My baby isn't satisfied after nursing?

[macydarling]

Hi there. My son is 10 days old. We've had quite the time with bfing. I had a lot of problems getting him to latch. We were both getting frustrated and my nipples were cracked and bleeding. At his 3 day doctors visit he had lost 9% of his birth weight and his ped was very concerned. She recommended I pump every 3 hours thru the day and 5 hrs thru the night supplementing with formula when I didn't have enough milk. That went really well. My nipples healed up so I tried bfing him last night and he latched right away! He fed for about 30 minutes. The only thing is after he came off the breast and I went to put him to sleep he got fussy and sucked his fingers like he does when hungry. He didn't want the breast anymore so I gave him a bottle of pumped milk and he sucked it down like he was starving. Every time I try to nurse he does the same thing and wants a bottle afterwards.

Anyone know why this is? Is nursing not providing enough? I really want to exclusively bf and be able to stop pumping. What do I do? Please help!

 

[staralfur]

Breastfeeding is based on supply and demand and he's still growing rapidly, so he'll be wanting to nurse very very frequently. At that age my LO was nursing and showing hunger signs constantly. Unfortunately not feeding directly from the breast when your LO is hungry is kind of counterproductive at this point as he's trying to build your supply to meet his demand, so when you give a bottle it's a missed opportunity for him to tell your body to make more milk. I know it's hard to not feel like you're starving your baby when they seem hungry all the time but it's perfectly normal as long as he's not continuing to lose weight.

I weaned my LO off of supplementing by dropping one bottle at a time, gradually. So if he's having 4 bottles a day, drop one bottle and replace it with putting him back on the breast for however long he needs to, and go with 3 bottles for a few days. If he seems to be taking well to the dropped bottle, then drop a 2nd bottle and so on.

Keep an eye on his diapers when you drop a bottle to make sure he's still having a normal amount of wet/dirty ones.

 

[noon_child]

9% on day 3 is within normal range. Most people's milk doesn't come in till around day 3 so they aren't able to put on weight. Their stomachs are small (large marble sized at day 3 so about 10ml) too so again it is hard for them to put on lots of weight and losing weight in the first three days is what most babies do. However I can imagine that looking at the state of your nipples, she thought "well when the milk comes in he won't be getting it properly, because his latch is doing that damage, so I'll recommend pumping so that he doesn't lose more weight." It's not bad advice but also not Great if the aim is to preserve the breastfeeding relationship.

The schedule she recommended is perhaps not the best either. For a baby not at birthweight it is recommended to do feeds at least 2hrly round the clock and express/pump if baby won't latch and feed. Everytime baby takes a bottle you must express/pump. Night feeds are really good at increasing supply. It is hard but it is just till birth weight is regained and then feeding on demand can start.

Anyway, all that said, it doesn't help you much now. I think IF your baby is now latching well (no pain, nipples are not squashed, angled or damaged after feeds, his chin is in to the breast etc.) then putting him to the breast whenever he is hungry (even if you just did it) and getting rid of bottles is a good idea. The problem comes if he actually cant latch well and either you are in agony or he's not extracting enough milk. Do you think his latch is now pretty decent?

 

[macydarling]

I forgot to mention, when he went for his recheck he had regained quite a bit of the weight he lost back again.

Noon, I feel like his latch is pretty good now. It only hurts when he first latches on and then it's pretty comfortable. I haven't given him the bottle at all today. He does seem to be nursing very frequently though. He's wanting to eat every 1-1.5hrs vs when I was bottle feeding him it was about every 3 hours. Is that normal?

I guess I'm just wondering how I can know if he is eating enough when I can't measure it like when I pump.

 

[staralfur]

Diapers! When I was worried about my LO not getting enough after I had cut out supplementing, her doctor asked me if she was peeing and pooping a lot. I said yes and she said "well, you know, that has to come from somewhere!" and it put my mind hugely at ease. They wouldn't be having wet or dirty diapers if they weren't getting milk. As long as he isn't having noticeably more dry diapers then try to relax. I do think that's the hardest part about breastfeeding, the not knowing. It's hard to get past.

 

[noon_child]

If you think about it, when you give bottles, although you know he is drinking, you don't really know it is the "right" amount, you just trust that if he was full he'd stop drinking and if he was still hungry he'd tell you. Well you have to trust that the same happens with breastfeeding! like PP said if he is weeing and pooing and gaining weight he is getting milk. Small frequent feeds from your breast are the best way to encourage your supply and the more often your breasts are empty the higher the fat content of the milk he'll be getting. At some point it becomes a relief not to have to guess how much to put in a bottle, then prep some extra, then throw most of it away cos it wasn't drunk etc. , you just plonk em on and forget about it. I know it isn't like this at first because we worry that they are so delicate they are going to be irreparably damaged if we "wait and see" for a few days, but really babies are quite hardy in some ways and it's OK to do a bit of trial and error to see what works.

 

[macydarling]

Thank you both so much! No worries on the diaper front. Lol. No shortage of dirty diapies!