breast feeding

[millieh]

My son is 4 & a half weeks old and is breast feeding at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, when he is put to bed, he wakes up for the 10pm feed and also feeds at 1am & 4am.  Is this common at this age?  He also tends to feed vigorously for around 6mins and then starts falling asleep. Is there any way to keep him awake for his feeds, he hardly feeds for more than 10 to 15 mins at a time.
Finally how can you tell when a breast is empty as by son mostly feeds on one breast, is this also common?

[cymonguk]

This is pretty reasonable and many people might kill for what you have, the only suggestion might be to try stocking up on a night with more feeds or longer feeds and that might increase the sleep at night

Feeding off one breast more than the other is pretty normal, if you want him to feed off both then you need to work at it, and literally push them to take it. You could try nipple covers or a breast pump if he finds it difficult this should help and make it more comfortable for him.

Oh and have you tried winding him when he starts to nod off, sit him up and wind him should get him up again!

[GG]

Hi!  I'm going to move this to the Breastfeeding forum as you will get better advice there.  Although this question may be related to sleep, it's definitely an eating question.

 

[millieh]

thanks for this

[mommytsa]

At 4 weeks, that sounds pretty much normal to me.  You can try adding in a "cluster feed" in the evening, say at 5:30 or 6.

It is also not too uncommon to still be feeding on only onw side.  Believe it or nto, my DS is 6 months, and still frequently only feeds off one side.  You will get better at knowinf when he's emptied the breast.  In the beginning, I would grab each one and see if one felt harder/heavier/fuller than the other.  That was the only way I could tell which side he'd eaten off of.

I hope that made sense and was helpful.

[GraceKellysmom]

This is a duplicate post that was posted already in the bfing forum, I've responded to the other.

I have to say I disagree with the second poster's suggestion of nipple shields or a breast pump. Both can lessen supply and need to be used with correct knowledge and the shields with help from a certified lactation consultant.

Please refer to my other post for more info.