Wondering about babies behaviour

[sarahharas]

Hi all,

as at the moment most medical services are closed down I thought I might get some information soon.

My son is 8 weeks old today and generally I think I have a healthy and happy baby - at least when he is not hungry.... and this is exactly the problem.

He has always been a cluster feeder, but since about a week it s quite extreme and I really dont know what to do. I am breatsfeeding him and he is generally drinking well (gaining loads of weight!) but immediatley after he starts screaming and wants to drink again, the second time he does not drink properly any more and is manily sucking. BUt he continues screaming, sometimes this goes on for >1 hour, but in the end he does not drink, he literally plays with my nipple. I always try to distract him, and it usually works for a bit, he is then super happy, smiles and looks around and is very curious. when he is awake for about 2 hours in total, he starts making feeding cues again and he is getting quite fussy and tired and he would not sleep, unless i put him in a sling, where he falls asleep quite easily. then he sleeps for a good stretch of time and everything starts again. So he is happy for about 45min after feeding and the rest of the time he is screaming.

If I would not let him suck all of the time, he would be screaming all day, I try using a dummy but he does not want it. I have a deep crack on my nipple and it wont heal properly because he is sucking all of the time. When he drinks he is latching on properly, but afterwards he only plays with it, holding on very tight and heavily shakes his head around. I think that the problem is that he is not drinking properly sometimes and then gets hungrier all the time. Yesterday he was screaming all of the time, although I gave him the breast, and then I gave him a bottle of expressed milk and after >1h "feed" he drank 80ml withun minutes. The problem is that he is not drinking from me, but mostly playing, he is happy after the bottle, but he quickly learned thath the bottle is easier than the breast, so he plays even more.

I am quite happy that he does not do that during the night, he usually sleeps for about 3 hours.

Sorry for this long text, but I hope to get some information if other people are also struggling with this, becasue I am really sore and I really dont want to start pumping all of the time. I always thought that cluster feeding is more restricted to a certain time of the day and not always.

xxx

[Winter_Girl]

I'm so sorry that I have no advice, but perhaps you could give your health visitor a call to discuss?

Cluster feeding, from what I gather, is so different for everybody. My friend cluster fed constantly for days whereas for me it was two 4 hour slots daily.

Kellymom website has articles on cluster feeding and fussiness that may help you, but I would also contact your HV.

I know it must be stressful for you so I hope you're ok xx

[Winter_Girl in reply to Winter_Girl]

Also, put some vaseline (recommended by my HV) or some nipple cream on after you have fed and let your nipples air. I suffered terribly with cracked and bleeding nipples so I feel for you. Xx

[sarahharas in reply to Winter_Girl]

Thank you for your response I do soak my nipples in nipple cream after each feed, which helps a lot. I just have a really deep crack on one side which hardly can heal when he is constantly feeding.

I anyway should call the HV to ask some other questions, so I will talk about this as well

Everybody tells me that this usually stops at around 3-4 months, so I see know that I am alsmost there

[Winter_Girl in reply to sarahharas]

I feel your pain! My left nipple didn't heal until my baby was 3 months old, even though feeding had been going well from 8 weeks. Horrible.

Cluster feeding didn't last too long for me but, as I said, everyone seems to have different experiences. It may just be a fussy phase and hopefully won't last too long. It is normal for babies to comfort feed too. I'm sure babies go through a growth spurt around 8 weeks, hence cluster feeding, so that could be why. X

[sarahharas in reply to Winter_Girl]

Oh that sounds terribly long and painful, I am happy that it did heal in the end.

You are right, I think he has a growth spurt, also he was born 3 weeks early as a lightweight so he needs to catch up a lot (and he does). What makes mefeel better is that he is a really happy baby when he is not hungry and he smiles and looks around, so at least he seems to be OK

Thank youxx

[TheBearsInFargo]

My baby is now six months old but for the first couple months it seemed like she was constantly cluster feeding as well and quite unsettled. We worked with a sleep consultant when she was four months old and I now think we were mistaking some of her behaviour as signs of hunger when she was actually just really tired and needing to sleep-the signs can be quite similar. The information that the sleep consultant gave us said that at 2 months old, the maximum amount of time that your baby should be awake at one time is around an hour and fifteen minutes, that includes feeding. So if he starts to get unsettled and he’s been awake for more than an hour and fifteen minutes, maybe it could be tiredness rather than hunger.

[sarahharas in reply to TheBearsInFargo]

THank you! Actually I realized that he is getting really upset when he is tired and usually after 1.5-2hrs I dont let him feed any more, but I put him in a sling/somwhere else to sleep, where he usually after 5 min of slight complaints falls asleep immediately and sleeps for a good time. So this tells me that the hunger could not have been strong. BUt it is good to know that even that time seems too long for that age and I will try to get him to sleep earlier than that