7 week old baby not feeding properly feeling really discouraged

[mummy2jess]

It has all been going really well until the last couple of days but now my 7 week old wont settle down to feed. She is having really short (about 10 minutes) feeds and then starts pulling away, tugging on my nipple and crying before falling asleep. I dont know how much milk she is getting because my breast do feel empty after a feed but it is so short I dont know if there is less milk? She is having wet and dirty nappies but she just seems so restless while feeding I dont know whats going on!. Does pulling away mean shes had enough? she does the same even if I burp her so i dont think its that? Is there anything I can do to encourage her to feed a bit longer, if she DOES go on after this she doesnt really suck very hard, she sucks so softly I can barely feel it so I doubt she is actually getting any milk at that point.

whats going on I am starting to worry !

[PatioGardener]

nak

How is her weight gain, Mama? And how many heavy wet nappies is she having in 24 h? If both are OK then you know she is getting enough.

At ~2 months they get to be much more efficient at nursing, and often take less time. And they start to look around... Plus, mothers often don't feel full anymore either.

Hopefully this is normal for her and everything will be fine.

[mummy2jess]

she seems to be gaining weight fine, although she hasnt been wieghed since last week so before this started. She is now nearly 10 pounds and she was 7 pounds 13 when born - she took 2 weeks to regain her birthweight but she was very bloated when she was born (I was told she had a little water retention which cleared out after the first two days). She lost 7 percent of her bodyweight so everyone was happy with that.

She is having around 1 big poo a day and multiple wet nappies, it is wet everytime I change her which I do with each feed so at least 6-8 a day plus what she does overnight although she is only waking once at night now.

the funny thing is as I was posting that message and browsing around she settled down and had a really long feed lol (about 25 mins) so maybe I need to sit and browse internet forums to make her happy

[Llyra]

My kids all went through terribly fussy feeding behaviors around the two months mark. They pulled off, and fussed, and complained as if the flow was too fast, or too slow, and fell asleep before they seemed finished, and then woke up ten minutes later wanting more, etc.

In DD2's case, she continued to gain well, and with patience the problem eased a lot within a few weeks. Sometimes I think she needed to burp, and taking her off and burping her, and then re-latching, would solve the problem. Other times, we would nurse while I walked around, which is tiring, but it helped her settle down a lot. She also seemed to nurse better side-lying, so we did that a lot.

In DS's case, his weight gain fell off a LOT right around that time, so we worked on increasing his intake. We had to go to a darkened room for each nursing session, to minimize his distraction, for example. We also coslept with me topless, to encourage lots of nighttime feeding, to make up for what he didn't get during the day, and to stimulate my supply. Switching sides frequently, even if you've already used the other side, is also a very effective supply-increasing technique.

With solid weight gain, and good urine output, I don't think I'd worry too much. One poop a day is unusual at this age-- most kids don't start that until 8 or 10 weeks-- but I think it's within normal range. I might arrange for a weight check in a week or two, just to be sure, if you're really worried. But I myself wouldn't worry.