in February 2025 Babies 🇬🇧

Minimal feeding

My daughter is 3.5 weeks old and is only just over her birth weight. She is EBF but she just isn't that bothered about feeding, I generally need to prompt her rather her showing signs of hunger and she often only feeds for 5-10 mins. I don't really know when I'm asking, if anything, it's just my eldest daughter seemed to want to feed all the time but this time round it's very different and I'm not sure we've got it right 😕 She's a bit sicky too, I find we can't lay her down for atleast 40 mins after a feed otherwise she'll be sick, this just makes the feeding process very long even though she's only feeding for a very short period of time which is difficult for me at night and difficult for my toddler during the day.

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mlmine was like this.. the advice from the midwife was to take her clothes off to wake her up so she'll go back on and feed for longer. Also lots of skin to skin. I did skin to skin practically every feed until she started waking for feeds. I also fed her every 2 hours 24/7 to stretch her stomach, once she started putting on weight i have increased to 3 hrs at night but actually she's often waking after 2.5hrs wanting feeding now. When they come off so soon after latching on its often a sign they don't have the energy to continue and you essentially have to force it until they are a little stronger. My girl literally cannot be put flat on her back without being sick, even if I do it 2 hrs after a feed she will still be sick. I hold her up right for 10 mins post feed and then our beside me has a tilt function and I wedge something under her pram mattress so her head is elevated there too. Also baby wear if you can (mine currently not heavy enough to but I plan to as soon as she is)

Mine only got back to birth weight at 3.5 weeks old too, another week on and he's gained more and feeding is going a bit better since we went to a drop in BF clinic, my LO is sleepy/lazy to latch too (never had these issues with my first either) so I find stripping him/skin to skin helps. But as the weeks go on he's getting a bit better so just hang on in there if you can! It's so so so hard but will get easier x

@Louise thank you for taking the time to reply, I will try including her moses basket slightly. I probably need to strip her off more. I do baby wear a lot during the day but feel a bit bad for my toddler as it then prevents me doing some things with her.

@Chloe thanks this is really reassuring

You should definitely reach out to your local infant feeding team/national breastfeeding hotline. We’ve had lots of issues BF and they’ve been so hugely helpful. I was worried when my baby was only feeding for 5-10 mins at a time, but they reassured me that it’s normal! Some babies can drain the breast in that time and others take longer x

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