really hungry little boy-please help!!!

[NikiJ]

Hi everyone

Haven't been around in a while but I would really appreciate some help for my sister.  She had her first child 8 weeks ago and he is an absolute savage.  My sister has loads of milk, when he cries it spurts out so we know she has plenty.  Plenty of gulping when he is eating & everything.  The problem is he always wants more.  She has already given him six full feeds today & he hasn't slept at all b/c he wants more all day.  She has tried offering him 2 breast at a feeding, he will always accept the second breast, have a full feed from that too & then he is too full & spits it all back up again so stopped offering the 2nd breast b/c it wasn't extending the time between feeds.

It has gotten so bad that this week, against my advice, she has started giving him a small feed of baby rice (made with her milk) in the middle of the day.  This helped her get to 3 hour feeding schedule for exactly 2 days & today he is back to wanting to be fed every hour.  She is thinking of getting formula & giving up completely on the breast feeding but I asked her to wait out the week-end & see if we can get any good suggestions.

Has anyone had a similar experience with hungry babies?  What helped you?  Emma, any suggestions?

By the way his birth weight was 7lbs 11.5oz & he is already 12lbs!!  Twice he has been weighed by the nurse & she said he put on double the weight expected of a bottle fed baby in the same time frame!!!!!!

Thanks
Niki

[EllenS]

WOWWWW!  The only thing I know is to get some help around the house, get in bed if she has to and feed, get as much rest as she can and let everything else go for a while - it WILL even out.  They do go thru massive growth spurts in the early weeks.  The rice will do more harm than good at this stage. 

Is she Absolutely Positive that he's giving hunger cues, and not discomfort or something else?  Is there any possibility it may be an oversupply/fast letdown/foremilk imbalance issue?  It could be he's getting hungry faster because he's getting too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk?  Or could he be having reflux issues? 

Has she talked to a lactation consultant?

[deb]

MY first thought is a flashback to Josie when she was refluxing. The nursing was giving her relief from the burning reflux pain. Then she'd spit up like crazy (projectile reflux, no kidding) and cry for another feed - and then as soon as the pain was better she'd yammer because she was over-full. The first BW book didn't mention reflux and when I did hear of it, none of our doctors wanted to believe me til Jwas was 3 months old! 

And to top it off, this kid who before and after the reflux was smack-dab onthe 50th percentile for height and weight actually spent a couple months on the 80+ percentile for weight from all the comfort-feeding she was doing!!!

If he's spitting up he might have reflux or be over-full, but if he's looking to feed even after what should be a full feed, especially with that much weight gain, it might be to relieve pain. Thickened feeds (i.e. with cereal) can sometimes help the milk stay down better as the thicker stuff is harder to reflux. I would DEFINITELY investigate the reflux possibility. (BTW, reflux doesn't always involve spitting-up; there's also silent reflux where the reflux stays in the esophagus and throat and still causes plenty of pain there without the need for a couple dozen burp clothes around the house.)

[NikiJ]

wow!!  Never even thought of reflux.  He is a normal spitter but sometimes it's projectile, not enough to make me think reflux though.  I just quickly read one post on the FAQ here about reflux & the girls were talking about it being linked to overactive let down & a big supply of milk.  My sister does have a massive amount of milk & sometimes you can hear Darragh struggling to swallow in time.

Going to look more into it now ladies.

Thanks

[Mum to Ella Rose]

Just marking as my ds was doing the same. We had his sister's GI look at him and he had some thoughts about stretching to at least a two 1/2 hour routine. I'll have to post later, baby is crying... (looking for milk! lol!)

[Shaunie]

I never had a problem with spitting up or crying but DS would feed every 1 1/2 - 2 hours which nearly killed me!  I had lots of milk so he was getting enough but would not feed for long each time.  It did get easier but took a while to get to 2 1/2 hours between feeds but by that time, I had adjusted to being a new Mum & found it all easier.