He Is Sucking Me Dry!

he may be doing it for comfort, but it's so hard to tell. my son was born tongue tied, nipple confused from the NICU, had to use and be weaned off of a nipple shield and he was Harry Colic Jr. that being said, he is and has always been an amazingly alert, precious bundle of joy but the poor guy (and mommy!) had a tough first 3 months breastfeeding. I wanted to pull my hair out, then I realized - call a professional. A La Leche League leader/lactation consultant saved the day and we never looked back. and once you find one, you may find you're keeping her on speed dial! I can't sing enough praise, she's not local for you but they are all pretty great. you have to find a hip, nurturing type....you can feel them out over the phone. Hope this helps!

Does he use a pacifier or suck his thumb? It may be that he just wants to suck on something? Try streching the feedings out 15 mins. at a time. If you don't have enough down time, then there won't be enough when he does feed and he'll be hungrier faster...hence your endless cycle of 'i'm hungry'. Also, you could try pumping into bottles and feeding him from them. That way you can tell exactly how much he is getting during each feeding. That's the only problem with breastfeeding, there is no 'amount' gauge on them.
Good luck,
M.

An exclusively breastfed baby cannot overeat.

They say "eats like a newborn" for a reason. They eat constantly. Mine ate at least 16 times/ day.

Hang in there, he is getting bigger and will start getting longer stretches in at night soon. Try cluster feeding him before bed. That was usually good for at least a 4 hour stretch. With his increasing belly size, you should be able to hope for a 5 or 6 hour stretch at night in the next few weeks.

As for not sounding like the average baby eating schedule, it sounds like every breastfed baby I know.

He sounds like my first son at that age. He was latched on constantly day and night. At two months he was over 12 pounds. He was so chunky that he couldn't roll over until he was five months old. Now he's three and is tall and lean and active.

The best schedule to feed him on is one that he sets for himself. A breastfed baby will eat when he's hungry and stop when he's full.

Try some breast compressions during nursing, and see if you can get him to stay on longer each time.

go to kellymom.com and search 'breast compressions'

He may not be normal compared to stupid feeding schedules (AAP denounces scheduled feeding, and recommends feeding ON DEMAND) but it is HIS body and he gets to determine his schedule. Some mothers just dont' have high storage capacity, but still have enough milk, just have to feed more often.

Please contact your La Leche league in your area to find out more.

Jeezus, I just read one of the horrid responses you received. Please check out www.aap.org It is where MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS get the latest studies and recommendations.

It is almost true that you cannot overfeed a breastfed baby... in that, it is *possible* just like anything else, you watch their own curve, and as long as it it a continual, gradual climb, the baby is fine. You don't want them to shoot straight up or lose.

That said, the majority of ON DEMAND nurslings actually fair BETTER when you look at statistics, rather than anecdotal evidence.

Good luck. I'm available if you want to message me anytime.

"Normal" & "average" are not the same thing! There's a huge range considered "normal" when you're talking about babies, and "average" is just the middle of the road, with a wide range of variety on either side.
Maybe you're not producing enough milk to keep up with his appetite. If he's a big baby, he needs more food!! My son was 10 pounds at birth, and from the first day after he was born, we supplemented with formula because he needed WAY more than I could make!! I don't believe infants can overeat. If he's hungry than he needs food. I think childhood obesity is a huge problem, and my 5 year old and 18 month old are fed a very healthy diet, and not required to "clean their plates" if they're not hungry. I think children overeat out of boredom or parental example and become obese due to lack of exercise. I also don't think your baby will turn into a fat kid because he drinks too much breastmilk!! Check with your pediatrician because the last thing you want to do is malnourish him.
By the way, my son is now at a perfectly healthy weight (very muscular, too!) and he was breastfed every 90 minutes to 2 hours for many months as an infant :)

Dear R., I'm not a pediatrician, but I can tell you that my daughter's pediatrician (also a mother of 5) would have had a STROKE if I suggested feeding my infant every ninety minutes. Childhood obesity is a serious problem, and establishing a pattern by which he believes he "needs" to eat that often could be setting him up for a lifetime of health / food-related issues.

In fact the two children in my daughter's playgroup who were nursed "on demand" both grew into OBESE children -- one of them tragically so. (we started this group when they were newborns at Georgetown hospital, so I watched these kids grow up).

Now I do understand that good, well-intentioned people often differ on this topic, and my "two-cents" isn't meant to cause offense...

As I'm sure you've guessed, I'm a member of the camp which believes that feeding infants "on demand" is less than ideal for both child and mother. Sometimes he may just need to suck on something, but may not require a meal. Other times he may be looking for comfort (and when one feeds on demand, it is natural for a baby to confuse
"comfort" with food).

One of the commenters stated that it is impossible to overfeed a baby who is exclusively breast-fed. I've heard this before, and still fail to understand logic. Generally speaking, assuming you are healthy, etc (and I've discussed this with several peditricians who also happen to be mothers), your body will produce as much milk as you "need" to feed the baby. When you nurse more, you produce more milk; when you nurse less, you produce less milk...if this is true, than our body chemistry does not "automatically" prevent us from overfeeding.

Also, you are part of this equation. You need your sleep! Sleep deprivation can tamper with your immune system, it can trigger mental health problems, and it is cited as one of the leading causes of car accidents, and other types of accidents. Of course every new mother is sleep deprived to some extent, but you don't have to exacerbate this if you don't want to.

I'm sorry that I don't have any good advice about how to rearrange his feeding schedule (if that's what you're inclined to do), but please do get some professional feedback. And if you end up talking with the La Leche League or their followers, please also make a point of getting some input from other professionals who might be less militant about the subject.

Best luck -- it's obvious you want the best for you and your baby!