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is this cluster feeding??

post #1 of 5
Thread Starter 
nak

my 7 week old is nursing for HOURS nonstop. she latches on, suckles with gusto, stops and screams and turns her head andwaves her arms and legs, then latches back on, repeat, repeat, repeat. it's exhausting/

normal?
thoughts??
post #2 of 5
It sounds like a "growth spurt" (aka frequency day) to me - both the non-stop nursing and the fussing at the breast activity. It's totally normal - nature's way of making sure that your supply keeps up. If it is indeed a growth spurt, it shouldn't go on for more than a couple of days, and then things will settle down again.

See http://www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/growth-spurt.html for a bit more information (note that not all babies follow a schedule for these - the ages she gives are just averages).
post #3 of 5
is she unlatching and screaming, then you have to calm her down, latch her back on and she nurses and then unlatches and screams again??

My DS did that ^^ and it got progressively worse from about 4 weeks on.. by 6 weeks it was horrible and it kept getting worse and worse. Turned out he had silent reflux, as well as a dairy allergy. Keep an eye on it, if it turns into every feed being a battle like that, I would look into silent reflux. (silent because they do not spit up)

post #4 of 5
That's a common age for a "growth spurt". Baby will nurse until the flow slows, and then raise an almighty fuss about the reduced flow, and then subside when another letdown comes, and then repeat-- for hours, sometimes. That's cluster feeding, and it's nature's way of increasing your supply when it's no longer meeting baby's needs. You might notice baby yanking on your nipple, or popping on and off repeatedly, or beating your chest with fists, or kicking at you, too. Unfortunately for us mamas, it doesn't take babies very long to work out that this kind of fuss will very often elicit another letdown of milk. If you roll with it, and let it happen, usually it'll get better in a few days or a week, when the supply and demand even out again.

Sometimes if you take baby off the breast for ten or fifteen minutes, and try an alternate method of soothing, and then try nursing again, you can get another letdown of milk for baby. Also, you might try taking baby off for a burp-- sometimes the fuss is just the need to burp. Also, sometimes they fuss because they're overtired and can't get to sleep. Have you learned to nurse in a sling or carrier, or just holding baby and walking? That always helped my kids settle down, to nurse while I walked.

Lots of late-night nursing can help a lot, since your hormone levels peak during that time.

It can also help to switch sides every time baby pops off, even if it means you're using each side multiple times in a very short time. This is a supply-increasing technique called switch-nursing, and it can help make the supply catch up with the demand a little quicker.
post #5 of 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by Llyra View Post
Also, you might try taking baby off for a burp-- sometimes the fuss is just the need to burp.
The unlatch-scream-flail-relatch scenario you described is what my LO does when she needs to burp. Sometimes she gets the burp out in the flailing, sometimes the air bubble likely just shifts (and comes out later in some form). But usually if I put her up over my shoulder in the midst of this fit, she'll get a good burp out and then want to go back to nursing.
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