healthy and well so that's enough for me
The only time you need to worry is if she's not weeing enough I think as that's down to dehydration. So as long as she looks well and has lots of wet nappies then try not to worry!

 

[SmallPurpleCat]

Haven't really got any advice for you Hun put i hope isla starts feeding better soon, the most Tegans ever put on is 10oz in a fortnight. how do you feel about topping up with formula? xx

I'm not averse to it at all...just worried that she'll then move entirely to being formula fed and won't come back to me! I just think that whatever I do I will worry!

 

[xxbeckyxx]

Oh and as for trying to feed her when she's not hungry, when I tried this with Lizzie she refused to latch properly and I ended up getting very sore nipples and every feed was a chore! This meant I was tense when it came to feed time, which is never a good thing. Go by what Isla wants and try to stay relaxed.

 

[Stunned]

I wouldn't worry too much. Eva feeds every couple of hours in the day and a little more often in the evenings and gets a 5 oz bottle of formula for the last feed before bed at 10.30ish (she's far too alert and awake from about 7 till late to put to bed any earlier than 10.30pm) and she sleeps through till morning. She only feeds from one boob at a time and usually for about 10 mins sometimes less or more. Apparently babies are VERY good at getting lots of milk out as fast as possible, better than even the medela pump!

As long as isla is gaining weight however slowly and is happy otherwise, she's fine.

Ps a heavy baby is a killer on the arms while breastfeeding!

 

[SmallPurpleCat]

Lizzie only ever feeds from one boob and normally for about 5 minutes. Hardly ever any longer than 10 minutes max. I haven't had her weighed since she was 5 weeks, mainly cos I don't like my HV, but she's definitely growing and she looks healthy and well so that's enough for me
The only time you need to worry is if she's not weeing enough I think as that's down to dehydration. So as long as she looks well and has lots of wet nappies then try not to worry!

Thanks Becky - it seems are little ones are similar in their eating and sleeping habits!

You're right - I need to try not to worry! She looks fine and wees lots. I need to ignore the numbers and stats!

 

[SmallPurpleCat]

Oh and as for trying to feed her when she's not hungry, when I tried this with Lizzie she refused to latch properly and I ended up getting very sore nipples and every feed was a chore! This meant I was tense when it came to feed time, which is never a good thing. Go by what Isla wants and try to stay relaxed.

I was already not looking forward to tomorrow and trying to feed her more when she's not asking for it.

How often does Lizzie feed and how often does she poo?

 

[Rayoflight]

Blake feeds off one boob every time.

Used to be 30-40 mins per feed and I'm lucky if he does 10 mins these days.

My breastfeeding support group said it's because he's just become really efficient at feeding and doesn't take as long to empty it these days.

He's putting on weight fine, sleeping OK-ish (not straight through anymore but am putting it down to a growth spurt these last two weeks), and seems content enough.

Every baby is different. If she seems happy enough, like Becky said I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[xxbeckyxx]

Oh and as for trying to feed her when she's not hungry, when I tried this with Lizzie she refused to latch properly and I ended up getting very sore nipples and every feed was a chore! This meant I was tense when it came to feed time, which is never a good thing. Go by what Isla wants and try to stay relaxed.

I was already not looking forward to tomorrow and trying to feed her more when she's not asking for it.

How often does Lizzie feed and how often does she poo?

It honestly changes every day! On Monday she was feeding every hour that she was awake and had poo in nearly every nappy, but yesterday she was only feeding every 3-4 hours and I think she only did 2 poos!

 

[Zazu]

If she is content I wouldn't worry, she will feed when she is hungry. As long as she has plenty of wet nappies and the occasional poo xxx

 

[SmallPurpleCat]

It seems that my instinct was right - Isla's not been feeding enough and has not put on any weight at all this week. She also didn't poo all week.

The HV suggested supplementing with formula to help her weight gain so I think we're going to try that.

