14 wk old Constant feeding...help!

ajaney

I wonder if the OP meant wean onto formula rather than onto solids?

I have an almost 7 months old & I breastfed exclusive for 6 months. I had a few occasions when I felt like I could not possibly keep up with baby's appetite & I was nothing more than a two-legged dairy cow lol! They do have growth spurts & amazingly your body does catch up - it took anything from 24 - 72 hours with me. I had a couple of bags of expressed milk in the freezer & on one of these occasions when I was so tired that I couldnt get myself out of bed, my other half fed baby for me.

Try to bear with it, hold off with the formula if you can, it will pass!

meritaten

ajaney wrote: »

I wonder if the OP meant wean onto formula rather than onto solids?

I have an almost 7 months old & I breastfed exclusive for 6 months. I had a few occasions when I felt like I could not possibly keep up with baby's appetite & I was nothing more than a two-legged dairy cow lol! They do have growth spurts & amazingly your body does catch up - it took anything from 24 - 72 hours with me. I had a couple of bags of expressed milk in the freezer & on one of these occasions when I was so tired that I couldnt get myself out of bed, my other half fed baby for me.

Try to bear with it, hold off with the formula if you can, it will pass!

this is what i took the OPs post to mean! if she feels the baby wants solids then try a little baby rusk or rice! doesnt mean she cant still breast feed - but do the breast feed first and then offer a little rusk or rice mixed with breast milk if she has expressed enough!

Lunar_Eclipse

threemuttleys wrote: »

I am wondering if this is just a growth spurt? or if I should consider weaning or offering him a bottle of formula to help him along?

It probably is a growth spurt. But I'm not going to fill you with horror stories about weaning now, having been through this myself - twice.

I experienced the same with my eldest, also at 14 weeks old. She went from feeding every 2/3 hours with a maximum of 1 nightly feed, to five nights in a row of waking every 2 hours during the night for a feed. I was exhausted and she wasn't satisfied at any feed; she was about 18lbs at 14 weeks.

I didn't wean her, but in hindsight I think that would have been the right thing to do. Whilst I'm not in the medical field, weaning advice changes periodically (currently not before 6 months) and there are plenty of people that were not damaged by the odd bit of baby rice in (breast) milk before the age of 6 months. 14 weeks is actually a good achievement if your baby is large. My eldest was 9lbs, the next was 10; both girls. The health visitor actually encouraged me to wean the second at about the same age. There are several factors to consider and the key, in my opinion, is not to hold out until you get really desperate. Plus, you know your baby best, so please have the confidence to do what you think is best - either way.

Some baby rice in breast milk with a happy mother that continues to breast feed is preferable, in my opinion, to one that ends up switching to formula at the end of her tether and potentially after some fretful marital moments, in the hope that it fills the baby up for longer.

Having typed all that, please know that I am NOT encouraging you to wean. I think you should listen to yourself and not the opinions of others, except medical advice by those you trust in the profession.

Good luck; it's a phase that will pass. xxx

OrkneyStar

SingleMumOf2 wrote: »

This is the ideal age for one of the major growth spurts. They say to not supplement, but to keep feeding feeding feeding. As this ups your supply for his demand. If possible they say to spend a full day in bed with him and just rest, feeding him as much as he will take.
Your body should only take a day or 2 to catch up. But if you are worried he needs more then I would speak to your health visitor or infant feeding coordinator.

This is pretty much what I did, well I basically wrote a couple of days off and let him feed as much as he liked. Other things were never as important as DS lol!

pinkshoes

My DS (10 weeks) has just finished a growth spurt, and was feeding every 1.5 hours all day, then every 2 or 3 hours at night for 3 weeks!! He's finally just stopped, so we're back on "the routine" now, and things are much easier!

I'm dreading the next growth spurt, as he's already huge!

madtrekker

It's just a growth spurt and very normal behaviour. He will feed constantly for a few days to stimulate you to produce more milk as he's getting bigger and needs more. After a few days, you'll start making more milk so he can have more at each feed and won't need to feed as often. I promise.

There is absolutely no need to introduce formula (unless you want to start mix feeding). He isn't going hungry, it's perfectly normal behaviour.