14 wk old Constant feeding...help!

Gingham_Ribbon

This is completely normal, though exhausting for you!

Your baby is having a growth spurt and is sucking to find milk.

The sucking sends signals to the breasts to make more milk.

Within a day or two, IF you allow the baby to suck on demand, your milk supply will increase to meet that demand.

Then things will settle down again.

I remember well just lying in bed with my babies for a whole day every now and again, and just reading and letting them get on with it.

Obviously you may not have that luxury and if you don't, just make sure you let him suck as much as you possibly can. You'll be amazed at how quickly your breasts adapt to the new, higher demand for more milk.

Giving a bottle at this stage will slow down this process and make it harder to meet his needs without using bottles.

Try to rest and drink lots of water. You're doing a great job!

Edit - I used to sit down with my water, tv/dvd remote control, phone and a book so I didn't have to get up.

And I learned fast how to feed them lying down so I could rest. It was actually a lovely experience and I continued to do that with both of them until they stopped feeding (at 18 months and 24 months.)

Dipsy_2

Hi,

I breast fed my baby boy and had a similar problem. He was so fractious and was constantly feeding. The advice then from my HV was to wait until six months to introduce a little food, but on the advice of my doc and my best friend who was training to be a G.P I weaned him at four months. I really felt awful when the HV told me I shouldn't, but I decided to trust my instincts and gave him a little bit of baby rice with breast milk. He loved it and that night slept through (6 hours) for the first time ever! I didn't give him loads of food straight away - just enough to cheer my desperately unhappy boy up!

He has never had constipation in his life and is now almost five. Every baby is different and I think it is so important to make an informed, balanced decision and trust your instincts.

feclmum

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Modern advice is not to wean until 6 months, but it was not considered too early to wean at about 4 months when my children where little and they are 17 and 13. Advice changes like the wind! You know your baby. The advice was to feed a little baby rice in the evening and my son was definately ready at 4 months.

I know that plenty of mums with younger children will be oh no, that is wrong! Of course everyone believes what they are told at the time is correct just like every generation of teens believe they are the frst to discover sex!

My oldest two are 14 and 12 and you are right the advice then was to wean at 4months, by the time i had my 7year old it had changed to 6months which was far too long with only breast milk for my baby, the consultant advised me that as long as you dont give them food with gluten in until 6months it was fine to wean!!

tiamai_d

As lots of people have said, it's normal. But tiring.

You have two choices really, just grin and bear it and in a few days it should settle down. Or use a top up feed of formula. I did the top up feed and tbh, wouldn't reccomend it long term. It causes more problems I found.

no-oneknowsme wrote: »

Two of my children are 17 + 14 and 3/4 months was way too early to begin weaning then !

Its entirely up to the OP as she , as you say knows her own baby best but again i think about my friend who's little one ended up in hospital because my friend had introduced solids way too early and the digestive system couldnt cope !

My daughter ended up with liver failure after a normal doses of paracetamol when she had a stomach bug. It doesn't mean all children will end up with liver failure if given paracetamol for a stomach bug.

I'm not advocating early weaning, I do think below 17 weeks is too early (though my boys were given rice and porridge at 16 weeks on advice of their consultant), but it is wrong to shout out warnings about children ending up in hospital if you do this or that because it happened to a child you know.

Zeddy

You've been given lots of great advice. I remember the phase so well, this is coming up to a growth spurt, so you baby is preparing your body to produce more milk, which is tiring and hard work, but it's all in preparation. Breastmilk is produced in a supply and demand manner, so if your baby needs it, your body will produce it, if you interupt this with formula or food, your body wont produce as much and will reduce the milk it produces.

Its about this stage too that your body gets used to BF, so your breasts feel different - this is totally normal and doesn't mean their supply is dwindling.