Just feel like I've failed her

 

[flexilexi394]

You haven't failed her. Are you going to try getting your supply up? The only thing with the formula is it will make your supply suffer if it doesn't get used, fenugreek I've heard is great for milk supply, I heard about it off here and went and bought some just Incase I ever think my supply is suffering, and just regular expressing to stimulate your boobies?? May help a little x

 

[ZMD]

It seems that my instinct was right - Isla's not been feeding enough and has not put on any weight at all this week. She also didn't poo all week.

The HV suggested supplementing with formula to help her weight gain so I think we're going to try that.

Just feel like I've failed her

You haven't failed her at all Hun, Our babies seem so similar! you've done well to get this far If topping up helps her gain weight that'll be great xx

 

[Sam's Mum]

You haven't failed her at all! Both of mine gained weight well at first and then had a couple of weeks where they didn't really gain anything at all - with Sam the HV really made me panic about it and told me I should be supplementing with formula and that I wasn't giving him enough (despite him being fine with his weight up until then, obviously content, sleeping well etc.) I really felt like I'd failed him too (it was that day that I joined our sister forum for advice because I was so upset about it!) I spoke to a breastfeeding advisor who said that, unlike with formula fed babies, breastfed babies do tend to show plateaus in their growth charts and that as long as they're not consistently failing to put on weight it doesn't mean it's something to worry about.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with supplementing with formula if you want to, but Sam was going a few hours between feeds at that time and only feeding on one side at each feed, so I decided I'd feed him every 1.5-2 hours during the day for the next week and see how his weight was a week later - and his weight gain was perfect. It's not as if formula has any more calories than breast milk in it, so you do always have the alternative to shut yourself awau with her for a week and feed her whenever you can - after a couple of days you should start making more milk than you are now too.

It's unusual for breastfed babies to go days without pooing but not unheard of - what are her nappies like? Lots of quite heavy ones so you know she's at least weeing lots? x

 

[SmallPurpleCat]

Her nappies are always wet and she us changed every 3 hours.

I have tried feeding her more often but it results in her screaming at my boobs!

I spoke to a Breastfeeding Counsellor at the weekend who said everything sounded fine as long as she gained 4oz last week - which she obviously didn't.

I don't think there's anything wrong with my supply. I express about 5oz every night.

 

[Sam's Mum]

Please feel free to ignore me, and I probably would have been worrying too much to do this if it was Sam, but I'd give it another week - if she's having lots of wet nappies and she seems satisfied after feeds I'd see how her weight is over the next few days. What's her weight gain been like from bith until now?

The other thing with getting them weighed is that when they're not very heavy, little things can make a big difference at the time they are weighed... if she's taking (just a rough guess) 5oz of milk at a feed, and weeing 4oz at a time, if she'd just been fed and was just about to have a wee, that's an extra 9oz. And if she's almost due a feed and has just had a wee it works the other way. The only thing that might worry me a bit is the lack of poo, but when did she last have one?

But as I said before I have nothing against combination feeding or topping up, but I know exactly how you feelx

 

[Mamafy]

Awww hun you couldn't fail her

My lil man is bottle fed and screams at the bottle I'm blaming it on teething plus he wasn't well after his 1st jabs x

 

[Sam's Mum]

Also if she won't feed any more often than she is already if you've tried, I'm not sure she'd take more from bottles either - supplementing with formula is great if you don't have enough milk, but if you have enough milk to express every night, you have enough to feed her that extra bit every night (or whenever you'd be supplementing) - it's not as if giving her the same amount of formula would give her more than that extra bit of milk if she'd take it. Not sure if that made sense?!

 

[Sam's Mum]

Awww hun you couldn't fail her

My lil man is bottle fed and screams at the bottle I'm blaming it on teething plus he wasn't well after his 1st jabs x

That's another good point - I know she's young but Toby just wouldn't feed at all when he was teething (only bottom teeth for some reason, but I'd never had that with Sam so I had no idea what was wrong!)