| Q: | Please can you give me some advice!
My baby boy, Jordan, is now 15 weeks old and a bonny lad with lots of smiles and contentment. He weighed 5,7kg on 21 Feb and should be over 6kg now. At birth he was a tiny 2.367kg.
The thing is, at 3 months babies should supposedly be eating every 3 - 4 hours and sleeping through the night (8 - 10 hour sleeps). But Jordan is eating LOTS during the day (I am still demand feeding) and then he only feeds for about 5 - 8 minutes. Rarely will he take the second breast. At night, he wakes me about 3 - 4 times for a short feed and I change his nappy once or twice in the night. He sleeps between my husband and I in our bed in a snuggle nest still and once we have moved (in the next week) I will put him in his cot in our room i.e. wean him from sleeping with us. He sleeps in his cot in his own room during the day...
Please can you let me know why he is feeding so much and so short a time? Do you think he is hungry and needs something else? I am not really into formula as I fully believe in breast feeding for 6 months purely then continuing for 1 year with the start of solids at 6 months... People are giving me advice e.g. give him boiled water/porridge....
Please let me know what I can do for him because he IS growing and he IS happy but I worry that he should be sleeping more and eating more but less often!
Kind regards
Janis |
| A: | Dear Janis,
Thank you for your email. It is lovely to hear that you have such a lovely, happy and bonny boy!
I don't necessarily agree that your little boy at only 3 months of age should be sleeping through the night and not need food for 10 - 12 hours. As he is only being breastfed, it is unlikely that he will last much longer than 6 hours without needing a feed at this stage, so please don't worry for now.
I would suspect that the fact that you are demand feeding so frequently during the day is the reason why he is having such short feeds - he is simply topping up all day long! Bear in mind that as he gets bigger and stronger, he becomes a more efficient feeder, thus not needing to spend so much time on the breast to get the same volume out! If you are happy to continue demand feeding him in this way, then don't worry. However, if you are feeling that he is feeding too frequently during the day, and you are not managing with this, then you can stretch him to longer periods between feeds, by offering him some cooled, boiled water, or weak rooibos tea to alleviate his thirst and keep him going - he will most likely feed for longer at the next feed. At night, you can do the same, but feed him by 6 hours wait. Sometimes, you need to "work” with your baby to get them to stretch a bit, so expect a bit of a higgledy piggledy routine for a few days. Rock and hold and cuddle lots to see him through. However, you don't have to do this if you feel uncomfortable with it - keep going if you are happy with the situation as it is now. Bear in mind though, that you may still have to do frequent night feeds if he is used to frequent small feeds. I think that putting him into his own room is a good idea, as you and your hubby may be disturbing him during the night (as much as he is disturbing you!). Be prepared to be up and down a lot with him for the first few nights, but he will learn to sleep in his cot. Make his cot warm and cosy so that he feels contained and secure.
It is great to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months, and if he is happy, sleeping and growing well, there is no need to introduce formula or solids until then.
Keep up the good work!
Kind regards,
Ann Richardson
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