Hunger

[carolineroy]

Hi,

I have  4 month old girl, who is on easy 4 hour. She eat at 7-11-15-19 and the dream feed. My problem is ...she is taking one breast and sometimes 2 during a feed and then she push the breast and cry. She seams hungry, I know my milk supliy is down, beacause she eating every 4 hours and not empty my breast evert time. I don't know what to do. My doctor start me on Domperidone ( medication to increase milk production),and ask me to start my baby on cereal.

What do you think?

[LŠuren]

Hi Carolineroy,

You needn't use the polling feature when you're posting questions.  You can hit 'new topic' and type your message, put a title in the subject lin, then click on the 'post' button.  Your question will appear as a normal new topic and other members will see your topic and answer.  The polling feature is mostly used when people are voting on something. 

Now to your question......


I can see you are breastfeeding your LO, so I am going to move this to the breastfeeding boards.

Goodluck 

[bethann]

If she is taking one breast and then a bit at the second- I would say that she's probably getting enough and is puching away because she is done.  How is her weight? Is she gaining properly? Do you know how much she is actually taking in per feed?  There are ways of measuring this via weighing her before and after a feed- or even pumping for a feed just to see how much you yeild (which actually won't be entirely actuate as your baby can suck a whole lot more than you could ever pump).   Introducing solids before your little one is ready is not always the best solution.  I'm not familiar with the drug, so I can't offer you any advice there.  But- I would hold off on the solids until you know that she really isn't getting enough milk.

[Samuel's mum]

My problem is ...she is taking one breast and sometimes 2 during a feed and then she push the breast and cry. She seams hungry, I know my milk supliy is down, beacause she eating every 4 hours and not empty my breast evert time. I don't know what to do.

I'm a bit confused about what you are saying. If she is 'not emptying the breast' then she is surely getting what she needs. If she was hungry she would not last 4 hours. You would be be getting clear hungry signals and even hungry cries well before that if she's 4 months (even soon after the last feed if it was a supply problem). I'd have to agree that at 4 months a baby pushing the second breast away is more likely to be saying 'I've had enough' rather than 'I'm hungry'. At 4 months babies often get more efficient at feeding and much quicker as a result. They can also sometimes get more easily distracted. Do you hear her clearly swallowing milk when she is feeding? At that first breast is she feeding steadily?

However if you doctor has given you domperidone that he must suspect something is up. I would let that medication kick in before you consider any solids. You could also consider pumping to help increase your supply if you feel confident that is an issue. What leads you to feel it is? Was she getting around 6 wet nappies in 24 hours? Was she gaining some weight?
If she was...and she was lasting 4 hours between feeds I don't understand why a supply problem was diagnosed but of course I don't have the full picture.
If you feel you do have a supply problem I would fix that first before considering solids. She will still need her milk as her main source of nutrition - solids is a tiny addition. While you are sorting out her supply you wouldn't want her to fill up on rice cereal and take even less milk.

[carolineroy]

To be more clear, she is drinking every 4 hours. I put her one a 4 hour routine because she was snacking at the breast on 3 hour routine. Since she is on 4 hrs. she drink more efficiency. She drink fine, she wet 6-8 dipper/day .

Between feeds, she has her activity time and sleep whitout requesting the breast. When she feed, she empty totally my breast and I think if I would her more she would drink it. Yesterday, after her 10h00 feed, she feed both side then she request more. I give her 2 oz of BM and she was still hungry after!

At 2 mouths she weights 11 lbs and at 4 months 12 lbs. This is not very much...She was at the 50th percentile and now she is at the 15 th percentile. I think the Dr. thought was to increase her weight by the fact to start solid while my milk supply will increase.

Even, if I pump one hour after feed, I'm not able to get more then 1,5 oz. For the dream feed, I give about 3 oz of BM and 1.5 oz of formula in a bottel.

What else I cant do?