3.5 month old has "no time" for hind milk?

[carlicost]

My DD has for the last few weeks been a very distracted feeder.  I have gone back to feeding her in her room in the dark with a little improvement.  It seems now however that due to her impatient feeding that my supply has increased since I had to feed her more frequently as she hadn't been getting enough due to her distraction.  As a result, she seems to be hooked on getting the quick fix foremilk and not having the patience to stick with it for the hind milk.

Previously, I had been feeding her fully from one breast and then switching to the other which she would usually take about half.  Once she got distracted, I ended up switching her back and forth fairly often to keep her eating.  She seems to refuse either breast once she has taken the foremilk but then cries if I take her off as if she is still hungry.  I basically end up bobbing her back and forth until she seems to have gotten enough.  She had a green poop today too so I think she is definitely taking too much foremilk.

I'm wondering if I should pump the hind milk that she doesn't take and supplement it at her next feed?  I'm thinking that she could drink it more quickly from a bottle and therefore perhaps it would work better?  She can only go about 3.5 hours at night and I'm thinking it is because she is not getting enough good calories while nursing.  Supplementing the extra milk is obviously a temporary fix, but not sure what else to try?

Should I just force her to nurse from one side only and if she doesn't finish it just leave her hungry so she eats better at the next feed?  I'm just worried about her not getting enough as my son had so much trouble gaining weight at this age that they classified him as failure to thrive.  I don't mind the fact that I have to get up in the night with her, although of course I would prefer to sleep.  I just want her to get enough of the good stuff so she keeps gaining weight.  She is a petite 12 lbs right now....

thanks

[~ Vik ~]

(((hugs))) I am just on my iPod now so can't really form a proper reply. I will come back on at naptime with some thoughts, and hopefully in the interim some other moms will hop on too

[deb]

At 3.5 months, babies get to be much more efficient nursers and just don't need as much time to nurse. Both mine started out needing like half an hour or ore to feed but by the 3-month mark, maybe 3.5, they were sucking down all they needed in 10-15 minutes, and it got to be less and less as time went on.

Green poops can also be caused by an intolerance to something in the mother's diet. Dairy and soy are common culprits, but there can be others. My second had an intolerance to carageenan, of all things, which turned out to be in the rice milk I was drinking since I can't tolerate cows' milk. She didn't really have any of the other symptoms of intolerance like gas/wind or tummy pain, but the spinach-green poop was unmistakeable and went away almost immediately (or lessened a lot) the day after I switched brands of rice milk to one without carageenan. Had it been dairy, it likely would have taken longer to get out of the system.

If your DD has enough wet and dirty diapers, I'd say she's getting enough to eat overall. If she's just gone thru her 3-month growth spurt, then your breasts will likely adjust the foremilk and hindmilk balance on their own, meaning the green poop may be caused by something else.

[shivi]

I had this exact problem with Emma from even earlier - around 2 mths to 6 mths.

the best solution was to feed her semi-conscious coming out of a nap as she'd take the foremilk without even realising and then would take a decent feed incl the hindmilk. It got easier at the 4 mth mark as she went to good napping then too so good naps=well-rested=hungry=ate better but we stuck to the dark room on waking for ALL feeds, and actually did till the end of our nursing days...

S x

[~ Vik ~]

Echoing both Siobhain and Deb - babies get to be much more efficient nursers as they get older, and can take a surprising amount of milk in a short time (see http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65904.0 for more details), but as they get older they get more easily distracted by the world around them.

I'm wondering if I should pump the hind milk that she doesn't take and supplement it at her next feed?

You *can*, but if the problem truly is that she likes the fast flow at the beginning of a feed and gets frustrated at the slower flow of the hindmilk, offering a bottle is likely only to compound the problem.  Milk flows much more quickly from the bottle than the breast, and babies don't need to work as hard to get it.  So if she gets the fast flow of the foremilk, then gets frustrated, then gets the fast flow of the bottle, it's going to be harder to get things back on track, kwim?  Not saying that it WILL go that way, but it could, so something to consider.

She can only go about 3.5 hours at night and I'm thinking it is because she is not getting enough good calories while nursing.

TBH, at this age 3 night feeds isn't bad at all.  We were doing a dream feed plus two night feeds for a while, and then a dream feed plus one night feed until we dropped the dream feed!  My rule of thumb was to go by the interval - so if she can go 3h during the day, she should be able to do the same at night (not during growth spurts though!).  So if she's on a 3h routine during the day, going 3.5h through the night isn't bad at all.  And you've got a BIG growth spurt coming up around 4mo, so you'll likely feel like she's feeding all the time.

Let us know what you think?

[carlicost]

Thanks.  I guess my body will just sort things out on its own...it's amazing that way isn't it?!  She seems to have settled down a little with the impatience, but I have basically fed her in the dark now and not given in to her wanting to switch sides right away.  Nightimes have improved but I do think my supply is much lower in one breast which I'm trying to fix.

I'm not sure what I ate differently to cause the green poop, but I'll be more aware of it going forward.

Last night she did a good 5 hour stretch so that's huge for her.  I may try to see if I can dreamfeed her sometime this week and see how she reacts to that.

Thanks for the advice ladies!!!

[~ Vik ~]

Glad that your night was so much better!!  And it sounds like you have a good plan in place for your feeds - I'm happy they're improving too

[shivi]

I always got green poops with Emma after bad feeds (meaning foremilk only).

S x