Silly question-but how do you know that they have finished a feed??

[beckles]

I know that should seem obvious but if a LO doesn't "pop off" when they are finish feeding how do you know when they are done?? (silly question-i know)

DS is 5weeks and has just been diagnosed with slient reflux.  Because of this he is a real comfort sucker and if I let him he would just use me as a dummy 24/7.   

When he feeds he does the whole suck, pause swallow thing for about 6-8minutes and then he starts going suck suck suck swallow for another 10 or so minutes.  Then the number of sucks increase and the swallows decrease then after a while he just nibbles away and doesn't swallow very often.

I have really sore nipples (we have latch issues that i am seeing a lactation consultant for) and really can't cope with him comfort sucking. So the lactation consultant has had me stopping him at the ënd""of a feed. But now i feel like i am restricitng his feeds, and while he is still going 3hrly during the day, he was doing 4-5hrs at night but this has dropped back to 3hrly. Which is fine since he still only little, but I can't help feel that he isn't full.

He is getting enough as he still has plenty of wet nappies, and is gaining weight so over all he is getting enough, but I can't help feeling that he just isn't completly full.

Unfortunately I can't say I have a great repor with the LC and she doeesn't make me feel very comfortable asking what seems silly questions.  She is free through the hosp so have been just going with it, but am thinking I might have to swap to a private one that is a bit more interested in her job.

[Manueli]

I don't think this is a silly question, it is really hard to tell sometimes and I can totally understand you feeling like you wouldn't feed enough if you stop earlier. The way you describe it I would say your LO stops really feeding for hunger after he stops with the suck suck suck swallow rhythm and starts sucking a lot but swallowing little. A lot of light sucking with sometimes large breaks between the sucks is often an indicator for comfort sucking. I would try to take him off then, especially if you have sore nipples. Does he take a dummy you could give him instead?

At this age some LOs are also hitting a growth spurt which might be the trigger to his more frequent NWs. Could you try to cluster feed a bit more at night? Or give him some extracted milk if it is too painful?

Also I had huge nipple problems and nobody really told me what I did wrong with Hayden's latch. Everybody was just saying it looks good, sounds good etc. but it was killing me. He eventually outgrew it at 6 months but I wish I would have gone to a better LC earlier. At 6 months I finally went to see one that actually said she could have fixed the problem but it was basically too late then. So if you don't feel comfortable with your LC it might really be a good idea to see if you can support with somebody else because sore nipples is not something you can just easily ignore.