Certainly topping up with formula will not do your baby any harm at all, the only thing it may do is make BF harder as it can be a bit of a cycle, so you top up with a bit of formula this week, it may make things harder next week, so you top up that week a bit more etc, until you aren't BF at all, which is fine, if that's what you want to do, but a lot of people don't realise this and find they end up finishing BF before they really want to.

msb5262

Hello OP,

I just wanted to second Gingham Ribbon and pick out what I thought were the vital bits of an excellent post.

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

This is completely normal, though exhausting for you!
Your baby is having a growth spurt and is sucking to find milk.
The sucking sends signals to the breasts to make more milk.
Within a day or two, IF you allow the baby to suck on demand, your milk supply will increase to meet that demand.
Giving a bottle at this stage will slow down this process and make it harder to meet his needs without using bottles.
You're doing a great job!

Because your baby is growing, he is sucking to make sure your supply increases to match his growth. Don't panic, it really is normal and isn't at all a signal that you need to give formula.

Giving formula means that your breasts won't get the signal (from prolonged sucking) that they need to produce extra milk, so be very wary of doing this unless you want to go on to mixed breast/bottle feeding.

Don't worry about what's happening, let your baby take the lead...I think of it this way: a baby who needs extra milk tomorrow must be at the breast today to put in an advance order!

Not dissimilar to leaving a note out for the milkman, I suppose...

Best wishes

MsB

kindofagilr

OP if you want to wean your baby then do, if you dont then dont.

All the guidlines the WHO throw about annoy me, they change their minds that much that no-one really knows where they are with them!

FYI baby food jars say from 4-6 months, your baby is only 2 weeks away from 4 months

My paedeatrician told me at a 12 week check I had for my son that he thought he was ready for weaning and I could start if I wanted to as the WHO guidelines are mainly for undeveloped areas where sterilising and things arent so great

I didnt start weaning him till he was 16 weeks though

Like I said if you want to then go for it, you know what your baby wants, if you dont then dont, maybe try topping him up with formula, but the more he is drinking from you the more you will produce

no-oneknowsme

patchwork_cat wrote: »

I disagree completely. It was the advice that was prevalent in our NCT group and certainly encouraged by our HV. However I am sure you know best what is best for my children ! There was certainly no one that I know that had a baby hospitalised from weaning at 4 months. You have to use age appropriate food and chunkiness.

Is there any need to be so rude ?

Show me in my post exactly where i implied that i know what is best for YOUR children ?

Honestly , some people on this forum are so defensive and down right rude.

If you dont believe the story i told you regarding my friends child then that is entirely up to you but i would point out that there is no need to be so ignorant

meritaten

I havent read the whole thread - but as a mum who breast fed three children - I would say, dont panic, your milk production will catch up. let the baby empty your breasts and they will catch on and produce more! its up to you if you want to 'top up' the baby in the meantime! sorry but I dont condone letting baby go hungry. you may want to express milk between feeds into a bottle and let the baby have this............it will stimulate your breasts to produce more so cant be a bad thing! I did this and the baby didnt suddenly prefer bottle to breast!

mum2twinsx2

kindofagilr wrote: »

OP if you want to wean your baby then do, if you dont then dont.

All the guidlines the WHO throw about annoy me, they change their minds that much that no-one really knows where they are with them!

FYI baby food jars say from 4-6 months, your baby is only 2 weeks away from 4 months

My paedeatrician told me at a 12 week check I had for my son that he thought he was ready for weaning and I could start if I wanted to as the WHO guidelines are mainly for undeveloped areas where sterilising and things arent so great

I didnt start weaning him till he was 16 weeks though

Like I said if you want to then go for it, you know what your baby wants, if you dont then dont, maybe try topping him up with formula, but the more he is drinking from you the more you will produce

I agree... guidelines are guidelines.... not rules.

My eldest were pushed into weaning at seven months but corrected age 4months as they were three months premature and werent ready. It was a total disaster nearly five years on i still struggle with food.
My boys are seven months are only just getting into it but they too were a little early.

Where as my nephew like kindofagilr little one was advised by two different healthcare professionals to start at just over three months.

Think I am meaning say every baby is different.