LO doesnt want breast in the morning

[taylorsmummy]

Help anyone... My 4 month old DD doesnt want to breast feed in the morning. She STTN from around 7.30 - 7 (with a DF at 10.30). My thinking is that she should be very hungry in the morning yet she will only feed for about 5 minutes max, and that is bobbing on and off too. She is just not interested. If my husband gives her a bottle we can get about 140 mls into her, but she wont breastfeed.

Do i need to start bringing the DF back earlier or dropping it??? She feeds really well during the dream feed however.

Because she hasnt fed well during the morning feed she has now woken after 1 hours sleep when she usually does 2hr (we have just changed to 4 hour feeds).

Any help would be appreciated.

[~ Vik ~]

Hmmmmmm....   When I read your title my first thought was that there was a night feed interfering with the morning feed, but given that she's STTN from DF until 7 that obviously isn't the case.  You could try bringing the DF earlier but I can't imagine it making much of an impact, especially at this young age.  Breastmilk is so easily digested that her stomach is definitely empty in the morning!

A few thoughts...
- Could you have a really strong letdown?  After 11.5h your breasts are likely quite full, maybe she's having trouble handling the flow?
- Do you feed right away - in the dark bedroom, maybe even before she's fully awake?  Maybe she's distracted by the world around her (this is the prime age for a distractible feeder) and just would rather look around.  The bottle would be ok because she can have a look around the room while she's being fed.
- Or complete opposite, maybe she needs a little bit of time to wake up?  Get her up, change her diaper and dress her, let her *realize* that she's hungry?
- Could she be taking a good feed in that short time?  As babies get older they get to be expert nursers and can take a full feed in a surprisingly short time.

What do you think?

[taylorsmummy]

thanks for the reply. She has always been a good feeder but i just thought that this was a little quick, only 3-5 mins.
I think i will give it a try  in her room straight after i get her up. Because she is sleeping so long we have just started changing her nappy before i feed her as her nappy is full and we have had some accidents (which my hubby has been doing) and this maybe stimulating her too much. She is becoming more easily distracted.
Will give that a go and see how it goes.

[~ Vik ~]

A full feed is possible in 3-5min, believe it or not   More information here: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65904.0

Try the darkened feeds, and hopefully that helps!!  Let us know how you get on