Newborn Feeding Habits Questions

[Parrothead]

DD is 10 days old. She is doing great w/ BFing, but each feeding takes FOREVER. To get in 20-30 minutes of feeding, it often takes over an hour.

Sometimes she will stop eating and just sit there. Other times she'll seem to want to be burped. Or, she'll need to get changed. She even will set her little jaw and push me away.

Very often, if I do stop feeding (esp. when she refuses to latch), w/in 5 minutes, she'll be rooting and giving other feeding cues (esp. putting her hands in her mouth).

Anyone else have a slow-eating baby? Is it a phase?

Also, I know that hand sucking is a feeding cue. DD is VERY into her hands (always yanks them out of her swaddle to have them by her face). When she does a lot of handsucking (while she is awake), I feed her if she's super fussy. I wonder if she is really hungry or trying to soothe herself. I don't feed her unless she is handsucking and doing other feeding cues, too. But, I worry that I am overfeeding her. Is it possible to turn your child into a comfort eater?

[magdesilver]

Very normal in a newborn. You can NOT overfeed her! If she is not hungry, she will let you know. The constant and lengthy feedings are building up your supply. Please do not try to shorten or delay feeding her, as this could impact your supply and cause problems down the road. Just keep on doing what you are doing! Hang in there!!

[abbytfox]

This is exactly how my son was as a newborn. It took forever to feed him and he really ate every 2 hours, so many days I felt like all I did was feed him all day! It does get better...DS is almost 6 months and eats for about 10 minutes on each side and has finally stretched out time in between feedings to 3 hours.

I don't think that it is possible to overfeed at this early age. Babies will let you know when they are done. If they are still eating then they are hungry. That is what the nurses told me in the hospital.

I was so stressed about DS feeding for so long and spoke with a LLL consultant and she really helped. You can find someone in your area online on the LLL website. It was free to speak with her and just put my mind at ease. Good luck!

[Parrothead]

Thanks for the encouragement! I will keep it up :) It just gets a bit frustrating when 30 minutes of actual feeding take 1.5 hours of feeding, burping, changing, waiting and then it's time for her to sleep again. Then again, all newborns really do is eat, sleep, and poop so I guess we are right on track!

Great suggestion re: calling LLL. I will do that tomorrow :)

[Kanga]

Does she take a paci? If she does and is satisfied and not fussy, then she is probably just comforting herself. You absolutely can not overfeed a bf baby. She may be comfort nursing, but that's ok. After about 3 weeks or so you can introduce a paci if you want and haven't already. Hang in there, the first 3 weeks are the toughest. Hang in bed, watch movies, and nurse as much as she'd like. Also side lying nursing helped A LOT especially in the beginning. That way I could sleep and she could take however long her little heart desired to eat.

[Parrothead]

We haven't introduced a pacifier yet. She'll be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Ours doc said to wait until 3-4 weeks to introduce the pacifier so we are holding off a bit longer. She was much more efficient last night w/ her eating -- 40 minutes for about 25 minutes of feeding. I am sure that there will be ups and downs and I just need to go w/ her rhythms.

[Marisa]

Hang in there! :) As others have said, the first three weeks or so can seem like nonstop, round-the-clock nursing. It changes for a lot of babies after they have their 3-week growth spurt, so if you can get through that, especially without the help of artificial nipples, you should be rewarded with a little 'break'! You'll get the hang of her routine soon enough. And then she'll go and change it on ya! :)