What do I do for a baby who power eats?

[Mrs. Cheezer]

So, Brady was a tiny little guy at birth but WOW can he eat!!! He has four major feeding times a day, and he'll be latched on for anywhere from 1-2 hours during that time. He is sucking most of that time too and I keep thinking that he can't possibly be actually eating for that long! The nurses at the hospital said that he is definitely a "boob man." Anyway, I think that my boobs are just going to fall off one day and I'm taking my pain meds, not for the C-section incision, but for my nipple pains!!! The C-section is FINE and doesn't hurt badly at all - in fact, I made breakfast today and even did a load of laundry. I feel like myself more and more each day, but these feedings are going to be the end of me and formula is looking better and better each day.

Anyone else have a baby who eats like this? If so, what did you do to get through it and how long did it last? I put Lansinoh on my boobs after every feeding and that helps, but they're so sore. Seriously, HAVING Brady was less painful than feeding him is. I love Brady like crazy, but feeding him is just so painful right now!!!

[JulieD]

You know I don't have a baby that does that now - but I DID. An hour is what he did. And he did that until he was maybe 6w old but by the time he was 3m old, he would take less than 20 minutes (which now with my mega-gulpers seems like a long time). I was thankfully only Mom to him then so I COULD take that long of a time to feed him... but it did get taxing, agreed. Since Brady is not very old it may very well be that he is getting your supply where it needs to be. Because of having a cesarean, your body focuses primarily on healing YOU... secondary is the milk supply. You may feel great but there's still a *lot* of healing that needs to happen and it's still priority. And then if you factor in any epidural (which I am assuming you had?), that will also kind of mess with milk supply and your baby's nursing.

HOWEVER - you're doing something that is going to reduce his chance for cancer, obesity, diabeties, sickness, it will develop his jaw and teeth correctly and stimulate his brain - I know formula seems like it is easy but it is expensive, a pain in the rear and not all babies tolerate it well.

So I encourage you to take it day by day. 4 feedings is not many, my son eats 8 times a day before he sleeps and he's almost 6 months. (He will suck 5+ oz in less than 10 minutes - he's a big kiddo).

[Chelsey]

It will pass, I promise. Just when you think that you can't take it anymore, he will ease up. I agree with Julie that he's probably just getting your supply fully in and normalized, and once that happens he might go to a shorter nursing time.

For your nipple problems, there is a product called Soothies, or something like that, and I think it's supposed to help. Medela also makes a ring that fits in your bra and keeps fabric up off your nipples while they are healing; you should be able to get it from a lactation consultant or a breastfeeding clinic.

[hedra]

If you're really sore, and he's nursing that long, it may be a latch issue - if he's sucking but not getting quite as much as he wants, he'll take a LONG time to eat. And that makes you sore, plus the bad latch makes you sore. It doesn't have to be a terrible latch for it to be a bad-enough one. I'd definitely call an LC - Gabe had a bad latch that looked okay, was uncomfortable, and he nursed endlessly at first. I waited it out, and at 5-6 weeks, he figured it out on his own and fixed his latch. PHEW! MUCH better. Only, later, I discovered that he could have been trained out of it in a few minutes of practice daily! I could have skipped all the soreness! ARGH! My advice, don't wait. Get help!

By the way, oral aversion type nursing behavior often looks like 'obsessive nursing' - and the suctioning done when a baby is born by c-section has three times the risk of creating oral aversion significant enough to cause a feeding disorder later on. Treat it now, and you may dodge major feeding issues later. I wasn't so lucky - he 'learned' how to do it right on his own, but the aversion remained, and later we had to take him to a feeding clinic to get him to eat properly, AND we still (at 9 years old) have to work with him to get him to tolerate food. The suction he had at birth was the main trigger for this. Almost 1 in 10 odds of feeding aversions from that deeper suctioning (compared to 3% for normal suctioning or no suction). Worth checking out and seeing if you can modify the behavior. (Gabe basically did whatever possible to keep my nipple from touching the back of his mouth, so he looked like he latched well, but then he'd clamp down and press back on the nipples rather than letting it rest on his soft palate. He needed some gentle oral exercises to get him to think of that kind of contact as not uncomfortable, because he got scraped there with the bulb syringe at birth (I saw it happen), and he then 'knew' that all contact to that part of his mouth would hurt...).

good luck!

[annalauren]

At first, breastfeeding is really hard. Don't look ahead, just deal with each day that day and don't worry about the next. Felicity nursed A LOT at first and for much longer each feeding (now she usually nurses 10-15 minutes- granted she only goes 2 hrs between feedings, but her feedings are short, but they were about an hour to start). What helped me a lot was to let my nipples air dry after each feeding. As funny as it sounds (and probably looked), I was basically topless a lot the first 2 weeks and my nipples felt MUCH better this way. When we started having visitors and I had to be dressed again, they were more sore. Felicity has a STRONG sucking instinct, and there were lots of times she would pull of like she was done, but still want to suck. I had my nails cut SHORT and clean and I let her suck my finger (nail side down) and that soothed her a lot when she wasn't hungry and when I hurt too much to be her pacifier. I waited until she was almost 3 weeks and then offered her a pacifier (I had 2 kinds to try) and she readily took it. When she's full she won't nurse, she'll often suck a pacifier when she's upset or hurting from reflux. It hasn't interfered with nursing at all and she can't keep her fingers in her mouth yet to soothe herself.

It will get easier. Once you get a little further down this road with a little more of a schedule and feeding pattern, you'll be so grateful not to have to buy formula or warm up a bottle with a hungry screaming baby waiting. It is so much simpler when we go places.

[KCmom]

Originally Posted by Chelsey

It will pass, I promise. Just when you think that you can't take it anymore, he will ease up. I agree with Julie that he's probably just getting your supply fully in and normalized, and once that happens he might go to a shorter nursing time.

Ditto! I know these first few weeks are hard, Stephanie! It can be very painful for the first two weeks and it DOES seem like constant feeding, but it won't last too much longer! Hang in there because it WILL be worth it, I promise!!!

[ErinFiat]

The part of your post that stuck out the most to me was in reference to your nipple pain. I would suggest getting your latch evaluated. If your hospital has Lactation services, use them. Otherwise, contact your local LaLeche League.

The times I've experience the most pain were either improper latch or thrush (had antibiotics with all 3 deliveries).

It does get better and it will be worth it.

With DS, I did use the Medela shells mentioned above- they were wonderful. They allow your nipples to dry naturally and let air flow through.

I've also heard good things about Earth Mama Angel Baby Booby Tubes™.

[acorn]

Another reason to check with a LC is to see if he's really eating for that whole time. I went in at three weeks to get help with Neil's latch and discovered that the long nursings that I was enduring were actually Neil really eating for a few minutes and then doing a lot of comfort sucking without getting much out. Improving his latch AND working to keep him alert while nursing got everything going much better. He shortened his time nursing enormously.

[kaleidoscope]

I am going to echo everyone else and recommend a LC visit. Another thing I thought of was his times of eating. If he is only eating 4 times a day, he is not eating often enough. Newborns need to eat every 3-4 hours (which I learned the hard way). You may want to try putting him to the breast more often in hopes of shortening the amount of time he is there each time. Another thing you can do is switch breast every feeding instead of the middle of a feeding. This will give one a 6 hour break before the next feeding.

Hang in there! I promise it does get better!

[karen.jersey]

There's great advice here! Have you noticed any differences since you first posted?