Hungry baby!

[Ganton]

My little boy is nearly 5 months old and exclusively breastfed. However, at about 19lb, he takes a lot of filling and seems particularly hungry in the evening. He fusses around for ages as if he wants milk but there's just not enough coming out for him. On the odd occasion of offering a bottle of expressed milk in the evening, he'll happily take an extra 4oz or so after I've fed him, but I don't want to make a habit of that as I know it'll only send my supply in one direction. I keep thinking about introducing a bottle of formula in the evening just to see if it'll help fill him up (he normally wakes every 1-2 hours in the evening and definitely seems hungry). I'd rather keep going with EBF if I can but am I being mean for not giving him a bottle of formula if he really seems to want the extra milk?

 

[ButterCup17]

My ds was going through that last month. I posted on here too and ppl told me to just bf more often. The more he is on there the more ur supply will boost. Making it enough for him. Also drink more water during the day. It worked for me and after a few days he seemed satisfied again.

 

[lilly88]

Am with you on this, my DD who is 4 months feeds pretty much every 1hr to 1.5hrs throughout the day but she goes about 11 hours through the night.

I tried introducing formula once a day because i was worried i wasn't filling her up but it did nothing and i've come to the conclusion that she's just a milk monster!!

Do you leak much? I wear shields that catch the milk i leak and it usually makes about 3oz of milk by the end of the day which DH gives her to top her up before bed

I realise i've been no help lol!!

 

[Ganton]

No, you have helped Lilly. Even though I really want to stick with EBF, I've been so tempted to give in on many occasions. Knowing that giving formula may not solve the issue will encourage me to keep going. The other thing keeping me going is knowing that weaning is only about 5 weeks away, even though I'm sure that won't help for quite a while.

I've been increasing the amount I eat and drink, and have been trying to offer him a feed every half hour in the last few hours before bed time. He may actually just be waking out of habit through the evening. Even though he'll take a bottle when he wakes after half an hour, he doesn't guzzle it down so he can't be too hungry. I'm going to try to see if we can resettle him without a feed if he wakes so soon, but will obviously continue to feed him at other night wakings.

I just needed to hear that I shouldn't give up, so thanks for your replies.

 

[Doodlebug88]

Am with you on this, my DD who is 4 months feeds pretty much every 1hr to 1.5hrs throughout the day but she goes about 11 hours through the night.

I tried introducing formula once a day because i was worried i wasn't filling her up but it did nothing and i've come to the conclusion that she's just a milk monster!!

Do you leak much? I wear shields that catch the milk i leak and it usually makes about 3oz of milk by the end of the day which DH gives her to top her up before bed

I realise i've been no help lol!!

Wow didn't realise you could leak that much. I leak quite a bit and getting through so many pads. What shields do you use?