5 Week Old Baby Wants to Eat All the Time

Hi, J.!

I was not able to breastfeed either of my boys (now 16 and 2), but I can tell you that they had spurts of non-stop feeding, too! If you are concerned that your daughter is not getting enough to eat, here's a trick:

Get on your bath scales just before you start feeding her. Then, after she has finished nursing for that round, get back on your scales again. (If you need to use the restroom, do it before you get on the scales the first time, or you will skew your results.) A digital scale works best for this. My DH bought me a set of scales this past year for about $40, and it reads to the 10th of a pound. The difference in your weight before and after you nurse is going to be how much your daughter got during that feeding.

You can also check your daughter's progress this way. As long as you are not changing brands of diapers, you can hold her with *just* her diaper on. Clothes are inconsistent in weight, and therefore make the weighing unreliable, but diapers have a "set" weight, like a can of green beans does. Get on the scale while you are holding your daughter, and determine your combined weight. Then, after handing her to someone else, or putting her in her crib or other safe place, get back on the scale, and get your weight. Subtract your weight from the combined weight, and you will know that your daughter is indeed getting enough milk. If you notice that you are getting smaller discrepancies between the combined weight with your daughter and your weight, then you should contact her pedi about supplementing your milk with formula. But it sounds to me like that is not a problem right now.

I'm jealous that you are able to breastfeed, and I encourage you to keep it up as long as possible! I would also encourage you to keep in contact with your lactating consultant if you have one. If not, your OB/Gyn, pedi, or the hospital where you delivered should be able to help you find one.

(Oh, and for the times you think she's not eating enough, as long as it doesn't go on for a week or more at a time, she's doing fine.)

Feel free to email me or call me if you have any questions!
~J.~ ____@____.com ###-###-####

You ARE making enough and she IS getting enough.

I went through the very same thing with my breastfed baby around this time and was miserable with it. I was sure that my milk was drying up or it wasn't nourishing enough; until my wonderful, knowledgeable-in-all-things-"baby" stepmom explained to me that around this time baby is going through a growth spurt and tells your body to pick up the production! :) Just let her nurse as much as she wants, despite your exhaustion and sore nipples.

Get past six weeks and it'll be smooth sailing. No other growth spurt will be as hard as this one!

Have a great time getting to know your little one! :)

It proably is just a growth spurt. I found this on breast feeding essentials website. Thought it might help. It's tough but my doctor said to feed om demand and try not to gove formula. http://www.breastfeed-essentials.com/growthspurts.html

J.,
you are not doing anything wrong. Breastfed babies need to eat every 2 hours. Breastmilk is thin at the beginning and gets thicker toward the end. Think of it as a snack then dinner and then dessert. Some babies don't want all of that. They prefer the "snacking". But eating every 2 hours or more is normal, as long as your babie is gaining weight. Also keep drinking fluids to increase your supply. Decrease caffeine, sodas,coffee and teas. The more she eats the more milk you will make. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. Give a couple of days and see how it goes.

This sure is a very delayed response how'er for those who may be surfing this question, one of the reasons babies might be asking to be fed every hour may be due to 'colic pain'. Usually, kids need to be fed every 2 hours provided they are fed for about 15-25 mins

Growth spurts are to be expected at this age. It seems like they cannot get enough and all they want to do is nurse. Next thing you know, it's over. As is previously mentioned, it feels like you aren't producing enough because they're nursing sooo much but you will as long as you let them nurse. Supplementing, even as little as a bottle can whack your supply. Trust me from experience on this. :) Your body will catch up with the demand if you let it.

Pumping will not give you a good idea how much you produce either. It is a good way to boost supply. A baby is much more efficient than any pump. Only a medical baby scale is accurate enough to give you an idea of how much your baby is actually getting. You would weigh the baby before nursing (and naked too) and then afterwards. I had to do this. A bathroom scale (even a digital one) is just not sensitive enough and weighing the mother isn't going to tell you how much the baby actually got. I actually had to do all this weighing stuff over a weekend with the help of an LC.

