6 week old rarely nurses

[Naomismom]

DS is 6 weeks old. Nursing was great from the get-go. He latched on like a champ and sucked nonstop for about 1-2 weeks. Now, at 6 weeks, I can hardly get him interested. A good feeding is now about 3 minutes on one side every 3 hours or so. Sometimes I can get him latched on for another 2-3 minutes if I wait an hour. He seems to be gaining well though. I don't give bottles and rarely give a paci (every other day or so). He will wake at night multiple times and won't nurse. He just wants to be rocked back to sleep. I would consider this normal, but he will wake up after 4 hours and still want nothing to do with the breast. What is going on? I thought there was supposed to be a huge growth spurt at 6 weeks, not a decline in eating!

[meowee]

What's important is that he's having wet/ poopy diapers and is gaining weight. Do you have a baby scale, or can you bring him into the ped just to be weighed? Some babies are very efficient nursers, I had one DC who could drain a breast in less than five minutes.

[Vancouver Mommy]

My ds was like that. He slept through the night very early, sucked his thumb and was very content not to eat - he really just didn't seem interested in breastfeeding. He gained, but not as quickly as some people thought he should and we ended up creating a bit of neuroses for a few months during which he would only eat in a dark room away from all distractions. He dropped in percentiles (quite a bit), but looking back, I don't really think I could have done anything differently. I think he finally leveled off at about six months at the third percentile, where he has been ever since - probably just where he was meant to be. It was so different from my dd who nursed like she was training for the olympic breastfeeding team.

DS never had any of the big growth spurts that "they" say should happen at certain times. He's also been a little slow to take up solids, although I never spoon fed and let him eat fingerfoods only. FWIW by ten months he would at least nurse in front of other family members, and now at 14 months lifts up my shirt every time I sit down, even if I'm sitting on the toilet.

[wannabe]

If he's gaining, then you just got lucky with a very efficient nurser. My baby is like this. I insisted on an extra weight check around three weeks. The nurse laughed at me because he was in the top percentile.