There are some supplements (fenugreek) and lactogenic foods that can safely boost your supply if you feel you need the leg up during these growth spurts. I think kellymom has a list of these as well. Also, here are some links you might find helpful:

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/04enough_milk.html
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/11some_bf_myths.html
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/growth-spurt.html

and about Babywise and why you should avoid it and why it has been widely discredited. You're baby (and not you) knows when he's hungry. Think about it... Can anyone know when YOU are hungry? No. Only you know that. Your baby is the same. Trust him.

http://www.ezzo.info/

I am in the same boat as you with my 4 week old daughter. I went onto la leche league's website and they said to let her eat as often as she wants - on demand. Also not to give formula. Babies are greedy and will gulp down a bottle of formula as if they are starving even if they are not hungry. As long as your milk is in and your baby is thriving then I'd let the baby eat as often as needed. Maybe the baby is demanding more because it is growing and if that is the case then your body needs to make more and the only way it will know to make more milk is if the baby demands it. Good luck!

Hi J.,
My suggestion is to not let her nurse quite so often. She's probably 'snacking' and not getting a full meal so she's hungry again sooner. Before my daughter was born I read "Baby Wise" and "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" and both suggested putting them on a 2.5-3 hour routine. If she's going through a growth spurt then she'll want to eat more frequently but she shouldn't need to eat every hour. Try to hold her off a little bit. She'll get hungrier and then eat more at the next feeding. She needs a big meal and not just little snacks. This could become a habit that will be very hard to break and cause you get to a very small amount of sleep.
The statement I read in Baby Wise that really explained it is that babies know when they're hungry but they don't know how to regulate their tummies. It's the job of the parents to help her tummy learn how to regulate itself.
If she's going through a growth spurt she'll suckle more often to get you to produce more. Just so you know, each bottle of formula you give her damages your supply since breastfeeding is a 'supply and demand' system. The more your baby tells your body to make, the more it will make. If she's not eating then you're telling your body that you don't need it to make milk for your baby.
I hope this doesn't sound cruel - Good luck!

Hi J.! Yep, it's a growth spurt! It feels like you don't have enough milk but just keep feeding her and you will produce more milk. Out of desperation, I sometimes supplemented with formula because my boy would get SO angry and he would get SO hungry during these spurts, but they say not to supplement when you're breastfeeding or you will produce less. The spurts only last a couple days. :) It also helps to pump in between feedings. The more you feed and pump,the more milk your breasts will produce. Its a simple matter of supply and demand. It helps to drink a full glass of water before you breastfeed as well as take Milkaid to help produce more milk. You can order milkaid online. Good luck!

This 'sounds' like a classic growth spurt. Most babies go through something like this at approximately 6 weeks. They want to feed all of the time and they never seem to get full! I would encourage you not to give her any formula. This is nature's way of upping your supply to meet her increasing needs. As she gets bigger, she will need more of mommy's milk. The only way to induce your body to produce more milk is to nurse more often. With my boys, these spurts 'only' seemed to last about 2-3 days. Then I was able to sleep a bit!

D.
www.myfamilymyfuture.com

Sounds like a growth spurt! The formula takes longer for her body to digest, so that's probably why she lasted a little longer, but it won't help your body boost its supply if you supplement too often. I'd say nurse as often as she wants to during the day, but make sure each feeding is a good one and keep an eye on her routine. For example, you don't want her falling asleep while she's eating, etc. You want her to stay awake for 20 min or so after a feeding so her routine is eat, play, sleep...eat, play, sleep... This cycle could span up to 4 hours, or some times of the day (or during a growth spurt) it could span just an hour and a half from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next!
Is she eating every hour all day and night long? That would mean you're not getting much sleep! Surely she waits longer part of the time, doesn't she?

Definitely a growth spurt! Just keep on nursing, and stay away from the Babywise books! :-)